Dear Park Day Friends,

We sure missed you today. It was a gorgeous day. In the sun it was warm enough to shed the jacket. In the shade with a breeze, jackets were welcome. The playground was fairly empty. We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Mr. Pickles had no line. Three sandwich makers and no waiting. The sandwich definitely hit the spot for me. My favorite is the Tom Turkey on a wheat roll. The roll is sweet and chewy. Divine! The shaved turkey is moist and melts in your mouth. Swiss cheese complements nicely with the bacon and turkey.

I like to get my sandwich with everything on it. If they had jalapeños I would have those added as well. The pepperoncinis are tart enough to satisfy my need for extra flavor. They are definitely not spicy but they do bring a nice taste to the rest of the party. Bottled Diet Pepsi (only because they don’t have Diet Coke) is the culinary cherry on top. The chocolate chip cookie was quite delicious as well.

It really is too bad you weren’t there since some obnoxious kid was. Once Abigail had to leave to take Conner to preschool there was no one to save me from The Kid. He momentarily sucked the will to live out of Gwen and was looking around for another victim.

He went on and on about how he doesn’t drink diet soda. He drinks regular soda. Any explanation seemed too long so I rolled my eyes inside and wondered when he might leave me alone. He finished driving the last nail in the condescending coffin by holding up his water bottle and telling me he likes to drink water. “It’s more healthy for you!” Yeah, shut up kid. If you ever become a grownup diabetic you’ll understand my affinity for diet soda.

I wisely never said anything. Just took another swig hoping the caffeine had magical powers that would make him go away! Or at least go play. Eventually he left but not before asking me if Gwen could eat candy! Random. I said yes and asked why he wanted to know. He was just wondering. Apparently he was one of those people that feels the need to express every thought that ever crosses his mind.

Other than that small hiccup the day was perfect. We sure missed all of you. Next week it’s supposed to rain so I’m thinking you really missed out. Ah well … hope you had fun doing what you were doing while we were soaking up the sun and missing you. I also hope you took advantage of this lovely day at some point. I let my kids play outside after school, telling them their homework could wait. They appreciated the reprieve.

Affectionately,

The Piquant Storyteller