amanda and i took a break from our respective work/studying to eat dinner. rather than have more pasta (as we can always have yet more for lunch tomorrow), we got a vegan burger sub at shortstop deli and ate it at stewart park.
while we were waiting for our sub, amanda was shocked at the prices for a pack of cigarettes (i don’t recall exactly what the prices were as i do not indulge). one of the people there said it was their way of encouraging people not to smoke. he said only the really desparate come crawling to them for their smokes. amanda then impressed the workers with her knowledge of the addictive quality of nicotine compared to other more notorious drugs.
stewart park was quite pleasant, if a bit chilly. there were many people enjoying the rare bit of sunny weather. we sat by a still section of water and idly watched an unknown fish root around. we could only see its shadow, the ripples that it caused, and occasionally its tail or dorsal fin. earlier in my life i could probably indentify it, but alas, that knowledge is gone from me.
i have a painting by susan titus bith of a large gnarly tree on the shore of stewart park that amanda had gotten for me for my birthday last year. i had always looked at it for years at the gallery on the commons and said that i would get it when i finally left ithaca, but amanda got it for me a bit prematurely (tho, yes, i really live in buffalo mostly). actually, its just a print, not the original, since i do not have the $1500+ to blow on artwork at the moment.
anyways, i believe that the tree that inspired my painting has been but in half! perhaps the missing half was diseased, but it looks like they did clear some of the trees in one section. who can say. ’twas sad, tho.