Today, we celebrate our 18th anniversary. That’s an entire childhood’s worth of marital bliss. If our marriage was a child, it would now be graduating from high school and preparing to enter college. It could vote. It could hold a driver’s license. In some states, our marriage could legally drink, and in a perplexing train of thought, our marriage could actually get…um…married.
Don’t worry. I’m not going there.
We decided to treat ourselves to a night out, just the two of us. Despite the fact that we’ve had a LOT of together time over the past year, most of it has not been what either one of us would consider “quality time.” Something about the stress of unemployment, lack of income, inability to get decent health insurance, and the pressure of starting your own company during the “worst economy since the Great Depression” kind of gets in the way of that. But with Grandma now living close by and willing to provide free babysitting almost at the drop of a hat, we decided to take advantage (after culling through our coupons, of course).
We found a coupon for a neat little bistro just down the road from Grandma’s house and decided to try it out. And boy, are we glad we did. Bonnie Ruth’s turned out to be a delightful surprise. We enjoyed an intimate dinner with the place almost to ourselves (not counting the couple who brought their very fussy baby with them to a swanky french bistro…). And when we told the waitress it was our anniversary, we received the royal treatment:
– complimentary glass of champagne for each of us, to toast our many wonderful years together
– free dessert of choice for each of us, which allowed me to enjoy a slice of Italian Cream cake – our wedding cake – guilt free
– free cupcake for each of us, wrapped in a to-go box, to ensure that we remain fat, happy and in love.
And I’d say it worked, because after 18 years we’re still “happy together.”
