Leftover Walks

Sometimes you just need a walk. I’ve been taking a lot of those lately. I’m not sure if it’s related to the weather or whether I just need to let off some steam. At any rate, I’ve decided to document my walks in a new segment called: Leftover Walks.

I got off the train coming home from work yesterday. I made a right turn and went into my bank to argue overage charges. My bank likes to give themselves “retention bonuses,” when I go over in my account. I give them lots of money.. and they keep my money.. and then the account goes in debt and they give themselves a nice bonus because they offered protection on my account. They call this an "insufficient funds fee." I call it “sort of like AIG”. But I digress, problem fixed. Back to my walk.

I went to Quickly on Grand Street who just happens to have some pretty good bubble tea. They also have a student discount. Quick tip: any card in your wallet will work as a student ID, business cards, library cards, AARP cards.

After bubble tea I took a right on Christie and headed south. I saw a commotion in the park. I walked over and saw a very large group of people watching a women being arrested. She had apparently lost something in the park and went crazy. So she quiet literally lost her &#it. Why this drew a large crowd of over 200 people? I’m not sure, but I stayed for the duration of the arrestation to find out.

There was a park attended shouting something over a bull horn to the masses but I didn’t know what he was saying because… I don’t speak mandarin.

I then took a right on Baxter and landed myself right in front of Bangkok Station…my favorite place to get bubble tea. I didn’t realize they had another location. I was only aware of their store on Elizabeth Street. And seeing as I had just had a bubble tea….I decided to get another one.

Two bubble teas later, a walk down Bowery, a stop in the park to read a magazine, I decided I wanted Chinese food. There is this Buffet place down the street from us that looks interesting. There is a sign in the window that says 3.99. I don’t know what that is advertising. I was hoping it wasn’t the buffet. I have this rule that you should never eat Chinese food if it’s under $4.00.

So I walked in and said to the lady “One” and she said “3.99” and I said “For the buffet?”

“Yes,” she said.

“All you can eat???” I said, like I was at CiCis Pizza. What was I thinking??

She said “Five Item.”

She handed me a Styrofoam box and a tray.

I sheepishly walked down the sides of the buffet to find a wide array of food I had never seen before. I pointed to things I thought were possibly chicken in some kind of sauce with some kind of vegetable. Different dull colors with different stews. I wasn’t sure on any of them. Where was the shiny pink sauce with the fired chicken? There were no signs. I tried to avoid things like raw fish heads and what might have been an animal I wouldn’t want to eat.

The woman shoveling the food into my box was unenthusiastic and a little too generous with her portions. I couldn’t believe that 5 dishes were piling up in my box one on top of the other weighing between 5 and 10 pounds.

For 3.99.

I walked to the end of the counter and this woman bagged it up and then put a carton of soup in my bag. Seriously? More?

The soup might have been a fish stock. The aroma was causing my eyes to cross. I had to get out of there.

I had plenty of leftovers from this walk and needed to lay down.

I exited the buffet restaurant and found myself in front of a Bubble Tea place. Humm? Maybe just...