Tales from the Rickshaw #2

Just after dropping off my last fare* of the night, the chain fell off my rickshaw, and I couldn't get it fixed. I was trying everything, and as far as I could tell, it looked like it should have been working. After a while, a guy with a twelver of High Life under one arm and an Asian girlfriend under the other stops to ask me if I could use some help. He decided that we needed to flip it over to get a look at the chain hooking up to the back two wheels. Oh yeah. Didn't think of that . . .

The guy even went into the supermarket to get us a pair of wet naps to clean the oil off our hands. I told him if he took down my number, I'd give him and Asian girlfriend a free ride any time. I couldn't think of anything else to do for him. He didn't seem like he could benefit from my other job, as he didn't present as a guy who needed counseling.

He turned me down on the free ride, but he said that for doing that he expected some good karma to come his way, and I hope it does. Now I feel like I need to do something randomly extraordinarily nice for someone. Any ideas, Seven Readers?
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*The guy from my last fare of the night looked just like Patrick Dempsey. I told him this, and his Asian girlfriend (two nice guys with Asian GF's in 10 minutes time!) said that he gets that daily. We discussed Loveryboy, the one where Dempsey plays the pizza delivering gigalo who nailed housewives when they called asking for extra, extra anchovies. His girlfriend was very attractive, but to be honest, looking that much like McDreamy, he could probably take a new girl home every night.

Where's the Roast Beef?

For some reason, I've been craving Arby's lately, and it's frustrating because there are none anywhere near me. I can't justify a trip to downtown Chicago or a remote suburb to buy a sack of sandwiches and maybe some curly fries.

Sometimes I randomly want to go to Chili's to get a burger and great big diet coke out of a mug. I like how they give you the steak knife to saw your burger in two. Again, they only have them downtown or in the burbs.

Bakers Square I like every now and again. I like free pie Wednesday where you get a slice of pie free with your meal. That's not too bad rinsed down with a cup of hot joe, but again, they're only in remote parts of the city. Luckily, I work most days out of the week near one, so finally that worked out.

How about Sonic? They have commercials on television all the time, I'd like to try it to have some chick roller skate out to my car with a tray of nachos like on "Happy Days," but there are zero in the city of Chicago - you have to go to the suburbs.

Why is this? Does Chicago, especially the Lakeview and Lincoln Park areas, think they are too cool for certain chain restaurants?

Does anyone ever crave something they were used to getting in their hometown and can't find nowadays? Anyone want to make a pilgrimage for curly fries?