Our Last "Real" Date

Hello, all.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how much I miss dating my husband.

Going out alone, with no kids, to someplace where I’m not doing the cooking, and doing something we both enjoy, whether it’s watching a movie, going to a concert, etc.

The last real date dear hubby and I went on was for my birthday last month. The in-laws were sweet and watched the kids, so we could go do something relaxing and fun . . . for very little money, of course.

We wanted to eat someplace nice, but not too expensive, and then go someplace fun. Since we are both trying to be more active this new year, I convinced hubby to go roller-skating.

We arrived at a rink in a VERY shady part of town, and the unlit parking lot with too many questionable adults hanging out on the front steps creeped me out to no end.

So we went to the ice skating rink.

We arrived and bypassed the snack bar, entered the rink area, and grabbed our ice skates. But I knew we must have done something wrong because as we got our skates, no one asked us for the skating fee or the cost of renting the skates. Uh-oh.

Oh, well.

We decided to pay after we skated since the line had grown exponentially after our arrival . . . and YES, we did pay. We didn’t just sneak in and sneak out without paying.

We got out on the ice, and were definitely two of the oldest people skating. Kids ranging from five to eighteen zipped, slid, and flew from one end of that place to the other.

They were everywhere.

I started out near the edge of the rink, close to the rail, so I’d have something to grab onto if I fell. Dear Hubby hopped on the ice and rushed right past. He’d check on me every few minutes, see how I was adjusting, and then take off again.

And since this was only the second time in my life I’ve ever ice skated, I thought I did pretty well.

We managed to stay on the ice for roughly an hour as swarms and swarms of kids whirled around us.

The biggest obstacles were the speed skaters who insisted on darting in and out of everybody at warp speed, and when they fell, they took entire packs of skaters down with them.

Then there were the clusters of pre- and early- teenage girls who stood in the middle of the traffic flow gossiping and staring at boys, making it hazardous to get around them.

And last there were the smaller skaters, old enough to be on the ice without their parents (they sat in the bleachers to watch), but still not experienced enough to move at the median pace, and they fell all too frequently. I feared running over these little ones several times, and had to constantly be on guard to avoid hitting them.

By the end of the night I was tired and ready to go.

So overall, I gave this date a rating of: B-.

The food was decent, but not superb.

The trek into “the hood” looking for the roller-skating rink was terrifying, but I was also disappointed because I really did want to roller-skate.

The ice skating was fun and I truly enjoyed it, but it was way too crowded. Hubby and I couldn’t skate hand-in-hand more than a few seconds without fear of being run down or clothes-lining a kid trying to zip between us.

Because of the over-crowding, we left earlier than I anticipated, but didn’t have anyplace else we wanted to go. And to be honest, I was flat worn out and ready for bed so the night ended early.

It was great spending time alone with my husband, and we had fun, but it wasn’t what I would call typically “romantic”.

However, I believe having fun together is a key component of a happy marriage. And I know we’ll be trying to do more fun dates together when we can.

Later.