An hour in Midtown

Forgive me for my lack of humility, but say this I must: I am the world's foremost expert at making the most of an hour in Midtown.

During my lunch break a few days ago, I remebered my mother telling me about a Japanese grocery store not far from my office. All this talk about Japanese hair-straightening led me to crave sushi (the humidity made craving straight hair somewhat futile), and the rate at which my cold meant I needed tissues meant it probably wasn't the day to get lunch with other people from work, so off I went. Four pieces of salmon roe sushi and four of asparagus sushi, plus a diet Coke, for the price of lunch at a nearby deli, or maybe even a bit less. Almost everyone else there was Japanese--including a man working there with what appeared to be naturally wavy hair. What do you know?

With time to spare, I was able to check out the latest in designer-inspired fashion at a nearby H&M, and still make it back to work on time.

The best way to make use of an hour or a bit less is to know what's within walking distance of where you work. Subways and buses are unreliable and whatever you'd take them to could probably--assuming you work in a busy part of a major city--be found nearby. Also key is not thinking that because a break is referred to as "lunch" means that you have to eat and only eat during this time. Eating's probably a good idea--assuming you're not on lunch break from being a model--but NYC is filled with places where you can get that eating out of the way quickly, which is good if you need to return to work immediately, but also if you have other things--admiring $29.99 blazers, hoping to run into Molly's wonderful dog Lola--on the agenda for that hour.