On Olivia's advice in her blog dated January 19, 2006, I moseyed on down to the Freecycle NYC's Post-Holiday Re-Gifting Freemeet on East Sixth Street between A and B on the Lower East Side. I'd be lying if I had a lot of high-priced but unwanted Christmas presents to give away. Instead, I had all the extra rubber bands our office had acquired over the past few months (in a nice see-through container) and had that morning diligently washed all of the old plastic knives, forks, and spoons we'd collected at home, and put them in a tupperware container. Oh yes, I'd brought along some unused wooden chopsticks and a few old books.

I arrived at about 11 am, and was unprepared for the madhouse that greeted me. I could barely get into the place or my stuff out of the bag on to the table, so frenzied was the interest in what was in my bag and on the table. There were people everywhere: dropping stuff off, picking it up, and some doing both, simultanously.

I asked a volunteer what happened to the stuff at the end of the day if nobody picked it up. "It's mostly clothes that's left," he said, "and there are a bunch of homeless shelters we give that stuff to." "Are you surprised by what people pick up?" I said. "Actually, I'm more surprised by what people bring in," he replied. "Some guy last year brought a pair of stilts." "And were they still there at the end of the day?" The guy gave me an incredulous look. "Are you kidding?" he said. "They went almost immediately."

Be sure to check out the next event at Reycle This New York City.