Date Night

With only a few days remaining in Ian's vacation, we figured we should probably try and have some alone time together. It has been over 6 months since our last "date", and lord knows we deserve some off time. My dad and step-mom graciously offered to take Cohen and Lili overnight, and even to watch Luci until 11pm or so.

The date got off to a rough start - Ian and I were bickering most of the day, and were pretty worn out from the usual array of cooking, cleaning, feeding, driving, comforting and the like that goes into a typical day of parenting. We almost decided to cancel date night.

However, the promise of a meal cooked by someone else and no dishes to wash convinced us to hang in there.

We went to Olive Garden for dinner. This, for us, is fancy dining. Basically, if the napkins aren't paper, we're impressed. It was packed there, so we decided to eat at the bar rather than wait for a table and potentially be late for the show afterwards.

Dinner was great - we stuck to our old scheme from University, whereby you eat as much of the unlimited bread and salad as you can, and then eat only a few bites from the entree, getting the rest of it to go. This allows you to spread the eating-out experience over two days.

I had been in charge of planning what our main entertainment for the night would be. Typically we see a movie, but there was nothing I was interested in seeing. We tossed the idea of going to the symphony back and forth, (it was, after all, Beethoven's 2nd and 3rd), but neither of us were in the mood to dress nicely and act civilized. We considered bowling, but I didn't feel like doing anything that would bring out Ian's nasty competitive spirit (it's actually quite funny, but I'm equally competitive, so it can get pretty tense when it's just the two of us).

Eventually, I had a great idea, one from my teenage years. I decided to keep it a secret (not because I wanted to surprise him so much as I didn't want to give him a chance to poo-poo my idea). I finally told him after dinner, as we were leaving. His response - "oh, that sounds like fun... I'd kind of like to go home and just hang out though".

Nuh-uh. Dammit this was our night out, we're going! He reluctantly agreed, and off we went.

Where, you ask? Loose Moose Theatre, to watch some Theatresports. I used to LOVE going when I was in junior high and high school, but for some odd reason I haven't been in a decade. If you don't know what Theatresports are... well, did you ever see the show "Whose Line is it Anyways?".... I much preferred the original British version (as always) but the Drew Carey version was funny as well. Anyways - that's an idea of what Theatresports are like.

We arrived at the Theatre an hour early (go figure), and decided to wander around a little. Well, oddly enough we wandered into this deserted lounge area. The lights were all off, but there were several arcade games there, including my favourite, Police Academy. Well, GAME ON! We spent the next 45 minutes laughing hysterically at my poor skills. It was great. The last time we played Police Academy was on our honeymoon cruise!

When we reluctantly left the arcade games, it was time to go into the theatre. It was a great deal - $12 admission, with a wacky array of snacks for sale as well (we went with water and twizzlers, at a cost of $2.25 total).

The show was great. It was JUST as I remembered - you never know what to expect, but you know it's going to be funny. Ian and I were both wiping tears of laughter off of our faces all night. Fantastic fun. I'm not one for comedy, typically, but improv just does me in.

Afterwards we came home, cleaned up, and went to sleep (no, really). I woke up this morning to him serving me breakfast in bed... amazing what a night of good food and laughter can do for a relationship!

Date night was a success... and I think we'll be making many trips to the Loose Moose in the future!