Le sunny days in the park

Passing time in the Shakespeare in the Park line

A bitter cold has swept New York City as we inch closer to the shortest day of the year (or longest night - depending on how you want to see it). As I bundle up in my huge coat, scarf and hat, I like to think back to this summer when I spent six hours waiting in line for Shakespeare in the Park tickets.

My friend and I left our homes at 5:30 in the morning and headed into Central Park to get in line with all the other hundreds of people itching to get tickets to see Al Pacino in Merchant of Venice. We walked down the line towards the end, passing people who chose to spend the night there. There were groups of friends, couples and single people; most of them sound asleep. Many of them had air mattresses and looked like they had been kidnapped with their beds in the middle of the night and then dropped into the park, completely unaware that they weren't in their homes any more.

It was a fun experience and kind of relaxing (we basically chilled in the park for six hours) but my absolute favorite part of the whole thing was ordering food to be delivered to us. In line. Exactly. You call the deli, order your bagel with butter and jam, coffee with milk, and a 30 minutes later a guy on a bike rides down the line and calls your name. I got my breakfast still warm.

Hmm. Warm.

Six hours later, we were the second to last people to get stand by tickets for the play (apparently in the history of the theater, everyone who has ever received standby tickets has gotten in to see the play). It was amazing and worth every second of the wait.

Love,
Sabrina