DH and I went out to eat today. That’s “special” in the sense that we don’t eat out that often. But that’s not “special” compared to how “special” this trip out to eat was.
We went to a new restaurant in town. . . and we ate at a place we ate at back when we were in college. There’s an home (large old home) that was converted into a restaurant. When we were in college is was kinda a staple. I think we only actually ate there one time but we used to go there quite often. They had a bar upstairs with several little rooms. You could play trivia with others or when there was Football, you could try to predict the plays etc. We went there quite a few times when we were in school. We got in the habit of going for Monday Night Football and playing the little interactive game. (They also had good size beers and DH’s friends liked that.) I think one of my most memorable nights there was in the spring of 1995. We had our “ag banquet” at another restaurant. DH had waited until the last minute to ask me to go to the banquet. . . only he waited so long that I made plans to go with one of my gal pals so that I wasn’t going alone. So, I had to turn him down. After the banquet, DH and I and a bunch of our friends went to the little upstairs bar. It was a really fun night- but what I remember most. It was a feeling like I met (and had) “the one” as we walked out of the restaurant with his coat around my shoulders.
Years later when we returned the restaurant with the little bar was still open. And, when we were in that transitional phase of moving and didn’t have TV, we’d go up there to watch the Nascar races or other sporting events. Often just hanging out by ourselves in a room.
That restaurant closed (I never really thought they had good food), it re-opened two other times, and has re-opened as another restaurant again. So, today we tried it out. The food was good (though there were only two or three items on the menu that either of us would eat.) It was quiet, very well decorated, yet sparse, really period. Great atmosphere for a leisurely lunch the two of us. To top it all off, they were playing my favorite Christmas music album- Bing Crosby. It was a nice change of pace from the rush of this Holiday season. I had extra time for lunch so I didn’t worry about the time and didn’t have a care in the world.
Our waiter asked us if we wanted to split the ticket. We both kinda paused- bewildered. We never split the ticket even back then. . . DH always paid for it (though now I’m paying for it as we pay of college debts) and he paid for it now (it comes out of the same checking account any ways). As we left, we reminsced about the days before and the great times we’d had there.
