The Gregromantic and I tried to go on a date the other night. He hasn't started back to school yet so we have time for that sort of whimsy. Oh and did we ever have a whimsical evening planned! Birthday dinner for a friend at the
Red Robin and then
Sherlock Holmes 2 on the big screen. (no that's not just dinner and a movie). (that's dinner
with friends and a movie). (don't miss that added social element).
Scoff but it sure had me motivated to get thru work on Wednesday.
Fast forward thru writing a bunch of SQL and an afternoon in A&D review sessions (don't try to understand any of that) and it was evening. And I was trying to find my movie coupon. Which didn't happen.
Dang it!
My brain can't enjoy being whimsical without being economical too.
I texted the Gregman.
"No coupon. No movie."
And then looked at the cheap theater options.
"Tower Heist at 8:10 ok?"
Minor change of plans. He rolled with it.
The dinner part of the evening was great!
Sweet potato fries and fun
chatter with friends. And I actually showed up with a
wrapped gift
AND a card. I felt so prepared.
(another birthday shout out to Tina!).
We left the dinner just in time to get across town, pick up a Frosty (I had a hankering!), and roll up to the theater.
(most of the Frosty got thrown away because it was melty). (remember that and don't judge me too harshly when I talk about going to Yogurt Zone later...).
This is where the
whimsy ends. Well, it kind of ended with the melty Frosty but we'll ignore that. We were a couple minutes late and the Gregbladder had to pee so he veered off into the restroom while I gave him a look and turned into our theater.
But not for long.
When the Gregrelieved joined me later I leaned over and asked him
"Why does it feel like this movie's been playing for longer than 5 minutes?"
Because it had been playing for 30 minutes. We'd gone into the wrong theater!
Or so we thought.
We went back to the ticket desk and asked them which theater the 8:10 showing of Tower Heist was playing in (after we couldn't locate it on our own). The man stared at us. We stared back. The man spoke.
"Where did you see that time?"
"The movie app on my phone."
He pulled out his phone. I pulled out mine. It wasn't until after the second time I showed him the showtimes list that I realized I was in the wrong.
22:10 definitely does
NOT translate into
8:10. Never mind that I've had my phone set to a 24-hour clock for years and still can't convert it, apparently.
I quickly pulled my phone away, nudged the Gregnegotiator to ask for a refund, and bolted out the door.
I sheepishly confessed my mistake to the Gregdate as we walked out to the car and he just started laughing, kind of in disbelief.
I'm sorry I'm a failure at reading time!
At this point in the date, we'd kind of exhausted our options. But it was just after 8! The night was young! It couldn't be wasted!
Ok, the night wasn't that young. I get real tired real fast and am worth nothing by ten. But we weren't ready to throw in the towel.
And then I got a brilliant idea.
"Bingo!"
We both love bingo. And we've both been wanting to try playing at a
"real" bingo place. Just once.
Some phone research and we were on our way to nearby
"Bandera Late-Night Bingo".
"This sure looks sketchy..", I remarked, and he thought, as we pulled up.
Oh well. All in!
We walked inside a very large room with lots of tables and up to a desk. A large woman stared at us like we were new there or something.
"Uh, we want to play bingo" the Gregbaritone said in his most assured, manly voice. (hehe,
not).
"Ok but play doesn't start till 9:30."
Holy late-night! I was not about to stay there that long. Bed-time! We stood around awkwardly for a few minutes weighing our options and finally just left and hoped inspiration would grace us on our way back to the car.
End result? We were heading to Dave and Busters.
I don't know what it is about failed date nights that leads you to gambling, but...there we were.
We spent like 10 tokens on the usual skee-ball and basketball games and then went straight for the coin machines. Where we sat for ages. At least long enough to win over 1500 tickets.
(don't judge). (it was a low point in the evening).
We came out of it though. With enough time to make fools of ourselves attempting DDR.
And then I made a request.
"Can we stop at Yogurt Zone before you take me home? Pleassssssse?? I've been craving it!"
The Gregjudge called me out on my earlier Frosty but I convinced him it was a bygone, really. And again, it was melty!
One stop at Yogurt Zone (redeemed my freebie!) and some conversation about possibly going to Houston for the weekend later and he was dropping me off at home.
Oh was it ever a long overdue conclusion to the evening. It was such an exhausting date! Its like I had to plan and execute 4 dates as each idea was heaped onto the pile of failures!
Dating is hard :-P
And, just because this post isn't
quite long enough, here's a few
"Friday Favorites" I'd like to share:
1.) Trace Adkin's
"You're Gonna Miss This". Can we say it together? "Sap!" But the song is so true! I just get all excited about living life right now when I listen to it and there's nothing to complain about that.
2.) Pistachios. Roasted & salted in-shell. They're nutritious. They're tasty. A single-serving package takes me hours to eat. Can snacking get any better?
3.) Downton Abbey on Netflix. It's what's been playing in the background as I do my housey things lately and I'm kind of intrigued.
4.) Sweet potato fries. Nothing new here! But I made my own using
this easy recipe and they were delicious. Might even try it with the carrots sometime.
5.) This
sunset view on my bike ride home from work:
You know what's not favorite?
Accidentally dropping chocolate cake crumbs down my shirt at work. There's no way to NOT awkwardly recover from that! I had to think about them sitting there, wreaking havoc on my white undershirt, until I could excuse myself to a bathroom.
Less effective.
Have a great day :-)
