You may ask “How do you pay for your trips?” probably not, but since all the conferences, etc. had open bars, there were Coke caps galore! Between us, we picked up quite a few from puzzled bartenders, who were nonetheless happy to oblige. Here’s PITA with her old pal, SpongeBob. Picture was taken last night on the way back – walking!!! – from Bleeker Street, where we attended a 25th anniversary, one-night only, band performance; we were on the guest list – woot!  PITA decided walking near her mother was no longer cool (I was walking too slow) and kept creeping on up. I’d call her back, things were fine for few blocks, then the dance would begin once again. Eventually she drifted over a block ahead and didn’t respond to my calls. Figured she’d eventually turn around, not see me and head back – nope. I waited patiently (okay there was an ice cream truck on that corner), but she never looked back. Since her ringer is always set to Parental Mute, I couldn’t contact her. Texted me that she couldn’t remember the streetKnew the hotel, so I flagged a cab and started cruising. Another text that she was on a corner – replied to stay there (lots of !!!) Find her, she runs in, hugs me, and asks if I got her last text, you know, about the guy hitting one her (cue heart atttack).  Apparently skinny young white girl standing completely on a corner is like waving the predator flag.  Man comes up and starts telling her how cute she is and how he’d like to take her to dinner – also asks if she’s got any money. She immediately crosses to the other side of the street. While I seriously doubt there was any real danger involved (there are literally 2-3 police cars and vans per block) and many people on the street, it was good for one thing – scared the crap out of her and made her realize that maybe her mother didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.