Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Date Night
If there was a prize for coming the closest to a failed date night without calling it off, we'd totally have won on Sunday. Dan and Jean stayed in to watch Max so that Jeff and I could go out together. I can't remember the last time that we went out alone, but I know it's been a while. So over the course of the day we made a plan.
We tucked Max in bed, and got dressed. Then we tucked Max in again before hopping in the car and heading downtown. Things seemed to be going well enough to start. Traffic wasn't stupid, and although we missed a decent meter spot we did find an almost empty parking garage for only $5 that was practically across the street from the sushi spot.
A minute or so later we are entering How Do You Roll, when a woman looks up from cleaning the soda fountain and informs us that they are in fact closed. I fail at reading at thought they were open until 10, but they had closed at 9, a mere 4 minutes before we stroll through the door.
At first I was a little bummed, but I was also relieved not to be sitting in that freezing cold space while my jacket kept the seat of the car warm. Still we'd already paid $5 to park nearby, so it was time to find a new plan. Up comes google maps and a quick search to verify that we're walking to an open restaurant, and we have a new plan.
We ignore the warning signs as a hostess tells us that the half empty restaurant (including open patio seating) will have a 25 minute wait for a table, and proceed to sit at the full service bar. We ignore the 7 other couples at the bar having tapas and drinks, and the fact that there is only one bartender pouring every drink for every person in the place. It seems they don't even trust the waitresses to pour water there. We get wine fairly quickly, and only 10 minutes later we are also able to get glasses of water. We sit chatting and sipping our wine, enjoying the evening but steadily getting hungrier. I think it was about 30 minutes later that the bartender comes to ask what our order was, because the kitchen lost the ticket ... and so sorry but we are out of spinach empanadas. They were able to get our fried goat cheese out quickly, and he comped a glass of wine, so it wasn't all bad. In fact we can recommend the goat cheese, it was delish!
We chow down the cheese, finish our wine, and cash out. We have places to be, and they have food, so we need to jet. As it was we were going to be a few minutes late for the start of the movie. Jeff drops me off at the ticket booth while he searches for a parking spot, and honestly I don't know if he found one because the movie was sold out. I call him to come pick me up and we pull up the show times for other theaters to come up with a new plan.
Oh how the mighty date night plans have fallen. We were going to have sushi, but instead went to get tapas, and finally end up in a drive thru getting weird taco things and soda. I like these weird taco things though, so it's not that bad really.
When the guy at the Regal Metropolitan ticket window tells us that we've driven to the wrong theater all we can do is laugh. Even the parts of the plan we have control over we don't seem to be able to execute properly. We dash back to the car and get to the other side of I-35 to the correct theater. We buy tickets, craptastic popcorn, a drink and even have time for a quick pit stop before we enter the almost empty theater and watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World with 10 other people.
In the end we got to see the movie we wanted to see, we had a little bit of adventure and a lot of laughs. We had some good fancy food and some good junk food, and really liked the movie. I'm not sure how any future date night is going to be able to compare.
The Plan
Drive downtown and go to How Do You Roll for some sushi and then head to one of three theaters in the area to watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World.
We tucked Max in bed, and got dressed. Then we tucked Max in again before hopping in the car and heading downtown. Things seemed to be going well enough to start. Traffic wasn't stupid, and although we missed a decent meter spot we did find an almost empty parking garage for only $5 that was practically across the street from the sushi spot.
A minute or so later we are entering How Do You Roll, when a woman looks up from cleaning the soda fountain and informs us that they are in fact closed. I fail at reading at thought they were open until 10, but they had closed at 9, a mere 4 minutes before we stroll through the door.
At first I was a little bummed, but I was also relieved not to be sitting in that freezing cold space while my jacket kept the seat of the car warm. Still we'd already paid $5 to park nearby, so it was time to find a new plan. Up comes google maps and a quick search to verify that we're walking to an open restaurant, and we have a new plan.
Plan B
We will walk to Malaga for some tapas and wine, and then we'll head over to the Alamo Drafthouse to see the movie and have dinner.
We ignore the warning signs as a hostess tells us that the half empty restaurant (including open patio seating) will have a 25 minute wait for a table, and proceed to sit at the full service bar. We ignore the 7 other couples at the bar having tapas and drinks, and the fact that there is only one bartender pouring every drink for every person in the place. It seems they don't even trust the waitresses to pour water there. We get wine fairly quickly, and only 10 minutes later we are also able to get glasses of water. We sit chatting and sipping our wine, enjoying the evening but steadily getting hungrier. I think it was about 30 minutes later that the bartender comes to ask what our order was, because the kitchen lost the ticket ... and so sorry but we are out of spinach empanadas. They were able to get our fried goat cheese out quickly, and he comped a glass of wine, so it wasn't all bad. In fact we can recommend the goat cheese, it was delish!
We chow down the cheese, finish our wine, and cash out. We have places to be, and they have food, so we need to jet. As it was we were going to be a few minutes late for the start of the movie. Jeff drops me off at the ticket booth while he searches for a parking spot, and honestly I don't know if he found one because the movie was sold out. I call him to come pick me up and we pull up the show times for other theaters to come up with a new plan.
Plan C
We'll grab some tacos at the Jack in the Box drive thru and eat them on the way to the Cinemark Tinseltown theater.
Oh how the mighty date night plans have fallen. We were going to have sushi, but instead went to get tapas, and finally end up in a drive thru getting weird taco things and soda. I like these weird taco things though, so it's not that bad really.
When the guy at the Regal Metropolitan ticket window tells us that we've driven to the wrong theater all we can do is laugh. Even the parts of the plan we have control over we don't seem to be able to execute properly. We dash back to the car and get to the other side of I-35 to the correct theater. We buy tickets, craptastic popcorn, a drink and even have time for a quick pit stop before we enter the almost empty theater and watch Scott Pilgrim vs The World with 10 other people.
In the end we got to see the movie we wanted to see, we had a little bit of adventure and a lot of laughs. We had some good fancy food and some good junk food, and really liked the movie. I'm not sure how any future date night is going to be able to compare.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Dreaming
I can tend toward the high-strung. You really don't want to see me in the 30 minutes before we are "scheduled" to be getting in the car to go out of town. I'm a complete wreck, and kind of horrible to be around, although we have found a secret weapon. It turns out that if I drink a beer during the last hour or so of packing and getting ready it can help me stay calm. It's as good excuse as any to keep some beer around.
But stress is a funny thing, because you can't always see it. With the exception of Max's teething meltdown yesterday, and his sleep being all buggered up (day and night) things are pretty good around here. I'm actually getting things straightened up, and that always makes me feel better. I'm really proud of the improvements to our upstairs space lately, even if there is still a lot to be done. I don't really feel stressed out right now. I feel pretty chill actually.
Last night I had several dreams full of stressful situations.
There seems to be a common thread here. In every dream there was something I couldn't find, except possibly the one about losing a job. I don't remember that one clearly though, so maybe the horrible thing that happened was that we couldn't find something. I slept pretty bad, and I can't believe that I'm in a pretty good mood with how tired I feel.
Dear Brain,
Stop being weird.
Love,
Me
But stress is a funny thing, because you can't always see it. With the exception of Max's teething meltdown yesterday, and his sleep being all buggered up (day and night) things are pretty good around here. I'm actually getting things straightened up, and that always makes me feel better. I'm really proud of the improvements to our upstairs space lately, even if there is still a lot to be done. I don't really feel stressed out right now. I feel pretty chill actually.
Last night I had several dreams full of stressful situations.
- I was entering a darkened room to look for something or someone but kept the door propped open with my foot. I was afraid that if I went all the way into the room the door would shut and I would be stuck inside.
- I was working at a company, but something really bad had happened and we were all going to lose our jobs.
- Someone was going to get beat up, but I couldn't find them to warn them.
- I wandered around the grocery store, but couldn't find anything to buy. I also did not have a grocery cart, and although I kept waiting the guy making coffee never finished, so I couldn't even get a free sample of coffee.
There seems to be a common thread here. In every dream there was something I couldn't find, except possibly the one about losing a job. I don't remember that one clearly though, so maybe the horrible thing that happened was that we couldn't find something. I slept pretty bad, and I can't believe that I'm in a pretty good mood with how tired I feel.
Dear Brain,
Stop being weird.
Love,
Me
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