Our Fun Issue comes to a close today with a few parting thoughts before our wedding hiatus in End Note: Enjoy.
“Two weeks, seven cities and many articles later, it’s safe to say that having fun is all about how you approach it. Almost any aspect of city life can be enjoyable with the right mindset. Some things are inherently negative (missing your train to work is never a good thing), but the vast majority of situations we face on a daily basis can go either way. As I’ve learned working in the service industry, anything is possible when you go in with the right attitude.”
Today in The Fun Issue, Katie tells us how to avoid the recreational pressures of city life in Unsolicited Advice: Make Your Own Fun.
“City life is fun. Sure, it’s also challenging, expensive and sometimes a pain in the ass, but why would we subject ourselves to that if there wasn’t some kind of trade-off? Cities are full of restaurants, bars, museums, parks, bowling alleys, arcades and any combination of these things you can think of. It seems you can’t pick up a magazine, turn on the TV, or even walk down the street without being inundated by the newest, hippest things to do in the city. The problem comes when it turns into a second job trying to keep up with all the fun and excitement.”
Today in The Fun Issue, eating doughnuts with a friend brightens Katie’s day in Experience: Dough.
“It all started about a month ago when a regular showed up to brunch at the restaurant where I work with a box of doughnuts for the kitchen staff. I spotted the plain brown box from across the room and knew in an instant that the contents had to be the soft, sugary little pillows of heaven from Dough. As I caught glimpses of the kitchen guys going to town on those amazing pastries — and not sharing, might I add — it put a bug in my brain. Must. Eat. Doughnut. Not just any doughnut would do, though, as I learned the following week after devouring a plain glazed version from Dunkin Donuts. No, it had to be from Dough, which for the past couple of years has wafted sugary goodness from the storefront on the corner of Franklin and Lafayette in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. The aromas fill the intersection and beckon passersby to enter the tiny, unassuming shop and have their minds blown.”
Today in The Fun Issue, Arthur enjoys an afternoon of sweat and serenity in Experience: Russian & Turkish Baths.
“My attitude whenever I come to this sultry haven is always one of foreign nostalgia. During the collectivization of Soviet society, generations of Russians and Ukrainians used a not too dissimilar facility wherever household options weren’t available. I imagine myself to be a congregant of a modern, significantly pricier, version of those establishments and am ready for any interactions — whether they be illuminating, cordially mundane or bizarre. As the son of Soviet parents, I’ve constantly had shouted at me, roughly translated, “Go to the Bath!” throughout my childhood. These words are actually an idiomatic term of dismissive frustration, invoking a culture where the victims of socialism’s unspeakable inequalities were relegated to maintaining their personal hygiene at public water facilities. At the age of 24, I finally transcended the expression and found myself a natural patron, incorporating these convalescent schvitzes into my lifestyle. I cannot capture the psychological state of those old world structures — massive blunders of architectural constipation — however I do have a picture in my head of the inhospitable spatial arrangement, which I doubt bears any relation to the Baths of my recuperative missions. My occasional escapes into this glorious place of the body’s renewal are a crystal clear image that I will remember until my dying day.”
Today we kick off The Fun Issue with stories from DC, Boston, Houston & Nashville. Stay tuned for two weeks about how to get the enjoyment you really need out of life! More details in Editor’s Note: Fun
“As the days get longer and temperatures rise, our cities are starting to seem much more appealing. We’ve regained the freedom to eat in the sun, leave the apartment without swaddling ourselves in layers and — most importantly — appreciate these places that we work so hard to live in. Whether your idea of a good time is the late night debauchery of a bar crawl, the weekend decadence of brunch or the ever-present potential for cultural consumption, city life has it all. It’s almost as if we challenge ourselves to have as much fun as possible to prove that we can keep up with these crazy places, that our struggles are worthwhile. The problem is we try so hard to maximize our entertainment that we forget to enjoy ourselves along the way.”
