broken summer

Summer is my favorite time of year. It is also the time when I'm completely broke. Luckily for me, most of my other friends are too, so we manage to find things to do.

 A lot of time is spent chilling at parks. 

 Sunday brunches have been mostly replaced by Brooklyn Bagel and the awesome new coffee shop down the street.

I finally joined the library. I always enjoy reading on my fire escape.

Even though we get out early in the summer, I spend a lot of time just chilling after hours with my co-workers. If we're lucky and there's an event, sometimes we'll get a free drink. 

I'm exploring the city more looking for free things to do. Kayaking has been postponed untill they clean up that sewage leak in the river. I've been to some fun new places though, like Brooklyn. Or that taco place up the street from me that puts pineapples on their tacos. Yum.

When we do go out, mostly it's to one of the two Beer Gardens I happen to live by. There we attempt to spilt a pictcher of beer between as many people as possible and enjoy the night breezes. Although the heat wave did hit us for about 3 days, mostly it's exactly what you want summer to be here: highs in the 80s and low90s, nights dipping down into the 70s. Perfect. (So don't let any whiney New Yorker tell you that it's unbearably hot here.)

 I'm not sure how well you can see the details in this picture, but Karyn and I went to a free outdoor performance of La Boheme in Central Park. It was wonderful. We thought we were being fancy with our flasks of wine and cookies, until the people behind us showed up. This is at the begining of their setup, but they had at least five SILVER TRAYS of artfully arranged fancy cheeses, breads,veggies, etc. Three different kinds of wine with the correct glasses (flutes for champagne, different red and white glasses). Blankets, chairs, and when it got dark, not even kidding, real candles. What?!

I didn't realize that the performance would be in Italian with no subtitles, so poor Karyn had to piece together what was happening using only the program and my interpreting. Unfortunately for her I have my dad's sense of humor and she spent a lot of times trying to figure out when I was being serious or just joking before finally ignoring me altogether. 

I went and saw a (free) They Might Be Giants concert this past Friday. 

The concert was promised to go on "rain or shine" and they weren't kidding. That was one of the biggest downpours I've ever seen, so bad even the concert organizers considered canceling it. But at the end of the day it turned to scattered drizzles, and I got to be part of 5,000 people dancing in the rain to Birdhouse in Your Soul. Awesome. 

Basically, summer rocks.