Monday, February 14, 2011

Play by Play of My Valentine’s Date


Friday Evening

5:00 p.m. I send humorous friend a Direct Message on Twitter. “I’m wearing old man socks under my sexy boots on our date tonight.”

5:30 p.m. Husband returns home and helps pile kids in car to take to church.

6:00 p.m. Drop girls off at church (where they are fed and entertained—a cool ministry our church offers once a month…we certainly appreciate it).

6:15 p.m. Arrive at fun Italian restaurant (two steps up from an Applebee’s. One step down from a place where you pay out the nose).

6:18 p.m. Kindly ask to be reseated. Families and crawling children every which direction. Craved a little more ambiance and shall we say privacy for our Valentine’s dinner.

6:20 p.m. Reseated and settled into conversation with my man.

6:40 p.m. Devouring my lobster ravioli. Discussing where we’d go on pretend vacation and real one. We come up with Greece and camping in the White Mountains respectively.

7:00 p.m. Still yapping away comfortably. Launch into topic of friendships. I name a few of my closest friends reminding my husband of one of my favorite introductions. I met one of my dearest local friends while our kids were trying not to drown during swimming lessons. Somehow we meandered into book talk (somehow, right? That’s funny! It’s my friendship litmus test). We both giggled like second graders when we discovered we share the same favorite book—Peace Like a River.

7:15 p.m. Realize I wore a shirt that clings to my tummy. Not the best idea when you know you plan to eat and eat well. Take only a few bites of the brownie my man ordered.

7:30 p.m. See we have plenty of time before we need to pick up kids. Contemplate places to go. My pomegranate martinis lead me to make the same suggestion I always make at the end of our dates. Where else but Barnes & Noble?

7:45 p.m. Arrive at Barnes & Noble. Feel like I’ve walked into a slice of heaven.

7:47 p.m. Spot Peace Like a River friend and her husband.

7:50 p.m. Walk the store with Peace Like a River friend discussing books, periodically checking on our husbands firmly planted in the historical section.

7:55 p.m. Make a beeline for the new Chris Bohjalian book. Discuss his other bestsellers, The Double Bind and Midwives with PLAR friend.

8:10 p.m. Laugh when we lock eyes with yet another couple from our church doing the B & N date night wrap up.

8:40 p.m. My man surprises me by buying a novel (he’s a smart man).

8:45 p.m. Say goodbye to friends and drive to collect children from church.

Here’s where the play by play stops. ;)

So now you see what communicates love to me, don’t you? Book talk. Book browsing. And books bought. Love is so in the air!

How about you—what communicates love to you?

*Blogger had some issues on Fri. Please vote for new Friday name if you didn’t already get a chance to.
*photo by flickr

18 comments:

  1. Haha! Love this. A good solid hug communicates love to me. And chocolate never hurts either. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It sounds like the perfect date:) I just like to spend time with my honey anywhere--even on my own couch in the living room. It's his presence I crave most:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just being together, having good in depth discussion and conversation, mutual respect and appreciation!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mine and hubby's favorite date night place is Barnes and Noble! But I have to confess, we don't go just for books, we go mainly for the coffee (They serve Starbucks at ours) and conversation.:) But it's great to be NEAR the books, though! Nothing like the smell of coffee and books mixed together! And we'll browse the books while we sip our coffee and chat. It's the best date night!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fun date! Little gestures tickle me. Hubby has to work tonight and we had a busy weekend, so no Valentine date. But, he did wake me up with my favorite kind of bagel from Einsteins this morning and I was happy :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gwynly has taken me to Borders after our dinner dates numerous times. The night we went to Olive Garden to celebrate my contract offer, he took me there and asked me to show him where my book would be shelved. He scored major mush points for that, let me tell you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Being together, talking, sharing our thougths, views, our history, our common ground and our differences.

    Sigh. I love my man impossibly much.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sounds like you have great taste in husbands, friends and books! Go Wendy!! Happy V Day, girl!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yep - talking books makes me feel loved. My guy will help me think of titles and plots sometimes. I love when he does that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sounds like the perfect date. We went out last night, and guess what... I wore my son's basketball socks under my sexy boots! (Let's just say I was a little behind on laundry)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am totally smiling at this post!

    “I’m wearing old man socks under my sexy boots on our date tonight.” CRACKED ME UP!

    Getting an extra dinner tonight since hubby had to back out of our lunch plans today. Don't have to cook tonight. Woo-hoo!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm a multi-channel girl. Lots of channels for receiving love.

    My favorite part is the old man socks.

    A girl's got to be comfy in order to glow.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Acts of service! The most practical of the five love languages. And the most medieval.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Wendy -

    I'm glad you had a wonderful time with your hubby. My Valentine's Day involved treating my sweet Mom to her favorite Chinese dinner.

    Blessings,
    Susan :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Glad you had a good time! Funny, we always end up at Barnes and Noble, too.
    Blessings,
    Karen :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Love this post, Wendy! A hug and words of encouragement speak volumes of love to me.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wendy, this made me laugh.

    My DH and I have a long-standing weekly date - Saturday's at Barnes and Noble.

    I don't think I could possible be married to a man who didn't share (or at least understand) my love of books.

    You day sounds lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  18. heeheeheehee!

    Cool evening :)

    We had dinner at home, yes, with the kids. Sigh. Maybe next yr..

    ReplyDelete

Taking Time

college applications                 homecoming                            flag football                basketball             SATs   ...