My super OCD, extremely organized and overly protective wife is almost impossible to convince, that when there is a babysitter in the house, we can freely have a date-night once a week.
Thank God, Sami sleeps like a baby through the night, and all the nanny has to do is just BE there. Of course, the fact that we can hardly ever afford a nanny, makes us unattractive to any babysitter, because we hardly ever can give anyone any business, so that’s why, for the most part, we are becoming serious candidates either for the “cheap wine sommelier” , or the AA.
When we do have a babysitter, though, we make sure we make the most of our dates. Be it a Rancid concert, be it a nice dinner in one of our favorite restaurants, or going to the movies.
As time goes by, we get more and more experienced to stretch the minutes and make the most of our two – three hours away from the Master. “When the cat sleeps, the mice are partying.” – as the expression says and it couldn’t be more true.
The art is to be very quick at everything, and if you have a chance – move a lot. As you can guess, Alex normally has us lined up, all dressed and dandy at the door, so that as soon as the sitter walks in, we can drive off. It’s a pleasurable game and makes us both appreciate our time so much more. Craftiness like that makes you think, “oh my god, what were we doing with all the spare time we had before? And the answer is easy – we wasted most of it. Well, now wasting time means wasting not just money, but also a chance to remember who we were together – as a couple, not as a treesome.
So…
That’s how last week we went to not just one, but two restaurants in three hours: appetizers in a cool modern bar, that’s rumored to be Andre Agassi’s, and later – entrees in my favorite Chinese place. The fried shrimp was awesome! Ate them with the heads and all. Yum! The important part is that we have the agreement not to talk of the Master during our little rendezvous. So we refer to him as “the one, whom we don’t speak of”. But if we don’t snap out of parenting on the dime, it lingers in our brains and keeps us restless and ineffective in the getting-to-know-each-other. Generally we have proven to be great conversationalists. When the two of us are together, we never stop. For eleven years we must have spoken enough words to build a latter with from here to Pluto, but we still keep going. And it’s awesome! No, no, let me make this even more romantic – when we do not talk, it’s not awkward – our minds are still in touch. Awwwww, you’d say, and of course – you’d be right.
Tonight we dared to go to the movies for the first time ever. Our neighbor and friend offered to watch Sami and we took full advantage of her, making her sit on the couch at home for three hours, while we ventured to see “Inglorious Basterds”. Nothing that special, really, about the movie, although Tarantino is pretty awesome and hilariously naïve, but the feeling of looking at Alex’s face in the dark – our eyes meet and share the joy of freedom for a moment – is worth sacrificing our night for catching up. I had missed this. Fortunately or not, we are far past the phase where all you do in the theatre is make out and we can now actually see what we paid to see, but the contact that you keep, checking to see if she laughs at the same things you do, is more than invigorating. It’s inspiring!
So, back to the MasterCard commercials:
A babysitter - $20 (or free if you got cool friends)
A movie or a cheap date - $20
A reconnection – priceless!
See you in a week, alkA.
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