Date Night

On Saturday, my husband and I went out on a date. Because of how tight money has been for the past year, the last real, dinner-and-a-movie-date we went on was for my birthday -- back in August.

My parents had given us some cash and an offer of free babysitting (woot!) for a date night as our Valentine's day gift. We also had a gift card to P. F. Chang's, one of the few Asian restaurants my husband actually likes (he's very particular about Eastern-style foods).

We ordered a "dinner for two" and the lights dimmed just as we got our appetizer. For once, we had an evening that was actually... romantic. (No... wait, yes, we are parents, and we had a romantic evening to ourselves... huh? Does. Not. Compute.) We enjoyed a four-course meal and headed over to the movie theatre to see Coraline in 3-D.

Usually we don't see too many movies in the theatres because of the exorbitant ticket prices, narrow seats with stationary arms (as opposed to the kind that flip up so you can cuddle), cheap-ass food for an arm and a leg and your first born... oh yeah, and did I mention that we saw a movie in 3-D? Which requires those plastic goggles for which they want TWO. EXTRA. DOLLARS. PER. TICKET. My good Lord.

But we had heard from some friends that if we wanted to see Coraline, we should splurge for the 3-D showing. Of course, last weekend was the last opportunity to do so, as the Jonas Brothers are kicking poor Coraline out this coming weekend. Hint: if you are considering shelling out the extra cash to see a flick in 3-D, do yourself a favor and sit in the middle. A seat on either side will do you no good, and, in fact, make you a little dizzy and disoriented.

Movie theatre problems aside, it was even better than I'd hoped. There were plenty of modern Alice in Wonderland parallels, but it also had a bit of a Wizard of Oz, "no place like home" vibe (then again, those two stories are pretty similar themselves) -- but the audience is left a bit unsure of whether Coraline was dreaming or actually awake.

I'd like to keep this fairly spoiler-free, so I'll just say that like both Alice and Dorothy, Coraline gets what she wishes for, realizes it's not really what she wants, and has to use her brain to get back home.

And if you're planning to see it and haven't yet, stay through the credits. The bit at the end is very cool.

It's so nice to get out of the house for once. Spending time alone together isn't too hard when Adam goes to bed before 8 PM, but actually getting out and having a good time is something everybody needs. It really has a way of rejuvenating you.

Busy Weekend

...but still good.

Thursday night (yeah, I know; not exactly the weekend, but I promise it's related): After work I went straight to my (mostly) weekly therapy session. I think the therapy is helping, but I really need to get in with a family doctor to get back on antidepressants. I say "a" doctor because I still technically don't have one, exactly. Since we moved back to Ohio, we've searched for a doctor closer than 30 minutes away that takes our insurance. Until a few weeks ago, we had been unable to find one -- in 7 months, people! Now I'm just waiting for the insurance company to send me a new card: the doctor we found won't schedule an appointment with anyone until her name is on the insurance card, which of course takes 7 to 10 business days to get changed... blah blah blah. Crossing my fingers that the card comes soon.

After therapy I picked up my son and we went to JoAnn Fabrics. Brandon and I had been talking about what he would be for Halloween since last Halloween: Superman. We considered all the superheroes (we're geeks, remember?), and we settled on Superman (or -baby, as the case may be) because he doesn't wear any kind of mask or hat-type thing. Babies hate things on their head, so it's perfect, right? I wasn't sure whether to sew or buy, since I found a really cheap one online, but he was kinda in between the infant and toddler sizes. So I will sew. And I have since decided that I must be a crazy person little ambitious -- Halloween seems a lot closer from this side of the weekend. It's happened before. It'll probably happen again.

Friday afternoon Brandon got a call from Aaron and Christina, who wanted to know if we would like to go see Celtic Thunder Sunday night. An hour later, my sister-in-law Abby called about possibly visiting this weekend and offering to babysit so we could have a date. Amazing how things come together like that.

Saturday Brandon went to pick up Abby from OU (she's in her first freshman quarter there) while Adam and I picked up the house. Or rather, I tried to clean and simultaneously tried to keep Adam out of the cat food. Since he's discovered his mobility, he likes to dump their food bowl onto the floor. Sigh. At least he doesn't eat it.

We went to my mom's house for the OSU game as usual. Abby, Adam, and I fell asleep. After the game we went to Target so Abby could get some new clothes for school. It was really nice to get out of the house and not go to the grocery store, work, or a movie. Plus, Brandon and I got to play "personal stylist," which we love. We love to watch Project Runway, I like What Not to Wear on occasion, and we enjoyed both Queer Eye for a Straight Guy and How to Look Good Naked while they were on. But we don't have much money, so we like to shop for other people, like our sisters.

I worked on Adam's costume a little over both Saturday and Sunday. So far, I've cut out the pieces for the "S," the onesie, the cape, and half the pants. Still have the other leg of the pants, the red underwear thing, and the belt to cut out. Then sew it all. I may or may not do the additional yellow "S" on the cape. We'll see how much time I have. I'm definitely not sewing boots -- Abby bought him a pair of red socks.

Sunday we watched the Bengals game, I did a ton of laundry, and Abby looked for some poster- board and her own Halloween costume. Then Brandon and I went to Aaron and Christina's house before the show.

We took one car to save on gas and parking, had a nice, brief dinner, and went to the Schottenstein Center for the show. Parking turned out to be free (the tickets were, too, but we knew about that -- Christina knows someone who got us the tickets), but the seats were kinda tiny and the auditorium was really warm and stuffy. Other than that, it was fantastic!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Celtic Thunder, they are an all-male, 5-piece Irish band with a wide range of ages (16 to 41), tones of voice, and singing styles. They are accompanied by a slew of very talented instrumentalists, as well. You may have seen their show on PBS. They are all excellent performers -- they sing with choreography, although the singing is much better by far. My husband's only complaint about the show is that most of the music isn't Irish. I didn't mind so much -- men that sing well are HOT. (My husband knows I think this, and he knows I like his singing. So why doesn't he sing very much?)

Today it was back to work for me, and as well as I've handled being away from the baby so far, the first thing I thought this morning when I got there was how much I missed him.