Things to do in New York.

“Live, Work, Create” sign in Park Slope.

 

It was my sixth time in New York but the first time I stepped back and thought, time and time again, “I could live here.” I could live in New York.

I really think it had to do with the advent of the smartphone, allowing me to be anywhere in the city and figure out anywhere I wanted to go.

Or maybe that I didn’t walk through Times Square once.

Or maybe that everyone I saw was up to something awesome: kite clubs, sideshow performing, backyard s’mores, launching a new company in a day. It’s the kind of place where I think everyone just makes something up and that’s what they are.

And I like that.

So much so that I texted my ex-boyfriend and told him we should move there together (he’s been saying he’s moving to New York for years…) I even found an apartment I could squat in. Because lord knows I can’t actually afford to live there.

I can hardly afford to visit.

If you’re going to New York or live in New York you too can start a new business in a day, join a kite club, or become a sideshow performer. Or you can do any of these things that I did…

 

Go to Coney Island. (And maybe see a hot dog eating contest?)

 

Spend a few hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.

 

Eat brisket and pie at BrisketTown. Because brisket. And because pie.

 

Wander around Williamsburg, Brooklyn…

 

…and buy some $1 porn.

 

Take your photo in front of a bridge…

 

…then realize that the Brooklyn Bridge is actually that other one.

 

Wait in line forever at Shake Shack. Order everything.

 

Walk through the High Line, a 1-mile linear park built on a 1.45-mile section of a former elevated rail track.

 

Win vampire teeth playing games at Chinatown Arcade.

 

Walk across the Manhattan Bridge. It’s less crowded than The Brooklyn Bridge. And has more graffiti.

 

Play shuffleboard at the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club. Seriously, two different people took me to the same shuffleboard bar two nights in a row. It’s apparently the thing to do.

 

Eat salted crack caramel ice cream at Ample Hills Creamery. Who doesn’t want their crack salted? (Though, honestly, I’d order something else next time. This flavor has twice the sugar as everything else. My teeth kind of hurt afterwards.)

 

Get $1 dumplings at Prosperity Dumpling in Chinatown.

 

Eat noodles at Xi’an Famous Foods.

 

Eat maple bacon, carrot cake, and Cheetos flavored macarons at Macaron Parlour. Yes, Cheetos. But don’t leave them out while you’re gone from the apartment. A dog might eat your last one…

 

And promise it won’t be another three years before you return…