The
thrilling life of parents sans baby
18 April, 2000
Debbie rang me this afternoon, "Hey, how's things?"
"Pretty good, just picking up the car from its check-up." And we talked for a while.
"So, whatcha cooking me for dinner?"
I thought quickly. "Well, we could go out for dinner, Matty's still at Mums."
"Oooohhhhhh yeah. Hey, we could even go to the movies tonight."
We are so unused to freedom-from-child, we didn't even think about doing something different like dinner and the movies. Must be like setting the prisoner free who doesn't comprehend he can just walk away.
So I called Deb later and we made plans.
"Ok, so say I pick you up at 6.30pm, we can go eat at Chevy's (Amercian-themed steak and burger place — good for teenagers on a date, parents taking their kids out to eat, and, uhhh, us) and see a movie after that. Looks like the choices are, American Beauty, Erin Brockovich, or Boy's don't cry."
"What's American Beauty about?"
"Dysfunctional family, it won a bunch of Oscars. Stars Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning."
"Oh. What's Erin Brockovich about?"
"Julia Roberts. Supposed to be quite good."
"With Julia Roberts?"
"Yeah, well … "
"What's Boy's don't cry about?"
"That girl who pretended to be a boy. There was that show on it on Sunday night we didn't watch."
"Oh. Let's see American Beauty then."
And that the plan. Dinner, then movie at 8.30pm. Until about halfway through dinner.
Debbie: *yawn*
Mike: *yawn*
Debbie: *yawn*
Mike: *yawn*
"Do you really want to see the movie?" *yawn*
*yawn* "Well, it's not that I don't want to see it, but … "
"Actually, I'd love to be curled up in bed reading my new Harry Potter book."
I tried a forlorn attempt. "Well, the book will still be there tomorrow, but we won't get the chance to see a movie for a while."
Debbie: *yawn*
Mike: *yawn*
"Let's just pay and go home."
"Yeah"
So we did. And we are. And *yawn* I'm off to bed.
Goodnight.