Day at the Park

Kim and me in Central Park.

One of the advantages of living on the Upper East Side is the close proximity to Central Park. Unfortunately, I live with someone, a so-called California boy, who dislikes the outdoors. When the sun is shining and the sky is blue, I could think of nothing better than sitting outside, grass massaging my feet, breeze in my hair, hands holding a good book. Dan does not feel the same way.

"It's boring to go to the park with you," I have been told.

This means we never go to the park together. Maybe once a year. I try to tempt him with a game of catch, but it never works.

"The park is too far away." It's a 15 minute walk.

No matter how much coaxing, begging and bribing, I can't get him to come with me. But when Dan's poker buddies invite us to the Park on Saturday, suddenly it's cool. Go figure.

We started the day by going to a Yelp-hosted bake-off in the park run by one of Kim's friends. I was planning to make red velvet cupcakes, but Dan insisted I bake chocolate surprise cookies instead. The chocolate competition was weak, and I was totally robbed of the best chocolate dessert prize. I did take home the "popular vote" category by a landslide (mostly, I think, because everyone in our group voted for me multiple times). Kim won the category for "non-chocolate dessert" with her oatmeal raisin cookies.

After indulging in way too many sweets, we went to the Great Lawn where we sat for hours. Ah, this is my kind of Saturday afternoon. The boys took off their shirts and threw Frisbees and baseballs, and the girls mostly sat and chatted on the blanket. There were some crazy yoga position demonstrations courtesy of Kayleen and Julien, but otherwise it was a very chill afternoon.

"See how the park is fun?" I said to Dan. I saw it with my own eyes that he was having fun. He explained, the park is fun when we're with other people but it's not fun when it's just me and him. Oh.



Julien and Kayleen.


Justin.

We went out to dinner at a Turkish place (yum) and then ended the night playing Rock Band. Dan and I are strongly considering investing in the Beatles version. Now that would be fun. Even Dan thinks so.