The smell of freshly baked donuts

I was on my way home from work the other night, heading east down 14th street from Union Square, and I found myself smiling because it was still light out at 8:00 p.m., and because the trees were in bloom when just weeks before they were skeletons.

And then as I approached Dunkin Donuts, the most delicious smell came wafting through the air. Freshly baked donuts. Damn, that really made me smile. I’ve had the pleasure to catch this smell on a few other occasions and I’ve always considered it my own special treat — like the city saying “Keep going, it’s going to be okay.” So I strolled past the store, grinning like an idiot, and taking in my private moment of donut zen.

Then I hit the corner and was stopped by a red light. I noticed the guy in front of me was shoving the last bit of a Dunkin Donut jelly roll into his mouth. I thought to myself “the smell got him too” but then a dark thought crept into my head. What if their special smell wasn’t just for me but was one giant marketing scheme to drive traffic during the slow evening hours… My grin faded.

Then the guy, who happened to be standing next to his mother, dropped his Dunkin Donut wrapper on the ground. Blatantly littering even though the garbage can was not 2 feet away. I was so disgusted, I could feel the disgust radiate out of me towards him. His mother must have intercepted some of my disgust because she leaned down and picked it up. This made me want to punch the stupid grown man in the face because his mother shouldn’t still have to clean up after him. Plus he ruined my moment of donut zen.

A couple of nights later I was walking home from the Union Square stop around 8:00 and that delicious donut smell got me again. I couldn’t resist looking in the window to see if there was actually some baking going on, and I was relieved to see baking racks. My faith in the donut zen smell was restored.