Date Night with ack

I wasn't kidding when I wrote that I was dragged out of the house for date night, last night.

I also wasn't kidding when I wrote that I would have rather stayed home - 20 feet from my sleeping children, while sipping a glass of wine and updating my blog.

Kinda like what I'm doing right now. But, instead of sipping wine, I'm sipping tea. Because it's Sunday night and I have a plane to catch early tomorrow morning.

When family come to visit, they want nothing more than to babysit so that we can have a much needed "break." So since we have family in town... I felt compelled to participate in the obligatory date night.

Charlie's all for date night. But me... not so much.

I don't know what my hang-up is. I suppose that since motherhood, I've turned in to a recluse who is scared senseless something is going to happen to the two of us, while we are out "painting the town" and we'll leave behind three orphans that rejoices in the simple pleasure of being home.

Besides, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving before the kids were securely in bed. Tasking someone who just arrived on the *scene* with the full responsibility of feeding, washing and getting three toddlers dressed and corralled in to their cribs is not an easy task. It's not that I don't trust my mother could handle this responsibility... I'm certain she could. But, it's a lot of work and I'm a control freak when it comes to our babies .

Bottomline, once the kids are in their cribs, I'm totally zonked and have barely enough energy to lay on the floor and watch the ceiling fan go 'round and 'round. The last thing I want to do is get all fancy and go out on a date. This attitude is both pathetic and probably terribly unhealthy in a marital way. This attitude might eventually land me in counseling.

"Why don't you want to go out on a date with your husband?"

"Because after a full day with my incredible kids, I'd much prefer to lay on the floor and watch the ceiling fan go 'round and 'round than spend a bunch of money on a dinner that we could prepare better than a restaurant - and spend another $25.00 dollars on a movie that we could rent for $3.00 in two months. Is that wrong? Are you telling me there's something wrong with that??!"

It was obvious that I was waffling last night. Charlie must have asked me 30 times "So... what do you want to do tonight?" And I'd respond "I dunno. Whadda you wanna do?"

To which he'd honestly reply "I'd like to go out for a nice dinner and then go see a movie." And to which I'd respond "Oh. I dunno."

As the kids bed time drew closer - I could tell Charlie was getting a little impatient and he wasn't going to let this opportunity of free babysitting, by a more than capable adult, pass him by.

"JEN. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO TONIGHT? WE ARE GOING OUT."

Ignoring the situation didn't help.

The next thing I know, the kids are in bed - Charlie is showered and dressed - and glowering at me. So, I begrudgingly put on some earrings freshened up and was dragged out the front door. We then sat in our car, in the driveway, for several more minutes while Charlie asked yet again "What do you want to do?"

I finally came clean. "I'd like to go in the house, sip wine and update my blog. But at the risk of having my suggestion shot down - I'll leave it up to you."

We decided that at that point, it was too late to go have dinner AND see a movie, so we drove over to a local sushi bar. In all honesty, we didn't know where we were going until the car just arrived in the parking lot of this establishment and we looked at each other and said "I guess this'll do."

I'm not a huge raw fish fan, but if it's served with enough sake rice and soy sauce I can tolerate it. In small quantities.

As we sat down at the bar, Charlie pulled out a menu and started ordering... something raw fish Hawaiian sounding, and something that I think was called "Rainbow Roll" which means it was a rainbow of raw fish. He also ordered a few egg rolls, for me. Our egg rolls no sooner arrived than a guy comes walking in to the restaurant, through the kitchen (which was behind the sushi bar) carrying a big, clear plastic bag. In that big, clear plastic bag was a fish.

A big, dead, intact fish.

He flopped the bag down on the counter, 16-inches from my plate and the pleasant little egg roll - tore open the bag - and rolled the big, dead, intact fish out on the counter.

Sixteen.Inches.From.My.Plate.

Just then, a hugely excited sushi chef came over wielding a monster sized knife and cut out the fish's guts with one hand while his other hand had a secure grip on the fish's head, poking out it's eyeballs with his fingers, he then proceeded to chop off it's head and tail (after a horrible POPPING sound when the backbone broke), slice away the skin and dice it in to a hundred small pieces filleted this huge fish, on the spot.

Charlie laughed and said "Wow! Look at this, dinner and a show!" While I looked around for our waitress and mumbled "Could I have some more sake please and a bucket in which to vomit?! Make it quick!!"

The guy that had brought the fish in to the restaurant, than came around the other side of the sushi bar and sat in the chair next to Charlie. As he sat there sipping his beer, we learned a lot about our new dinner companion. It turns out this guy's name is "Jack". He is a chemist involved in the pharmaceutical industry developing medication for cancer research. More specifically, prostrate cancer research. He just returned from a 11-day trip to the Bahamas on Wednesday and left Thursday morning for a 2-day fishing trip to Mexico. The dead fish on the counter being hacked up (a 20-pound yellowtail, it turns out), was one of the 30+ fish that he'd caught. His wedding anniversary was on Friday, he has two daughters and a ski boat he rarely uses. (The only reason he was able to miss his anniversary and go on the fishing trip, was because he had just returned from the 11-day trip with his wife to the Bahamas. Believe you me, that was the first question I asked.)

While we sat there chatting it up with Jack, the sushi chef whipped out seared yellow tail steaks; yellow tail sushi rolls; and yellow tail ceviche ... all of which Jack generously shared with Charlie and I.

For me, the not-so-nuts-over-raw-fish kind of person that I am ... this stuff tasted pretty darn good. Especially once my stomach calmed down after watching the fish that I was eating, being diced up before my very eyes.

Question: What did this experience teach me?

Answer: SAKE IS MAGIC.

The next question I asked (after how in the world his wife let him miss their 19-year wedding anniversary), was if he received any kind of discount for bringing his own fish to a sushi restaurant.

As it turns out, Jack has a pretty good relationship with this restaurant and brings them a boat load (no pun intended) of fish after each of his monthly fishing adventures. It sounds like a good bargain. He brings them fresh fish, they fillet it and feed him dinner... and load him up with as much beer as he wants.

I believe that this was the second - maybe third - obligatory date night Charlie and I have had since the babies were born. All of the date nights have been similar in their obligatory nature (family is in town and they were able to convince us to go out for an evening), but none of the previous date nights will be quite as memorable as this one.

I can update my blog and sip wine any old time. But how often does my mom get to stay home with our three sleeping children, watch the Princess Bride with her 82-year old fiance (Jim corrected me... he is 82, not 83), while Charlie and I sip sake with our new friend, ack the fisherman and dine on a freshly caught yellow-tail. I surprised myself - and Charlie even moreso, by having a fun time. I even made the promise that we need to do this again... soon. (At least next time family is in town. I'm definitely not ready to trust our precious children to someone who isn't my mother. Or sister.)

Our new friend's name isn't ack. But, unfortunately, I ust spilled the maority of tea on our keyboard as I was about to type his name, and the title to this post. Now my "insert missing letter here" is completely shot. It's only appropriate I lost that letter, considering I made an "ACK!" sound when I saw what was happening to the fish.

Hopefully, my keyboard will dry out during my 5-day business trip because I might not have the opportunity to update our blog with my laptop while I am away. These meetings can be quite busy.

Doesn't it figure, though. I had a really good oke to tell about umping aquars.