13 December 2004
12:32 pm to 1:32 pm
Heads: 61
Tails: 50
Intersections: 76
Ending point: Chase Manhattan Plaza
Latitude/longitude: 40:42:26.460N/74:00:34.214W
Distance from home: 0.1013 miles
Literature received: Amazing Savings Stores flyer ("Now in all former Odd-Job locations"), Martin Busch Diamonds flyer ("Typographic errors are subject to correction")
Coin: 2003 P quarter (Alabama)
I walked outside feeling dopey and sluggish, a sensation that I wouldn't shake off for the entirety of the walk.
Overheard on street: "She's loaded!" and "I thought you meant your girlfriend's daughter."
A right turn led me up to Park Row--and another right turn there sent me into the upper section of Lower Manhattan and then into Southbridge Towers. I took a long loop inside the Southbridge complex, then exited where I came in and walked south on William Street. I spent the rest of the hour circling around my local grocery store, Jubilee--and also visited the Southbridge Towers twice more for good measure.
In December, New York City becomes gray with little flashes of color: a bright coat, a Christmas decoration. Now I found myself so hungry, my nose was perceiving the city in the same way. Through a dull olfactory wash of exhaust and frozen bedrock, a panoply of lunchtime food smells were emerging: grilled meat on a cart, fried fish at a pub, roasted chicken from a sidewalk shack I'd never noticed before.