Do you accept American Currency?

My Monday night shift is over. I know it's only 2AM but the city was pretty dead so I called it a night. The night, however, was once again not without plenty of entertainment.
I went to the city to pick up my cab today, by Broadway and LaFayette, and while I was waiting for the day driver to show up a guy was asking cabs if they'd go to LaGuardia Airport. Poor guy was having no luck because it was the shift change and the guys who worked all day had to hand off their cars, and the guys starting at night didn't want to get stuck in traffic for their first call. They'd rather work the streets in the city to make more money. I talked to him and said that if he waited for my car to show up, I'd take him. Nice guy, friendly to talk to. My favorite kind of customer. He waited with me for about 5 minutes until my car pulled up, we got in and headed to the airport. He was only in the city one day and was headed back to Atlanta. I bet next time he grabs a cab earlier than 5PM :)
After I dropped him off, I picked up a fare in LaGuardia that was going back to Broadway and 26th. A young couple from Alabama. Very very thick accents. Neither of them had ever been to a city before. Not just New York City but ANY city. When I came out of the tunnel and they saw midtown they were completely speechless. Motionless AND speechless. The look on their faces was priceless. When I got to their hotel and turned off the meter it was $29.20 with the toll. The guy counted out $30 and then, get this, asks me,"Do you accept American currency?"
Yes. He asked me if I accepted American. That was a first for me. Leave it to the country guy from Alabama! I should have said,"Yes, but the currency rate is doubled here" but I felt bad for the guy.
Right after that I picked up a guy lugging around window shades. He just bought them from the Home Depot and had a part of them hanging out of my back window. Another first for me. Never drove around with someones window shades hanging out of the window. It only hung out a few inches but they were hanging out nonetheless. Nice guy. He didn't get them custom cut to his window size. I hope they fit or else that's 2 more window-shade cab rides!
I picked up a nice girl from the Waldorf, which was having a benefit. She works, or I should say volunteers, at Project Sunshine. They, and she, volunteer time with sick children. You can navigate that last link if you want to learn more about them and volunteer and/or donate. I never post advertisements, but this is an organization you may be interested in.
Later on in the night, when people had some more drinks in them, I picked up a carload of girls from LA. There was one voice of reason sitting in the front, with a bunch of voices of anything but reason in the back. They apparently had a brand new Blackberry and had no clue how to use it. One of the girls was talking to some guy named "Rodge" and the whole time was trying to get speakerphone to work and had the poor guy waiting on the line while she and her friends tried to figure it out. At one point, I can't be sure, but I think they felt that if they said "speaker" enough the phone would just automatically go to speaker. Eventually they handed it off the the calm and collected girl in the front who figured it out in about 1.3 seconds. Fun ride though!
With the city being dead I headed home at about 1AM and of course there was construction on the BQE, so I veered off and took the streets home. On one of those streets two guys saw me and threw their hands up. I only saw them at the last second and I was moving pretty quick, so I slammed the brakes and did a little slide-stop a little in front of them. Some people wouldn't get in the cab after that, but these guys were like AWESOME! You're my kind of cab driver! Now that's the best way to end a shift. With 2 guys from Brooklyn applauding your maniac way of driving. Good night fellas, thanks for the last trip of the night.