this is the now

last night was date night in wake forest. 

we were worried that our baby girl dog, iliana, was going to thwart our date night plans as she presented with some strange happenings around 1:30 in the afternoon.  she had me worried and i scheduled a vet appointment for 4:15.  i was worried we would not get out of the place until after 7.  they can take a very long time.  however, we got there a few minutes early and by 4:20 we had a diagnosis.  seems she had severely impacted glands.  we get their glands expressed every 4 weeks, but the doc said we may have to now go to every 2 weeks.  crisis averted!  iliana was much better, and we were on our way back home for date night!

every second friday is art after hours in our small town.  all of the artists come out to show off their paintings, photography, musical skills, and all of the stores stay open late for some shopping (just in case that is how you express yourself). 

we had to go to this month's AAH because my all time favorite local musician was in town for a show at the local coffee shop.  arielle bryant was back in town to grace everyone with the ethereal sounds of her latest hits, and some of our old favorites.  Arielle Bryant  she did not disappoint.  she is so raw, so true, so real, and makes me remember that whatever you feel, you need to get it out. 

for a while i've been bottling things up, and that is just not healthy to do.  her song "mother, mother nature" really spoke to me last night.  the first verse (and a bit of the next) says: 

"been traveling long
been traveling wide
it's been long and lonely sometimes
but i keep my eyes on the prize
fight the good fight
but mother, mother nature
won't you please fill me in
i'm so tired of waiting for my life to begin
...
keep wanting things i haven't got"

sometimes if a song hits me all i just want to do is cry, but this time i was just happy knowing that i've rounded the corner with recognizing i need to focus on the now, while still working towards the goal.  we jammed out a bit and talked about how old we felt.  we were in a coffee shop surrounded by people that we could be the parents of.  everyone was about 16, and they were all having so much fun.  reminded us both what it was like to be a silly teenager, and how parent-like we really are now.  to me, this was a good thing.

after the show we headed to a local restaurant for some dinner.  husband picked a seafood restaurant named "shuckers" and we feasted on some oysters, and both had a smattering of seafood on our dinner plates.  we had a great conversation and so enjoyed the quiet (although music filled night) hanging out together.

date:  no babysitter required

as an aside - husband has a long time joke about red velvet cake.  he told me over a year ago that it was my mom's favorite cake.  i thought he was dead serious, so i had to call her and ask, and she had no clue what he was talking about.  so, its been a huge joke ever since then.  well, turns out that he has never even had red velvet cake.  while i was in tx visiting a goody good friend last october i saw it on the menu and had to order it, just out of principal for the joke to continue.  so, last night they had red velvet cake at the coffee shop and will just had to have a piece.  he declared that it did indeed taste like chocolate.

oh yeah!  got my mitts on some red velvet cake!