concert in the park

We accidentally had an amazing date last week.

Don't get me wrong, we meant to have a good date. It just ended up being unexpectedly fun.

The plan was to go and get Chinese food, and then eat it in the park. We used to do this when we were dating. Adam would walk to a Chinese place, pick up a to-go box, and bring to me over at the library, where I worked back then. I'd take my dinner break, and we'd eat the food in the park next door to the library. We have fond memories of chow mein and Christmas lights and trees and concrete benches.

So we dropped Brie off at Mom's, and went to the Chinese place that has the best won-tons in town, and as we were walking in, we saw a flyer pasted to their front window advertising the summer Concerts in the Park. It turned out that the last one was that night.

We got our food, demolished the won-tons while still en route to the park, and then parked and carried our grocery back of chow mein, rice and chicken across the grass of the softball field, past the racketball courts, and ever closer to the strains of country music floating on the evening air.

When we reached the crowd, we found ourselves a spot of grass and sat down to enjoy the band. They were good and we enjoyed the music while we munched and people-watched. We decided it was one of the saddest concert crowds we'd ever seen, because most of them sat there like stones, not even tapping a foot to the upbeat music. So when we finished the food, Adam gave into my pleas and stood up and danced with me on the grass. The music was almost to fast for us, but it was a blast. Then we tried climbing a tree, and finally retired back behind the crowd to swing on the swings, try out the slide, and see how far we could get on the monkey bars (Adam won that contest definitively).

It was so much fun! I don't know when I've last had such a big grin on my face for so long. Good food, the outdoors, music, dancing, a playground and Adam. It was a great date.

-Jess