Zig Zag # 14

I’ve been a sounding board. I’ve been a brainstorming buddy. I’ve been a fire starter. If I had a nickel every time someone said to me, “Hey Kathleen, can I bounce an idea off of you?” I’d be a rich woman.

Don’t get me wrong, I love playing that role for people. Together, we inspire creativity and shift perspective. We have light bulb moments and new ideas are hatched.

And sometimes I have some pretty zany ideas myself. I definitely have an entrepreneurial spirit about me. And sometimes the only place these ideas see the light of day is in my writing journals. I’ve mentioned them before. Journals I’ve filled up with snippets of story ideas and overheard conversations, but also I’ve jotted down my fair share of business brilliance.

One such business idea was born after one of my many Lyft shifts in Austin.

It was a hot and humid Friday night. Is there really any other kind in Texas? The energy of the city that keeps things weird was just starting to buzz with possibility. I loved starting out a weekend evening doing a Lyft shift. Even though rideshare drivers made more money in the wee hours of the morning, I could never do it. Just like those early morning, mostly drunk passengers, I never had the stomach for it. And when passengers couldn’t keep it down, I passed because I didn’t want them tossing their cookies in my car. Gross.

So early Friday evening it was. My first ping was taking me to a Bingo Hall in a nondescript strip mall off of I-35. It seemed out of place. It was surrounded by a party story and a Mexican meat shop. But hey, I go where the passengers are.

I’m going to totally stereotype here, but when I think of Bingo I think of one thing: Old people. They love bingo. That’s exactly where my mind went when I pulled up.

So imagine my surprise when I stopped in front of a gentleman that couldn’t be more than a day over 27. And this guy wasn’t just any 27 year- old. He was gorgeous. As Texans would say, he was a tall drink of water.

Dark brown hair. The most symmetrical face I’ve ever seen. I could have bounced a quarter off of his abs. Now, this guy would make my granny blush. He has become my go-to inspiration for any male character I write in a swoony romance story.

We’ll call him Todd. Todd slid into my backseat gracefully.

“Good evening Todd. You know I have to ask..”

I paused for a moment, but he knew what I was about to say and finished the sentence for me…

“Why is a guy my age hanging out at a Bingo Hall on a Friday night?”

“Um, yes, exactly that.”

“Every Friday, the Grand Prize pot is almost $5,000. I’ve won a couple of times, and now I’m a bit addicted to it.”

Huh. I was so curious about this. Todd ultimately concluded that it was not a good thing to get into since as he said he became addicted to trying to win.

My next questions seemed obvious to me. “What do you do that makes you need the extra money?”

He was a gymnastics coach. Woah. So many things clicked into place at this point. Now I knew where all the hunky muscles came from. From the sound of it, it wasn’t really about the money though. This guy was an adrenaline junky. He went on to tell me all about how he was training for the television show American Ninja Warrior.

This guy was fascinating. If I hadn’t had to get him to his final destination, I could have chatted him up all night. But alas, more Austin peeps needed picking up and dropping off. Sigh.

Later that night, I picked up a young lady who just got off her shift from a mediocre sushi restaurant on South Congress. She was adorable. We’ll call her Zoey. She had her blonde locks in two ponytails. She was rocking some glasses, but in a non-nerdy way. She grew up in Austin, and she had all of the energy of an overactive toddler. She talked my ear off the entire way to her house.

After she left my car, a thought hit me like a bolt of lightning.

Todd and Zoey needed to meet. They would make such a cute couple. And thus, my idea for Under The Hood was born.

A rideshare/matchmaking company. Rideshare drivers look for potential matches throughout the night. At the end of their shift, they do an intro over the app. It’s up to the matched riders to take it from there. Hey, maybe you'll see this in an app store near you sooner than you think.

Never underestimate when, where or how inspiration will strike. And for the love of all that is good in this world, write that shit down!

Wishing you a zig zag kinda week. Until we meet again.