Date Night

Remember date night? Barely? I think it used to be something fun and exciting. Trying a new restaurant in the North End. Going to a play or a movie. Walking around Boston for a few hours. Driving out to Revere for Kelly's. Driving to the New Hampshire coast for lobster.

Justin and I have resorted to date afternoon. Our babysitter met us at the house when we all got home from picking Justin up at the airport. We barely slowed the car down enough for Robbie to get out of his car seat and fling himself at Elena before we were off. It wasn't so much what we were doing, as you'll later understand. It was that we were doing it. Without Robbie.

Justin and I have built up our "prepaid" massages at Massage Envy (we actually made it once a month before Robbie was born, but Justin currently has SEVEN prepaids), so we headed there first. It was exactly what we needed. We both saw new people, and they were a.mah.zing. And then it was off to the exciting portion of the date: grocery shopping. That's right. We went to Stop & Shop on our date.

It's going to sound silly, but I remember wandering the aisles of the Kroger on Watson Boulevard late at night with Justin when we first started dating. We would just go to find whatever looked like it should belong in our cart and talk about whatever was on our minds. That's what I was hoping for tonight. But, there were actual groceries to get, a babysitter to get home, and chores waiting at home.

I was a little sad to realize that even the grocery store on date afternoon becomes one more thing on the to do list. But, the important thing is that we did that to do list item together. And we didn't talk about Robbie. That much.