floor picnic

my roommates and i have recently been perfecting the living room floor breakfast picnic. we used to have an extremely wobbly coffee table in our living room, but we got fed up with it and decided to draw and quarter it in our backyard (we made some speeches, our friend julie presided in a graduation robe, and we all ripped that unreliable sucker apart.) with no coffee table in the center of the room, we have infinitely more room to dance/picnic/play around. though it's still not enough space for skip-it, unfortunately. totally different story though. 

our living room picnicking usually involves pancakes because SWEET BABY JESUS IN HEAVEN WE HAVE SO MUCH PANCAKE MIX. we're in the process of moving out and we're trying to live off the things we have in our cabinets. which means i've been eating a lot of pancakes. and topping them with peanut butter or nutella or homemade strawberry balsamic jam or the traditional maple syrup. something about eating on the floor makes a pancakes (especially for the 57th million time in a week) feel more special. or taste more delicious. and when you're down, you can easily just slide down into a laying position, perfect for a post-breakfast digestion nap. INNOVATION.

park wine vs. park whine

 

the police officer or rule-abiding citizen version of this post: the title of this post is a joke! of course we didn't drink wine in a park. that's ILLEGAL. and we are all sticklers for rules. this is just a prank post. we were really doing community service. the end.

for the rebels and laid-back folks: wine in the park is the best. it's cheap and it's delicious, especially when paired with ice cream sandwiches and good company. so much of my time recently has been devoted to complaining about the future - my roomies, some of my closest friends from college, are moving out of town and it's hard to see the silver lining in a situation like that. probably because there's not really a silver lining. maybe for them - they're getting to pursue new project and jobs and meet new people and live in new places. but i'm a big ol' selfish grump and i can't come up with any benefits for me in this situation. hence, all the whining. but a better way to deal with the situation is to enjoy the little time we have left living in this big ol' mess of a house by going to the park or picnicking or wearing wigs and lipstick and watching bad movies. that feels so much better than moping around. the moping around can come after they leave town. in the meantime, while there is still ample wine to be had, it seems like a waste.

secret garden

there's a spot on campus that we refer to as the secret garden. considering temple has 36,000 students, it's probably not that secret. but we like to think it is. it's tucked away behind the 7/11, next to a banquet hall used for various campus events and, unlike the grassy area by the bell tower, there's hardly anyone ever there. you have to descend a few steps to get there and the sloping hills surrounding the secret garden are covered in greenery. it's a pretty sweet spot for a city campus.

it's also a pretty sweet spot for impromptu picnics. we've been trying to squeeze in as many activities as possible the past few weeks, before our lease is up at the end of june and everyone leaves. 'everyone' isn't really 'everyone'. but it's some major players. and the end of june isn't even our real expiration date. beth is moving home june 18th to work at camp, then moves to austin in august for grad school. keiran's starting to shuffle her stuff back home the second to last weekend in june. christine is slowly pushing things into trash backs from her move back to new hampshire. even though the people are still here, watching the packing happen is sometimes enough for me to start to feel sad.

i'm no better though - i took home my first load of stuff last week, including the saggy bean bag will all love to hate. it's literally like sitting on the floor, the beans are so smushed. our downstairs walls were covered in posters and paper since the first week we moved in and when i took them down on Monday, you could see clear outlines where the pictures used to be, protecting the wall from the slight sheen of dirt found elsewhere. the house is starting to come apart. pretty soon it won't be ours.

so we're filling our remaining time with picnics and bike rides and spontaneous brunching and wine'n'wigs nights. which i think is the only option. because the other options are solo wine-drinking and crying to episodes of 'cheers'.