Our first date

Dear Diary,

Saturday night Daniel and I went out on our first date...since we moved to Iowa. It was kind of a frustrating beginning because of the 18 inches of snow that we got. The weather interfered with our plans of a fireside in Omaha and being taken out to dinner beforehand. The other couple had to cancel because of work conflicts, also due to weather. So there we were--with a babysitter and nothing to do. And what on earth were we to do from 4-11pm in our little town!? (Couldn't drive to Omaha--or anywhere out of town--because of snow.) I racked my brain--there's just not much. Finally Tabby came to watch the kids and we decided to go to the local furniture store before dinner. This was actually brilliance on our part because window shopping and trying to come up with decor ideas with the kids has been horrible in the past. My patience goes and I just can't think fun or creative at all. Pure frustration. We reveled in the peace--we got there 30 minutes before closing and had the complete attention of the two employees until 30 minutes after closing. They were so nice and helpful. We now have several borrowed swatches of couch fabric we're playing around with at home. Couldn't a done it any other way!

Next we headed on to dinner. We decided on a mexican place. Not the one that sells overpriced frozen food, but the authentic one.

Oh! But first we decided to grab movie tickets--the little theatre is of course just across the street. It was empty and the show was to start in an hour. We gave them our money ($10.50 for two tickets) and they paused, waiting for us to go in. Ummm, no, we're going to dinner first. "Oh," the guy says, "We don't have actual tickets to hand out." Huh!? Ok...so they gave us our money and assured us we'd get in to our movie when we returned.

Back to dinner. Delicious. Someone from Daniel's work was our server. Another guy from work (and his family) was eating across from our booth. We really do run into everyone here. And it's not like we know a whole lot of people yet.

We got done just in time to run across the street and get our virtual tickets. 5 minutes until showtime. But--big ol' line. I decided it was worth it to at least ask if we could skip the line since we were there an hour before trying to avoid this whole last minute thing. So, I "excuse me-pardon-me" my way up to the front, getting the evil eye all the way up. I asked the favor of the ticket guy and he said sure. I got the tickets and was on my way back outside to get Daniel. Then I got it. "Line cutter!" "We've been in line all night!" "Get back there!" "Cutter!" O my gosh. Are we in 5th grade? I was surprised, insulted, and upset. I tried to handle the hackling well and said things politely like, "I'm sorry, we were here an hour ago..." "I'm sorry you don't understand the situation." They just continued to bark at me as I passed them. All women. I was getting mad. I remarked to myself, quietly but aloud, as I walked, that I lived in NYC two and half years and was never treated like this. I thought people here were nice. I'm getting all worked up thinking about it. Luckily I had a movie to take my mind off it. I don't know if I really was in the wrong--if I was it was my ignorance of their "we really don't give out tickets" situation. But since he agreed to let us in, I figured I wasn't being as awful as they were treating me.

About 10 minutes into the show--and our theatre was pretty empty (everyone else was in line to see "wild hogs")--a couple comes in and sits right behind us. We turn around and it's Daniel's boss and his wife! Luckily, they are very fun social people. It was hilarious. So small town.

The movie was ok. Had a couple funny parts, but was so sexual in nature it was kind of annoying. As Mom and Daughter are discussing and describing, orgasm I just couldn't help but think about ol' boss behind us. So funny. Although we wouldn't give the show 5 stars, it was definitely fun to be out with my hubby!

As we get up we're chatting with the boss man. And he says, "Well, I know you guys don't drink, but can we take you out for a soda or something?" Sure--why not! Let's make this a cultural experience. I said to him, half joking, that we could go to Wild Willie's and we would get something not so wild. "No, that crowd's a little rough," he says. But we did end up going to a bar--first time in my life. The West Side. It was a really nice place, actually. If I could have removed the smoke it'd have been darn near perfect. I could see the popularity of bars (the not-rough kind)--relaxed atmosphere, just order a little something, but you're really there to socialize. And socialize we did. Daniel's boss knew everyone and everyone knew him. The city council guy, the bar owner, and lots of friends there. It's like these people have a high school reunion every weekend. So, we were busy chatting together as well as meeting other people.

We had a fun time--always enjoying the little details that make this place unique.

Well, that's basically it. Came home--paid the babysitter, smashed a huge black spider, showered the smoke smell away, and promised to get another date in real soon.