Two stories, one from yesterday's return and one from this morning.

So yesterday I'm crossing Midtown on 45th St as is my custom these days. I've just navigated Times Square (always a hoot) when a "fancy taxi" (like a fake mini-limo) pulls out from the curb right in front of me. OK, so I stop about 8-10 feet behind him and really have nowhere to go: if I go left around him, I risk getting creamed by cars coming out of a parking garage, and if I go right, well, there isn't much room there. So I wait about 5 seconds as cars start to accumulate behind me and what happens? The moron starts to backup! I gave my best frantic "HEY!!!!!". The guy looked surprised and annoyed and at this point I took my chances going left and made it through.

Today I was feeling reeeally good on the way to work so I decided to go for the mythical "three green lights in a row in Midtown", which I've never pulled-off. I've just crossed the second light and am really getting my mojo going, dodging jaywalkers and potholes when I feel something fly off of my person. I make a quick decision to ditch the three light attempt and pull over to the right. I look back and OMGWTFCELLPHONE!!! Yeah, my phone which I had only loosely secured in its little pocket on my backpack (intending to later stuff it in better, ha!) had flown the coop! A quick-thinking ped attempted to go for it to save it from oncoming cars, but was unable to get in. Amazingly, only one car slightly brushed it with his tires and the phone survived intact!