Saturday night. The Lower East Side. My friend Corey and I got to the neighborhood too late to actually get in anywhere worth going. So we started going to places not worth going. This night was the definition of a bust. We weren’t really enjoying ourselves. The lines into bars snaked around the blocks. I was ready to give up. Sometimes, you just have to admit to yourself that a Saturday night is not going to be the most amazing night ever.
But then I saw guys in wool hats scooping something out of a soup bucket and handing out food. We beelined across the street.
Turns out this was a station of Kraft Community. These random guys make a giant pot of Kraft mac n cheese and then ladle it into ice-cream cones (sans ice cream) to spread joy among New Yorkers. Free.
Free mac n cheese on a cone. Only in New York does hot mac n cheese on a night of cold, useless fun-searching = actual fun. Those guys should consider themselves successful. With every bite of mac n cheese and sugar cone, I felt joyful.
Sunday afternoon. My friend Adam and I went to a grilled cheese tasting event. Yup. Grilled cheese tasting. He bought the tickets through Time Out New York Offers. Now if you thought there was only one way to eat grilled cheese—you know, cheese between two slices of bread…grilled—you would be wrong.
This afternoon was one cheesy cheesy overload. We tasted seven varieties of grilled cheese, from sandwiches topped with fig jelly to bite-sized bites dipped in creamy tomato soup. It was a greasy day, so we decided to walk it off.
We rounded the corner and spotted a man strutting with a golf club over his shoulder. He seemed to just be pacing. Was it just a fashionable accessory? Was it a self-defense mechanism? Nope. It was a golf club. For golf. Sidewalk golf. This man had lined up a long row of milk cartons about 50 feet from a trash can. Once passersby were out of the way, he started swinging. Adam and I stood there rooting for him to make the shot and giggling. What made this man bring out his golf club for his own personal game? Probably because he had the time and simply because he could. Only in New York.
You never know what sorts of entertaining or free (and deliciously filling!) fun you might find on that random street corner. So when you have the time, wander a little. Choose to walk rather than take the subway or a cab. We are so programmed in this city to rush everywhere. Don’t rush to nowhere. You wouldn’t want to miss out on that New York moment.
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