HANNA CHU & ANELA HOLCK
A&E Editor and Photo Editor
With a light breeze, grand ocean view and fresh air that almost makes you believe you’re avoiding the Los Angeles haze, this week’s cheap date location cannot be missed. Perhaps a bit cliché, but since we are about to leave this beautiful campus that has become our home, we found it fitting to host our last date at home with a romantic picnic date at Alumni Park.
The setting is perfect to spend some quality time with your favorite person before you leave for your summer camp counselor job or to move back in with the folks before your career plans start setting in.
There are several options for what to actually eat on this date, but we recommend the perfect picnic meal: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cut into heart shapes, with chips and a juice box. But first, find out if your date prefers crunchy or creamy. That will make or break your dinner. People are extremely particular about their nuts, so don’t start off on the wrong foot that could make your date go awry.
For those slackers out there, the cafeteria food is an easy and convenient option for you and your date to get your grub on. The double bacon cheeseburger from the law school cafeteria is an excellent choice, or if you plan well, it just might be bread bowl day. No one can resist the bread bowls.
Although the main course is important, we suggest using your creativity in your meal preparation because truly, it’s the little things that count the most. This is a perfect opportunity to put some effort into your meal and really impress that special someone.
Perhaps you could pick up your date’s favorite candy bar or a particular fruit chew of your liking. If you have time to bake, try smiley-face cookies or brownies with hearts drawn on in red frosting.
Bring a little sparkling cider, or if it is chilly, hot chocolate will always win the ladies. But if you have hot chocolate, don’t forget the marshmallows.
Do not feel the need to buy the red and white checkered picnic cloth or the perfect wooden basket. Do you really want to be that cliché? Sitting on old schoolwork or newspapers serves the exact same purpose, and the food can just be thrown in any grocery bag, backpack or pocket.
At Alumni Park the options are endless. Eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want, bring whatever you want. Heck, bring whoever you want.
Just make sure it’s cheap.
The ocean view and the green grass is a surefire combination to make your night unforgettable.
Cheap dates don’t say that you are cheap. It just says that you don’t need expensive food and extravagant settings to impress the one you adore. Let’s just admit it, none of us recognize the difference in the array of utensils that fancy restaurants set before you.
No one really needs the fancy schmancy stuff because it’s the company that is the pivotal part of the date. And with your charm (and creativity), no date will be able to resist.
Save a buck, and woo your lady (or man) in red on campus at Alumni Park.
04-13-2006
