GyanGurus

The misadventures of the Lost and confused…

We’ve been thinking about going to the park or the beach for a day to get some inspiration for a while, but it never really worked out. So, yesterday when Jasmine decided we should just go have a picnic and e-mailed Sona the cutest e-mail ever, it was decided instantly. We were going to Alum Rock park because that’s the biggest and the oldest in the area and the pictures looked very appealing. Maybe, we could even pretend we were in Central Park, NY instead of the damn Silicon Valley.

So today, we packed chicken salad sandwiches, chocolate cake, strawberries, melons and water with a sheet to sit on and left our houses around 1:30, maybe 2.

We had directions, but if you know anything about us by now you know that we’re experts at getting Lost. We really are, not a day goes by when we go somewhere together that we don’t get Lost. So, yes we did get Lost. We couldn’t find parking…and the road the map told us to go on was closed. So, we asked a biker for directions and after feeling like Jack in Season 1, we finally found the other entrance to the park, where there was the option of parking, or paying and driving inside the park.

Since we’re broke and found somebody leaving a spot, we parked Sona’s black (this will be important later) car. We took our bags, filled with food, water, a sheet to sit on, notebooks for writing…and started walking up the road, while bragging about how smart we were by walking instead of paying six dollars and wasting gas. It was beautiful. A creek on one side of the road, rocks and trees on the other. We saw a dead squirrel and a dead snake on the way, not so beautiful, but cool nonetheless…and a deer, which was alive. We kept walking and walking and soon we started feeling the 84 degrees, the weight of the bags, the not-so-sensible shoes. But, we were adamant. We walked a bit more, but we did not see a picnic area anywhere, just more wilderness…and cars going by us every few minutes.

We should’ve noticed the amount of cars sharing the road by us. But, we usually get too excited by our own assumptions and totally ignore what the majority is doing and think they’re the weird ones. Yeah…we are very “special” that way. And also the whole time, we felt like we were in Lost, except it wasn’t as green, and we felt adventurous.

Eventually though, we asked a father and son, sitting by the creek, how far one of the picnic areas was. The dad said it was really far, that’s why people were driving. Are you laughing now, yeah we were laughing too. We decided to go back, since even if we walked a bit more and ended up at an area, we would have to walk back and it might actually get dark. Neither one of us wanted to run into the Smoke Monster.

So, we finally started walking back and the mercury seemed to have gone even higher than 84 degrees. On the way, some guy stopped and asked us if we wanted a ride. Also, he asked us why were walking? Seriously people! Yes, the park is big and there’s a road for cars, but it is still a park! People can decide to take a walk in a park, it is not strange behavior! GAAH! Anyway, we said our ‘no thank yous’ and he left.

We kept on walking, our chins held up even though every other other person in a car seemed to be laughing at us. Freaks!

Than, remember how we said we thought we were in Lost…well something magical happened. A car drove by us, slowly, a vintage top-down antique looking car, with two people in the front and a bald old man in the back. He smiled at us and we smiled at him because this man looked like freaking’ JOHN LOCKE! That’s right, John Locke in the park that reminded us of the island. Obviously, this means Lost ended too early. The writers should take it as a sign and make a sequel or something, even though that season finale was the most amazing television experience ever…past, present, and future.

Than, we kept on walking. And finally when we could see the parking lot with our black car, John Lock with his friends drove past us again! And he smiled again! Two times in a row, it is definitely a sign.

We opened our black car, and did we mention the leather seats. Body parts were burning people!! We were so angry. We did not plan a hike, we wanted to sit in a park, surrounded by trees, eat good food and get inspired. Instead, our feet were burning and we were all sweaty and gross and tired! But, we still wanted to see the picnic areas, as annoyed as we were. So, we decided to pay the six dollars and went exploring in the car, in true Cali fashion. Yeah, no wonder people were laughing at us.

This probably took fifteen minutes at the most, to reach the end of the park and come back out. On the way, we saw all the picnic areas, which looked nothing like we had imagined. First of all, they were all filled with people, BBQing, and there were picnic tables in between all the trees, not the grass we had imagined. All the areas were like that, and one of the areas was some sort of Science Institution with a freakin’ log cabin. So, we drove back…six dollars wasted, feet still burning, car running out of gas any moment, useless.

We got out of there and went to look for a gas station and decide where the hell we could go next, to salvage whatever was left of this day.

We crossed out quite a few parks off our list and decided that we might as well just go Murphy Park, which is right by Sona’s house. Yeah…don’t even get us started. But, while we were at the gas station Jasmine’s mom called and Jasmine had to stop and do something. So, we stopped there…drank some water, Sona washed her feet outside with a hose to relieve some of that burning because of the stupid thin sandals. Once Jasmine finished, we went on our way.

A few minutes later, we were at the park and found an area that didn’t have people by it. Right under a big tree, we spread a sheet and finally relaxed under the shade, in the breeze. It was heaven, we had some strawberries and the melons and started forgetting the adventures on the “island park.”

Than, we saw something that looked like a carpenter bee, called a “bhoond” in Punjabi. It’s a hilarious word if you speak Punjabi, we laughed for a while before we freaked out. It kept hovering all around us, and we couldn’t focus on anything except the hideous creature. We tried to ignore, but it felt like a restless polar bear trying to chase Walt down. All the while, there were two little girls doing pretty much what we were doing. Trying to relax on a blanket, except they didn’t have food instead all they had was a Pepsi bottle. They were so adorable.

For every few minutes we could ignore the bhoond, we tried to relax. Sona started writing down whatever was happening in the surroundings. But, it just didn’t seem like our day. This little kid started playing right next to us, these three men were sitting a few yards away talking a bit too loudly and than these girls came and started talking, but this was nothing… than another girl joined them with a damn DOG! We are really really scared of dogs, and it just kept coming closer and closer and it was getting louder and louder.

We couldn’t take it anymore, so we decided to move across the park and just ignore the soccer players near that area, there was an area under the tree that was sort of secluded. It was nice. We laid down and started talking about how we can make our lives better, get out of here and fulfill our dreams. We put some music on using a cell-phone. It was finally getting nice. Than Sona’s mom called.

It didn’t seem out of the ordinary, she always calls once or twice day from work. She asked where Sona was now, because she knew about the park. And she told her we were by the one near home. The day couldn’t be salvaged, it was just cursed or something. Sona had to go home because there was a guest there, and her dad hasn’t been feeling well, so it didn’t look good that nobody else was there, especially when Sona could be there. Sigh…

So, Sona dropped Jasmine off at her house and Sona went home, where her dad was talking to said guest. After maybe ten-fifteen minutes, somebody came and picked up the guest (she had gotten dropped off). Yeah, basically Sona didn’t really need to leave the fifteen minutes of peace we had gotten all day. Yeah…

You know what this proves, don’t you? The Universe hates us, it really does.