Wake up call at midnight

Walking home tonight from a brief club soda at Banjo Jim's with my brother and cousin, I felt pretty lucky to be soaking up this great fall night in the East Village. The air was perfectly temperate, I could smell the early fall rot. At midnight I made a birthday call to a friend - 29 for 4th time. Strolling down Avenue A, I saw three tough looking guys walking my way, carrying 40s and getting a little rowdy, pushing each other - I thought nothing of it, just observing as a passive pedestrian. One guy walks right up to my face and says "What the fuck!" and just as I pass him, he says "Whattya got there!" and slickly reaches his hand right into my back pocket! In that split second he had my wallet halfway out, my arm reached right around, quickly and gently pulled it right back down into my pocket "What the hell are you doing" I said as I immediately scooted across the Avenue. My chest was pounding, was he chasing me? No, the had moved on. Thats when I felt the adrenaline - a quick decision that just saved me from calling American Express could potentially have cost my life.

So many nights, I walk around my neighborhood as if I was strolling up the Commons in Ithaca, never feeling threatened, or second guessing passers by - at home in my territory. When I moved to New York 9 years ago, I remember heeding my city-savvy friend's advice - "Don't look people in the eye and keep the wallet in your side pocket." I have gotten pretty comfortable in my neighborhood over the last few years, and I like that. Even if some drunk schmuck randomly exercises his rage against me, its no reason to panic, but certainly cause to wake up to the fact that its better not to be completely oblivious walking down the Avenue at midnight with a George Castanza sized wallet sticking out of my low riding Helmut Langs.