I hit a taxi while we [Amanda, Chuck, Michelle, and I] we're in Santa Monica. I think it was my first collision with a car ever. I've hit some trees and put my car into a ditch or two, but never another car. I say "collision", but really it was a nudge. I slowly moved forward and touched bumpers at like .3 miles an hour. Traffic was starting to slowly move when the light changed (or so I thought) and at the same time I heard a woman screaming for her dog to come back, and I thought, "Oh crap, that ladies dog just ran into traffic". And I don't know why, or what I was thinking; but I turned my head a little to look at the woman and heard Amanda half-yell, "Mike"! And before she got out: --ke; I heard a loud hollow "Thump".

How embarrassing. Then the woman who was yelling after her dog, starting yelling at me to "not give him any money... don't give him anything... hold on... let me come over there". And the guy who was driving the taxi was telling her to mind her own business. Not to mention he wasn't asking me for anything. And all the while I can't get in a word to ask him if he is okay. Traffic is backed up on all sides by on lookers. But finally the crazy woman left and the driver just asked me to ask the woman in the back seat if she was okay. I didn't even realize she was there until he said something, she looked like she had just come from LAX and was dead-tired from a long flight, she nodded that she was perfectly fine, and I said I was sorry and we all jumped back in our cars. It sucked.