Date weekend

I hired a high school student who had a car to watch the boys when we did our overnight date for Tom's birthday. She babysits my neighbor's elementary school children. I told Tom who was watching the boys. His response was to note that the boys are teen agers themselves. Riley is almost 15. I had hired a cute young girl barely older than my own children to watch my pubescent boys. He even joked that Riley could play the "I'm sick and dieing card", and see if she was a soft touch. I called her back and told her we had decided the boys were old enough to be left alone.



I just have this vision in my head of the boys as babies still. It is hard to see them as teen agers able to be responsible. Riley will be learning to drive in 3 months. We have the extra car just for that purpose. The boys couldn't wait for us to go out the door so they could play games on the computers and watch movies.



Tom called them down to the kitchen and gave them a lecture on no friends over, no inappropriate activities, no porn sights (I had to tell Trevor what a porn sight was). Not staying up all night, though I think they did anyway. Trevor was in our bed still sleeping when we got home at noon.



We had received a gift certificate at Christmas for a night at the De Luxe hotel in downtown Portland. Its the remodeled Mallory, done in vintage black and white 1940s movie style. I loved it. I conned Riley with $10 to go to the thrift store with me so I could find an appropriate dress for the evening. Riley has good tastes and wont let me get something I shouldn't wear.



He shakes his head at one dress, then pulls another from the hanger and says try this one. I get the key from the front clerk and go try it on in the dingy dressing room. It is long, dark silver with long stemmed black flowers and a deep swooping back that prevents me from wearing a bra. Very dramatic and vintage looking. Riley was right. I look fantastic in it. I worry its a bit much, but I love dressing up. The dress is only $20. If I wear it only this once it is still worth it.



Tom has asked for an electric fly swatter for his present. He has wanted one for ages, but I hadn't been able to find one. Stores don't carry them at Christmas time when I remember to look. Wilco has one left on the shelf. Not cheap, but it is exactly what Tom has been asking for.



He also wanted a new, not used, lawn mower. He does not like the push mower as much as I do. the fringe doesn't get cut well. You have to do it more often. The end result is not as polished. He likes a tight cut, golf course quality . Monday I had gone out and bought a new lawn mower. Forgetting entirely that I had a bike on the back of the car. I had to unload the bike and take the rack off before I could load the lawn mower, then put the rack back on with the bike, before I could drive the lawn mower home in the car. I was sweating with exertion and hadn't even mowed the lawn yet with it.

I hid the mower under a paint cloth in the garage. Bringing it out with a big bow on it for Tom to find on the front porch when he came home from work.



He was content. He had received the two things he had been wanting for a while. He also liked my new dress, and did not feel it was over the top. He didn't want to wear a full suit so he chose a sport coat in order to not be under dressed with me.



I had a pair of pointy shoes that hurt my feet but matched the dress. I have made that mistake before. We always end up walking some distance. To be on the safe side I changed out into a more practical and comfortable pair. I am so glad I did because we did end up walking and bar hopping the park blocks.



The restaurant in our hotel was booked for a private party and unavailable. The bar was so dark Tom and I with our aging eyes couldn't see to read the menu. Tom did say he probably looked younger in the darkness. We had happy hour cocktails then had the concierge book us at Jakes and call us a cab.



Jakes turned out to be only a few blocks away. The bar was full so we went ahead and got our table even though we were early for our reservations. More cocktails and a bottle of wine, crab bisque for starters, Tom orders the Filet and I order the stuffed salmon. The salmon was mouth watering, moist and perfectly cooked. I cleaned my plate. It was only 6:30 by the time we finished dinner. Tom commented that he was ready for bed and couldn't believe it wasn't later.



Tom suggests we walk down to the theaters and see what was playing. Nothing really grabs us so we walk on to the Heathman for after dinner drinks. I ordered a Baileys on the rocks and coffee. They had outside tables available. We watched the people go by on the sidewalk. It was completely a stress free evening. We had one more cocktail once we got back in that dark bar at the De luxe hotel. I had the Elizabeth Taylor which was a delightful champagne cocktail, not too sweet.

We head up to our room and are in bed by 11:00pm. The room is not big. A king size bed takes up most of the space. There is just enough space for bed side tables and the ability to walk around the bed comfortably. The 10 foot ceilings with molding help give the room a larger feeling. The small bathroom has white subway tiles on the walls and marble floors. The tub is a deep cast iron soaking tub, which I take advantage of in the morning. I love the vintage feel of the space. If I was to do a bathroom from scratch, it is very close to what I would like to choose. Tom might want something more modern, but I love the flavor of the space, and that tub was wonderful, deeper than my own soaking tub that the boys love so much.

I enjoyed Tom's birthday as much as I think he enjoyed it. It is nice to know we can still go out and spend hours together and come up with things to talk about and enjoy each others company as much as we did when we first were married. The one topic I made Tom steer clear of was what we would be deciding in September. The night was an escape for me and I did not want to spoil it with a discussion or disagreement on such a difficult issue. Why ruin the evening with something so disagreeable. It would still be there to discuss all month long, just not this night.