I strategically parked on 31st Street near Kips Bay Movie Theater. I was going to see Gone Girl later, but first I was meeting some friends up on 43rd Street. It was a Monday, one of those warm fall days that makes you think global warming isn’t so bad. I didn’t mind walking the 13 blocks. After getting my ticket from the garage attendant, I headed up Lexington Avenue.

I passed by a bar with a TV that was showing ESPN highlights to a crowd of zero, an old hotel, an even older doorman building and a cleaners. Lexington Avenue doesn’t have the kind of identity that Park, Madison and 5th have. It’s kind of a mishmash of retail, commercial and residential buildings. But it’s not a destination for recent college grads either. If the Avenues were described as states—Lexington would be Delaware. It’s just kind of there.

As I got closer to my endpoint, I gazed across the street to see an old haunt of mine. It was once called the Wetbar; it now has a red sign that just says BAR. It’s still a hotel bar, and from the outside it looks exactly the same. I turned my head and caught my reflection in a glass window. Wow, my hair is long. It looked like an Olympic ski jump in the back. I need a haircut bad. Typically I don’t like to play Russian roulette with my hair, but this was a time for a spontaneous cut. Ironically, on the next block there was a hair salon. I prefer a barber, but I was desperate.

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