Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Date night over 40. I'm not proud.

We hadn't been on the proverbial date night for a while.  So, a few days ago hubby said, "Let's go out Saturday night," it took about a quarter of one second for me to imagine a peaceful dinner without any interruptions and possibly an adult beverage (or two). 

I said, "Okay," incredibly quickly and effortlessly and had messaged the lovely lady that watches our heathens when we are gone in record time.  That was the easy part. 

The rest of this post is kinda how the remaining details went down.  Let me reiterate:  I am not proud.

1.  Answering the question - What to do?  Once you hit 35 (ahem), deciding what to do on any special occasion (or just date night) becomes particularly problematic.  Add in the four kids who must be left with a sitter, the fact that hubby has a physical injury which currently (until his impending surgery) is causing him constant pain, and the fact that I have been nursing a migraine for about a week and you *might* have a recipe for disaster.

We went through the long (and quite ridiculous) pretense of pretending we would do something other than go out to eat and try to stay awake until we were actually back home.  Sample of that:

Hubby:  Well, babe, what could we do?
Me:  Whatever.  Go eat?
Hubby:  Well, what do you like to do?
Me:  Hmm.  I dunno.  Eat?
Hubby:  We could go to the movies?
Me:  Okay.
Hubby:  A short movie.
Me:  Okay.
Hubby:  Who am I kidding?  I don't want to see a movie.  At the theater.
Me:  Yeah, me neither.
Hubby:  I guess we could go eat?
Me:  Okay.  That sounds good. 

This pretense continued until Saturday shortly before our departure time when hubby said, "Was there anything in the paper going on this weekend?"

I had actually looked through The Weekender, recognized one band that was in town, saw that they were playing at a venue about 35 minutes from our house, ruled that out, and skipped over the rest of the entertainment advertisements with mild disgust that I was far too old to watch bands in bars. 

I said, "Well, I saw that The Texas Tornados are playing.  I really love them.  Too bad they are about 20 years late."

(Hubby did not reply.)

2.  Once we decided we would go eat (!), we had to decide where.  I have written about our absolute favorite place on the planet to eat, Spicy Ginger, a few times.  It's a little embarrassing that they know our names there and *kinda* treat us like family.  Regardless, we decided we were both hungry for steak. 

We toyed briefly (and when I say We toyed briefly I mean I thought about it for one millisecond before deciding it was not going to happen) with eating at "the best steak place in our city".  I figured a meal for the two of us plus a few drinks for me would cost about $250.00.  Then I thought about how many kids' pairs of shoes I could buy for that same amount of money and we decided on Saltgrass.  Perfect. 

3.   Saturday was a rainy first day of spring break and we were cooped up inside with four slightly rotten kids and a wildly insane puppy.  So, yeah.  It was joyful. 

I guess you could say hubby and I both were stir crazy like we'd been locked in an insane asylum wanted to get away by the time 6:30 rolled around.  Normally when I know I am going out to eat I try to starve myself a little so that I can be really hungry and enjoy my food. 

But, I've been having some eating issues lately (by eating issues I mean I have wanted to eat everything that isn't nailed down).  As luck would have it, this insane hunger that's been plaguing me oddly stopped Saturday morning.  I woke up and I had no appetite.  (This usually only happens when I have a severe stomach virus or I am in a coma.  I have never actually been in a coma, but it's how I imagine it.)  I ate a smoothie for breakfast, I wasn't hungry for lunch, and I ate a few pieces of Girl 3's dinner that she couldn't finish.  You would have thought that by 6:30 I would have been ready to eat the menu, but truthfully nothing sounded good.

So, off we went to the previously decided upon steak place.  (We passed Spicy Ginger on the way and I had to remind hubby that we were both hungry for steaks.)

4.  It was a 45 minute wait at the steak place.  And our buzzer thingie didn't work.  And I had to drink a margarita on an empty stomach.  And on the way over to the steak place (before said margarita) my headache came back with a vengeance.  And the appetizer we got was meh at best.  By the time we were seated and ready to order my head was splitting open, and I had completely lost any vestige of an appetite that might have been there.

5.  Poor hubby.  I felt positively miserable for refusing to eat any of my dinner, but the thought of food was making me sick and my head hurt so badly I really was struggling to keep it upright.  He *may* have blamed the two margaritas I had on an empty stomach, but he is a gem so he never said that.

6.  At about 9:00 we headed home.  The kids had just gone to bed when we rolled into the driveway.  (I'm pretty sure our sitter thinks we are 90 year olds.) 

Thank The Date Night Stars, our evening was not a total loss.  We managed to watch The King's Speech on Netflix and I give it 10 stars out of 10.  I stayed awake during the whole thing (except possibly the beginning credits and about 10 minutes after that - shhhh - don't tell hubby) and it was such a delight that I managed to forget about the pain in my head for a while. 

After the movie ended is where it got complicated.  In Texas we have this nasty thing called Daylight Savings Time.  So, the movie ended past midnight (which was really 1:00 a.m.).  I decided at that time to break down and take some serious migraine medication.  As you might know the meds contain lots of caffeine.  And it had started thundering and lightening (of course because we haven't had thunder and lightening in about eight months).  And puppy and the kids cried all night.  And I ended up sleeping in Girl 1's single bed. 

Too bad I couldn't have had date night around 4:00 a.m. because I was still wide awake and I think my appetite was even coming back.

7.  Boy child had my steak dinner for breakfast. 

Date night over 40, people. 

How much will it cost for a re-do?

9 comments:

jamiew said...

this is depressing. i demand a do-over date night for you both.
and by the way, before you decide to go to a restaurant, consult urban spoon or me because i would have nixed that saltgrass in a millisecond.

Monica said...

saltgrass was horrible. we've been there before and it wasn't bad at all. usually we go to outback or what's the other one? can't afford a real steak place. next time ed will be doing the steaks because his steaks are soooooo much better. going out to eat is really depressing lately. good food is really hard to find when you are married to ed and he can cook virtually anything.

Shannon said...

You need a date do-over and some how some way I am someday going to drag you to a proper ball if I have to pay for the ball tickets AND the plane tickets myself. Now that's a date night!

And for our anniversary tomorrow we are going out to dinner pretty much like we do every Wednesday. On the upside I canceled school. YAY!

BTW Looking forward to Ed's steak this summer. Think I can talk him into cooking?

Oh and what's up with Ed? If I don't get an e-mail you can expect a call and I know how much you love talking on the phone.

Monica said...

@shannon - ed has something torn (or nearly torn) in his knee (ACL? miniscus - i'm sure that's how you spell it ;o). if i ask him again (for the 100th time) i am sure he will kill me. he is having surgery whenever the doc decides to schedule it. ed makes really good steak and it's tough to go eat steak when that's the case. in fact, it's tough now to go eat virtually anything without me thinking "we could totally make this better at home." EXCEPT spicy ginger because i haven't the foggiest how to make all that stuff - nor do i have any desire to learn. ;o) bonus - all the kids love it. happy anniversary! cancel everything and drink wine and bathe all day. ;o) xoxo

Shannon said...

So tonight was date night for Dave and I as it is our anniversary. To be fair we go out with a group of other embassy folks every Wednesday, we are usually home around 9:30 or so. Tonight we went out just the two of us for Indian food (Dal and garlic naan....sooo yummy) guess what time we made it home when we go out by ourselves.....yeah 7:45. Sigh we are old. It's official.

Anonymous said...

That sounds exactly like a recent date night with Cap'n Firepants. We are so lame! (the Firepants Family - not you. At least you made it to 9:00.)
BTW, my favorite steak place in SA is Fleming's at the Quarry. 2nd fave - Roaring Fork.
~whatimeant2say

Monica said...

@shannon - yeah. i'm pretty sure we are in the old club. :o( at least we look good? @whatimeant2say - so, flemings? never heard of it! or seen it that i can remember. that's how lame i am. yes, i've heard mixed reviews on the roaring fork. but, you say it's good? so, steaks there, eh? it will be really tough getting hubby to go out for steak ever again. maybe i can get my son to take me to one of those???

Shannon said...

Or if you wait until July I will go for steaks with you. Steaks in Malawi are....chewy. I want a big juicy tender steak this summer and some good beer.

mia said...

I'm only 36 and this is exactly what our Date Nights look like, except I usually can't stay awake for a movie. Perfect description!