The Evolution of Date Night

I didn't really date in high school; partially because I wasn't allowed to, partially because I was "one of the guys" and it didn't occur to me that I was "datable."

Fast forward to dating as an adult (since I lack dating as a teen).

Early in the budding relationship, the "honeymoon" stage, is when Date Night consists of nice dinners, movies, pleasant walks, people watching in the mall before or after the movie. After all, we want to impress/be impressed by the person we are with.

Once a relationship is officially established, both parties decide they are happy with only that one person and embrace the monogamy. Spend a little more time together. See each other more frequently. Date Night now is a movie after work, or a nice dinner, or a dollar show with a quick meal before. Less romance, but still quality time together with each other.

Then there is the point in the relationship where you are either over all the time, or living together already. All habits, good and bad, are now known by the other person. It is more practical to stay in and cook because there are mutual goals being saved for. This is when Date Night becomes trying a new burger place in the area, followed by a trip to Costco and Jewel for groceries.

But you know what? The evolution of Date Night is a nice thing. It's comfy. It is more about appreciating the person you are with and enjoying the mundane tasks with someone you truly care about. So I am definitely alright with our grocery store dates, it means that I don't have to do these things alone, because I have someone who wants to be there with me for the day to day things.

Magic foods

"Magic foods" is the greatest thing ever.

What, pray tell, is "magic foods" you ask? It is that phenomenon where you come home after a long day and there is dinner waiting for you, all wrapped up and ready to eat. 

You never realize how awesome it is until you don't have it any more. Having moved out of home for the third time now, I think I miss it even more because it is officially a thing of the past. I don't foresee myself moving back home (again) where the magic foods is located.

Part of the problem is I have minimal desire to actually cook for myself. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to cook and bake, but when doing do so for one, it's not the same. I like to share food, enjoy the flavors, the conversation, the experience. Otherwise, cereal, popcorn or noodles are completely acceptable when by myself.

This evening an easy meal won out over cereal: tacos. Ground chuck, seasonings, avocado, mango pear salsa and white corn tortillas. Fairly easy and extra delicious.

Tomorrow I have left over "Creamy" Lasagna from last night when Tony was here. Almost qualifies as Magic Foods, except I prepared it myself and have to reheat it myself.

Moment of silence for the loss of Magic Foods

Patience is a virtue

I don't think we emphasize patience enough to kids. Instant gratification is a delusion that we shouldn't encourage.

Granted, I don't have kids, so no one chase me down for that.

But really, this condo has been the ultimate test in patience. Not going to lie, I definitely took on more than I originally wanted to and feel incredibly overwhelmed. I have had my vision for this place since I first walked in and had the "OMG I LOVE IT!! Everything has to go." moment; that has never been the problem. The problem is waiting for everything to get done. Eventually. Not on my desired time frame. *insert twitchy, control issues here*

It has come a long way in the last 6 weeks though. My floors are done. The trim is almost done. The walls are technically done, if you ignore all the touching up I have to do because of a shit contractor. I have all my furniture. One of my two bathrooms is done, for the most part. But I am still living in my condo like it is a studio apartment with boxes of stuff everywhere. Why you ask? Mainly because I have a kitchen with no counters. We are going on the fourth time around for ordering them because they were either damaged or the wrong dimensions. There is also the matter of the one counter that is completely MIA. Frustrating is an understatement. So the second bedroom is storage. The master bedroom has construction stuff for the unfinished projects. There are "kitchen" boxes in my front room, along with broke counter tops. It's dusty chaos. So much dust. So much chaos. Did I mention the dust everywhere?

This project has been the ultimate test in patience.

So since all my patience is wrapped up in my condo, this means I have little left to allocate elsewhere. Just giving a friendly heads up.