Crossing the road used to be a bit of an ordeal for me, and still is for a few people I know who don't have to do it on a regular basis. I, however, have now mastered the whole process. The trick is to know just when to stop and when to go. If you're good at it, you'll be several yards away by the time a car whizzes by the very spot you were stationary in five seconds ago. If you're really good, you'll feel the slight pressure of the wind from a car that just scraped by your side and you're still alive.

The one thing that I stil haven't been able to master about crossing roads, though, through sheer distrust of the Human species as a whole, is the easiest trick of all for most people: having a car actually stop and the driver give you that vague "go on" signal. Most people would take the driver's word and start crossing before the car has even slowed down, much less come to a complete stop in the middle of the road. I can't bring myself to do that. My initial reaction is much like my reaction at those insistent "Win a FREE iPod" ads that keep popping into my inbox from time to time: "yeah RIGHT!".

So there we are, me still safely at the side and the car, slowing down, but not quite at a standstill yet. The driver hesitates. He/she wants to drive without slowing down or stopping to allow me to cross, but is now honor-bound to prove to me that my distrust is unnecessary and he/she did plan to stop instead of run me over. In the end, the driver will actually come to a complete halt in the middle of a busy road, with several cars honking behind him/her. We have reached the proverbial stalemate. I'm wondering if I dare risk it to cross even now, lest the irate driver may decide to run me over for being such a distrustful ass. It is at this point that I give in and actually cross the road very quickly and embarassedly for having caused all the bother for the now half dozen cars in a line behind the benevolent soul that stopped.