A New York City Education:

Or, How I Paid $5 For A Hot Dog Flavored Pretzel...

Yesterday I went to the bank with the outgoing Executive Director (who I officially take over from as Interim Executive Director tomorrow!) and another office staff member. Afterwards, I wanted a big soft pretzel.

You may know the kind: all over the  tourist-heavy areas of NYC, there are these hot dog and pretzel and pop stands taking up a lot of sidewalk real estate that is in critically short supply to begin with.

I have some hummus in the fridge at the office, so a big soft salt riddled piece of crap to dip in it, and a NYC semi-junk food classic at that, sounded great.

So I go order my pretzel with salt, stupidly thinking it'll cost $2.75-$3 like it does ALL OVER MANHATTAN.

But, no: here in the Financial District, after the pretzel is already in my grubby hands, and I fork over my ten dollar bill, the guy hands me five back.

SAY WHAAAAAAT?

But at that point, I had no graceful way to give it back. Transaction done, pretzel in hand, $5 gone, I'm a dope. And even if the guy would have refunded my money, the pretzel would have gone in the trash, which would severely grate on my (admittedly extreme) anti-waste anti-consumption principles.

But then I got back to the office, and the pretzel tasted like it had been dipped in hot dog/cherry soda flavored lip gloss. So it went into the trash anyway.

#lessonfuckinglearned

BTW, the photo isn't the pretzel stand in question. This guy sells them for $3...