Neither Here Nor There, but.....

So this is usually not the place I'd tell personal stories, but this incident that happened to me yesterday was so infuriating that I must share.

Yesterday evening, I'm rushing to get to the 68th street subway before the Steinway street Salvation Army closes because I saw some bookshelves which could have possibly been the bookshelves of dreams (they later turned out not to be). I'm crossing Park Avenue with a bunch of other pedestrians when a red light forces us all to stop on an island. There's a guy walking in front of me on his cellphone who was distracted and walking slowly in front of me in a way that permitted me to neither walk ahead of him or fall behind him completely. Anyone accustomed to walking during rush hour will be familiar with this "I will neither shit not get off the pot" attitude on the part of other pedestrians. The guy's a douchey well-dressed white man in his mid-forties. In my rush to get out of his way, I graze his loafers (I was wearing heavy boots at the time, so it must have felt to him like I kicked him). The next thing I know, I'm laying flat on my face in 0ncoming traffic in the middle of Park Avenue. I look up and the guy is running away and the other pedestrians who'd been standing on the island start yelling, "He tripped you! He did it on purpose!" Dazed, I get up, and start chasing the guy down the street screaming WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT! YOU TRIPPED ME, MOTHERFUCKER! The guy turns around and yells, "You kicked me" and keeps running, dodging me by running across 68th just before a bunch of taxis get in the way of me catching him (he did this while continuing to talk on his cell phone). Meanwhile, everyone on 68th has stopped to observe the spectacle and people are yelling at him "You did that on purpose!" and just as the guy is getting away by running back to 68th and Park, another dude starts yelling at the running douche, "You like to pick on girls, buddy?" and then I just gave up and stopped chasing him.

Here we witness the worst of NY humanity and the best of NY humanity: this rich smug fucking coward and the other pedestrians, a punk rock girl working as a dog walker and the random guy who both stuck up for me. Seriously dude, if you're so mad that I "kicked" you, asshole, why don't you say something about it, instead of endangering my life by making me fly into the middle of traffic? And if you're such a big strong man and you're gonna physically punk me out, don't run away! That's the worst fucking part: he ran away.