Date Night

Friday night was date night for Chris and I. The first since before Robert was born. (I know, that's really, really sad. You don't have to tell me.) We dropped the kids off at church and had three glorious hours to ourselves. Chris met me at the church, but got stuck in traffic, so it was more like two hours and 20 minutes.

We went to a Japanese steakhouse. I hadn't been in forever and I love, love, love a good hibachi meal, so Chris obliged even though he and Clara just went to Benihanas a couple of weeks ago. It would have been a very nice meal if we had been seated at a different table.

We were seated at the hibachi grill between two different parties. Next to me was a family of 4. I think the girl next to me was the daughter (early twenties maybe) but I could be wrong. She kept looking over at me from the time we sat down. When the chef put a bowl full of chicken on the grill and said it was for the fried rice, Chris said, "Oh, no chicken in mine please." Ok, anyone who knows Chris knows that he has the potential to come off rude. He's not, it just seems that way sometimes. I'm just saying. (Love you Sweetie!) This time, however, he wasn't rude or belligerent or anything. I prefer to inform people that he has an allergy but he hates that so I kept quiet since there were so many people around us.

Well, then I hear the mom and daughter giggling next to me and I catch one of them say, "No egg in my fried rice please" and the other says "No rice in my fried rice please." I couldn't believe they would make fun of someone within earshot. Who does that? So I tell Chris he's being mocked and then had to spend quite a bit of time keeping him from saying something back. Our meal had just started so I really didn't want to spend the next hour awkwardly sitting next to them.

We were minding our own business throughout the entire meal and that girl looked over at me and then back to mom giggling and talking throughout the entire meal. At one point the pre-teen boy with them asked what they were talking about and what was so funny. I really wanted to tell him it was us, but I refrained.

Once the meal was over and the checks had come, I opened up our check to take a look. I guess the girl was looking over my shoulder and I didn't notice because then I hear the mom say, "They don't have kids. That's why they're able to spend so much and why we have to get the chicken." Excuse me!! Why on earth would someone sit around making such stupid judgments about people they don't even know? You are at a Japanese steakhouse. It's not exactly a cheap meal even if you get the chicken. The chicken was maybe 2 bucks cheaper. And they had a huge sushi appetizer and the dad got this massive sushi meal that had to be brought out on two plates. Yeah, they're on a strict budget with those two kids. Oh my goodness. I wanted to scream. They were getting up to leave when the people on the other side of us started talking to us. I quickly interjected something about our imaginary children and the fact that this was our first night out since our 15 month old was born.

Anyway, just had to get that off my chest :) We then browsed the aisles at Barnes and Noble for a bit. I couldn't get Chris to leave the Sex and Relationship aisle. There were other couples from church dropping in killing a few minutes until time to pick up the kids and he thought it would be really funny to be browsing that section as other people from church came in. My husband is easily amused and I'm easily mortified by his shenanigans.

It was an enjoyable night and just reinforced the fact that we seriously need to start making date nights a priority. It's just such a pain when you have to plan what night and what you're going to do, then try to get a sitter, and then you have to pay that sitter. Ugh. It's just easier (and cheaper) to stay home. Maybe the church will do another date night next year :)