Hilarious collision of worlds

As many of you know, my boyfriend, Sol, and I just finished hiking the Appalachian Trail (from Maine to Georgia). After five months of hiking, I subjected my wonderful and supportive rugged outdoorsman to a weekend hanging out with all my college friends in NYC. NYC just 2 weeks after finishing the Trail smacked us in the face with a very plugged-in, metropolitan lifestyle after nearly half a year in the same clothes, with no electricity, wandering through the woods. Needless to say, he was a little out of his element, but he's always a good sport and truly does appreciate the company.

Before we left NY to head up to visit his parents in Maine, we visited our friends Priscilla and Brad. Priscilla gave me two books to read, one about Chelsea Handler's evil pranks and one by Mindy Kaling about life in general. In the past she has given me some great Chelsea Handler literature. Absolutely hilarious, dirty and girly stuff (some of you had the opportunity to hear me read portions aloud when it was just so ridiculous)....not exactly Sol's normal reading repertoire.

However, during our 2 day drive from NY-NH/NH-ME, I started reading "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" by Mindy Kaling, who plays Kelly from The Office. It was so hilarious from the very beginning that I started reading it out loud to Sol as he drove. In those two days I read the entire thing to him in the car. Hilarious, because some aspects of it are so far from anything he ever cared about or thought about, but a lot of the stuff is just straight up funny enough for both of us to enjoy. And each time I picked it up, he insisted I read it out loud to keep him entertained. Anyway, there was the most epic paragraph ever, and I had to share it with you.

Imagine Sol driving his Subaru outback, me reading, the car on the back roads of Maine. We've made it to page 163 at this point. So you can get an idea of the type of stuff we're dealing with, this section of the book is called "The Best Distraction in the World: Romance and Guys" and the sub chapter is called "Guys need to do almost nothing to be great". Also, imagine me reading it with the sassiness that I imagine Mindy had while writing it. Here is the paragraph:

Forgive me, but being a guy is so easy. A little Kiehl's, a Bumble and Bumble, a peacoat, and Chuck Taylors, and you're hot. Here's my incredibly presumptuous guide to being an awesome guy, inside and out. Mostly out, for who am I to instruct you on inner improvement? Let me say here that if you're some kind of iconoclastic dude who goes by the beat of your own drum, you will find this insufferable. I totally understand this. Buy why are you even reading this book at all? Shouldn't you be hiking the Appalachian Trail right now or something?

Amazing moment. Thanks Priscilla, thanks Mindy.


Here's a photo of Sol, in all his glory, hiking in the AT in VA. For anyone who reads Mindy's book, specifically this chapter, you can decide for yourself how well Sol fits into her "awesome guy" vs. "iconoclastic dude" breakdown.