How ‘bout them apples

If you haven’t realized it by now, I am a planner.  Also, if you haven’t realized it by now, Mr. S is not a planner (go ahead and feel bad for him, but also feel bad for me). 

It’s not that I don’t love a good surprise or I’m a control freak.  It’s just that there are so many things to do and see in life, that if I don’t designate a special date and time for them, we may never get around to it.  And then I will be on my deathbed saying, “I wish I had made it out to the Brooklyn Flea market just once…”  And that would be so sad.

So it was a rare thing this past Saturday when we had nothing to do.  I don’t know how it happened, I think I was so focused on Sunday’s plans that I neglected Saturday. 

Me (frantic): What are we going to do today?!?
Mr. S: We can go look for the apples.

Background story of the apples:  In honor of the MLB All-Star game, there are giant apples located around the city, each painted to represent a baseball team. 

That sounded fun to me!   And that is how our innocent little game of finding the apples began.  Looking at the map of where the apples are, we decided to focus on midtown.  There are 36 apples in total and we knew we wouldn't get to all of them in one day.  The first apple was at the Westin on 46^th and 3^rd Ave.  I don’t know what I was expecting, perhaps an apple that lights up or spins around, but I was a little disappointed in the apple we found.  It was just a big apple sitting outside a hotel.  But wait, what was that next to it?  A bar!  And a fancy looking one at that.  Mr. S saw it too and asked me if I’d like to get a drink.  Ooh like a date!  And so the game evolved…find an apple, get a drink.  Here’s how we did (the last column was my downfall):

Team	Apple location	Bar location	His drink	Her drink	Food (if applicable)
Houston Astros	Westin (46th and 3rd)	The LCL	The Green Dream	Serenity Now	N/A
San Francisco Giants	Tommy Bahama (45th and 5th)	The Marlin Bar	Sangria	Pineapple Martini	Edamame hummus and 3 chips
Seattle Mariners	Nintendo store (Rockefeller Plaza)	Johnny Utah’s	Bud Light	Vodka tonic	N/A
Brewers	Office of the Commissioner – 45th and Park	Lobby bar at The Hilton	Pineapple something something	Watermelon something something	The smallest Buffalo chicken wings I’ve ever seen
San Diego Padres	SONY store (Madison Ave)	N/A – we didn’t pass a bar between this apple and the next, so we went big at the next bar…
Pirates	Niketown (5th Ave)	The Champagne Bar at The Plaza Hotel	5th Avenue Star	The Gatsby	Gourmet chips and dip
Baltimore Orioles	Chelsea Market	Mr. S doesn't remember	White sangria	N/A – I did not make it to this apple…	Mr. S had a burger

According to Mr. S, the story goes that from the Plaza we planned to take the subway downtown to Chelsea Market for the next apple.  Friend A was meeting us down there also, and from there we would grab our reward drink at a bar on the Highline.  At some point on the train, I decided that I was sleepy and needed to go home. 

Mr. S (after noticing I fell asleep on his shoulder): Are you ok?  You need to go home?
Me: Home…home…home…home…

So when we exited the subway, Mr. S put me in a taxi home and went off to meet our friend and see the apple*.  I saw pictures of the O’s apple the next day and was so sad I missed it.  Although it ended somewhat tragically, our spontaneous scavenger hunt was so fun!!  Maybe there is something to this no-planning thing...  Yeah right, I’m already planning to see more apples next weekend.

* This is not as insensitive as it sounds.  Mr. S claims (and I believe him because I am sneaky), that as soon as we got out of the subway, I immediately hailed for a cab.  “Taxi…taxi…taxi…taxi…”  This caught Mr. S off-guard because we were supposed to find Friend A first, apologize and let him know we had to go home, and then take a cab home together.  Obviously I had other plans.  Mr. S panicked and shoved me in the taxi with instructions to text Friend A when I got home (Mr. S’s phone was dead – typical).  20 minutes later, Friend A got this text: