Making My Own Spring Break with the Picnic at Ascot Picnic Blanket

Being out of college has taught me the answers to some of life in the first world’s most important questions. I have learned how to budget my money fairly well. It’s generally divided in my head into two categories: “bills” and “food.” I know that if my car says “15 miles to Empty” that it will go back to “30 miles” the next time I turn on my car, so that’s one more day I can go without buying gas. I have also learned how many days I can mentally handle freezing weather before I have to turn on the heat because a blanket and extra layers just don’t cut it anymore.

I’m still left with one resonating question, though. Why is there no spring break in the real world? There’s no graduation date where you lost the desire to run outside and play. When the sky is so suddenly a startling blue speckled with clouds – the white cotton ball kinds that make you want to climb on top for a nap, not the angry grey streaks of winter – and bright green leaves begin to cover limbs, there is no age group that can avoid being drawn into that desire to be outside. So why should spring breaks be limited to the in-school demographic?

As my friends who are still in school headed home this week, I have, of course, been bemoaning this question. Today, I almost gave up – the view from my window was just so tempting. So I came up with my own plan; I decided eating like it was spring – or summer – would have to do the trick. After a morning of working in the strangely hot confines of my office, I headed to Plum St. Snoballs to join the long line of spring breakers waiting on some sugary sweetness.

Armed with an Ice Cream-Raspberry snoball and a picnic blanket, I made Audubon Park my office for the afternoon. Sure, I was the only person with a computer in the park, but that’s okay.  Picnic at Ascot’s picnic blanket made a much cozier desk than I’d been at an hour previously. And that snoball was better than my standard afternoon cup of tea. The fleece blanket is more comfortable than the typical picnic blanket and the waterproof backing gave some support against any oak roots that tend to crop up throughout the grass in Audubon. And, well, I love the blanket because it let me have an afternoon working in spring sunshine, instead of my office. That is something I appreciate.