I had been living in New York City for 11 years. I was pretty tired of the grind, and crowds make me anxious. I was walking through Times Square on a really hot, humid summer day and the air smelled like trash. A praying mantis landed on the sidewalk in front of me. I guess it was lucky, because I wasn’t going to let anyone step on it. I let it crawl onto my hand and we looked at each other for a while. I think of that moment a lot because I felt like I was connecting with an alien, and it reminded me how much I want to be around creatures other than people. It waved it’s strange arm and then hopped off my hand, onto a wall, away from the crush of people. Shortly afterward, I hopped off of Manhattan and landed in Los Angeles.