Happy Halloween!!!

Sean: We went to see two friends of mine who are in a band called Daemon Familiar, at Quenchers, on Western. One of my future groomsmen, Ryan McGraw, met us there, and we attempted to catch up in the loud bar. We were late, but we got there in time to hear a few good songs, and my friend, Pablo bought us a couple beers before we left. I kept getting confused about what band they were covering. For some reason, I thought it was Styx, but it was Cheap Trick. They really did rock! I enjoyed hearing and catching up with them.

Shari Lynne: I'm in favor of seeing them again in another show.

Sean: I can't wait to see them again.

Shari Lynne: It was enough of a pain-in-the-butt getting to the bar, but we had quite the adventure trying to get home. First we took a bus to the Fullerton L station, where we got off at N. Clark St. (Wrigleyville)

Sean: There were plenty of cars because people were getting to/leaving parties, and there were plenty of drunk people...blocking traffic, walking around in the street, getting into fights, and who knows what else in public.

Shari Lynne: It was annoying enough to see the huge crowd, but it was a little concerning for me to see all the women with costumes including teeny tiny skirts. Yes, I get the concept of a woman having the right to wear a short skirt if she wants, I've been there, done that, myself. The problem lies in the fact that sometimes, it's taken a bit far. Besides, it's too cold! We even saw one where all she was wearing was caution tape as a dress and a construction worker's vest as a costume. We did dress up ourselves, last night. I wasn't wearing a costume, but I wore a sexy-ish top, but I wore pants. It's too frickin' cold for a skirt, no matter the length. Sean wore his prosthetic, and he dressed up as House.

Sean: cane and all! Good thing I have a natural limp going for me when I wear my prosthetic.

Shari Lynne: We finally got on the 22 Clark St. Bus, but we were waiting for a LONG time because the traffic was so screwed up with all the drunken debauchery in the way. We didn't go very far on the bus before we got off and tried to get on another bus, but it wasn't running anymore. I had to pee pretty badly at that point, too, and there was no public restroom available where we were waiting for the bus! I had enough money, so we decided to get a taxi.

Sean: We waited at least a half hour for the bus before we realized the bus we needed was not coming. I was trying to figure out another way to get home, when it comes to bus routes, but it wasn't really feasible by bus. We then started trying to call taxi companies we knew had accessible vehicles (Shari Lynne was in her power chair). When calling companies, they either were busy or they hung up on us after being on hold for a few minutes. We wasted time trying to call.

Shari Lynne: It was made worse, actually, because for some reason, when we called the number we thought would get us an accessible cab usually, a recording came on and said it was disconnected. Come to find out, the number was a direct line to a specific cab company, and when we tried it again later, it worked, but we still couldn't get through to anyone.

Sean: A guy named, Louis came by, and he asked if we were trying to get a cab. Of course, we were so he tried to hail one down for us.

Shari Lynne: It's amazing the number of both occupied and unoccupied cabs that ran off as he tried to get their attention. Most were not accessible but were in the forms of vans or SUVs so, it was harder to tell right away if they were accessible, so this caused some drama. I wish that any cab that had the capacity to be accessible was. Of course, I lived in Grand Rapids before this, so the concept of accessible cabs is new, in many ways, to me.It's interesting, too, when we finally got ahold of someone at a dispatch center who could help us get a cab, they claimed it's a busy night (being Devil's Night and Halloween was on a Sunday) so it'd take awhile. Meanwhile, there were like 150 cabs on the street, mostly cabs on the street, all passing us by, none of which were willing to radio into their dispatch centers to help us. They all just said to call the numbers on the side of their cabs, which were mostly busy.

Sean: Even some cab drivers with vacant taxis acted like we weren't there. I was amazed that Louis went to such lengths as to walking into traffic, talking to cab drivers, yelling at some of them to flag them down. He tried calling taxi companies himself. He was with us in the cold weather, trying to help us get a cab for at least 45 minutes.

Shari Lynne: He did see one accessible cab earlier, but when he tried to flag them down, turns out there were "three divas in the back" as he put it, and they refused to switch to one of the bazillion going down that road at the time, and got the driver to speed off, pointing out that the light was green.

Sean:  I was shocked when, finally, we saw another, occupied,  accessible van and Louis pull out his own money and offered to pay the passengers' fare so that we could use it. The first one, they said no and kept going. The second one, we thought said no, but they stopped after the cab turned. Louis ran over to the cab and found out that they had reconsidered.

Shari Lynne: Louis rode back to our side of the street, and I saw him trying to tip the taxi driver, I'm guessing since the other riders canceled their ride, but he refused it. Sean insisted on getting his number so that we can get him coffee or a drink or something to pay him back.

Sean: Yeah, I insisted that we pay him back somehow, whether it be buying him a drink, making him dinner, or even a pie. Something to say thank you considering he went to such great lengths to try to get us a cab when he didn't have to do anything!
He could have been apathetic like anyone else on the street like many, many drivers and dressed-up people that passed us by, but he decided to help and didn't give up until we had a ride home. I would say, a lot of the time, I'm a realist, and even very cynical at times, but I was shocked to know that a person would go to such great lengths to help complete strangers.

Shari Lynne: I noted, while we were still in the situation, there aren't that many people out there like him. When we spend so much time pleading, usually non-verbally, with people to empathize with us when someone else publicly ignores, humiliates, or violates our rights, it's easy to understand why what was just "doing the right thing" to Louis was amazing to us.

Sean: He went way above and beyond. I was almost speechless.