Monday Smiles – 10/27/2014

For our almost fifty years together … including 46 years of marriage … Saturday Night has been Date Night.    I consider weekly Date Nights as one of the secrets to a long marriage and therefore, to a degree, sacrosanct.  Oh, there are exceptions.  One of us doesn’t feel well.  Family emrgencies.  Special occasions.  Taking care of the grandkids.   Fortunately, in Older Eyes Big Book of Rules for a Long Marriage, Make-up Saturday Night Date Nights are allowed on any day of the week.   So, I can say with assurance, we’ve had about 2,500 Date NIghts in our years together.   This year, for some reason my USC Trojans Football Team has been playing in prime time on Saturday NIght, so we’ve been trading Saturday Date Nights for Sunday so I can watch.   However, I’m considering revising Older Eyes’ Big Book of Rules to disallow swapping of Date Nights for football, instead allowing taping of the games … to be watched Sunday, IF WE WIN.   That’s because this year’s edition of the mighty Trojans has a penchant for losing games in the final seconds which leaves Older Eyes gasping for breath and unable to get to sleep later on when he goes to bed.   OK, the gasping for breath part is an exaggeration.  Cursing loudly is closer to the truth.  Last night, we lost with eight seconds left to Utah (Utah! Really? Gasp! Cuss!).   OK, if you’re here for Monday Smiles, stick around … I’ll skip the gory details and move on to Sunday.

Sometimes, a Date is just perfect.  It may be related to what we do on our date.  Sometimes Muri and I have been spinning in separate orbits and in the middle of a date we find ourselves in sync again.  Sometimes we’ve been busy/tired/stressed and our dates play out by rote not note.  Or is it by note not rote?  I never get that right.**  Anyway, after distracted dates we’re ready to be US again. Cabesh?  Sunday was like that.   We went to Season 52 Restaurant in Costa Mesa for dinner. Seasons 52 advertises itself as a fresh grill and wine bar that invites guests to discover the sensational flavors of a seasonally inspired menu and award winning international wine list in a casually sophisticated adult ambiance.  The food is indeed excellent but it that adult ambience we enjoy.   In an age where parents bring gaggles of screaming kids to even the most expensive of restaurants, Seasons 52 manages to feel like the kind of nice restaurants Muri and I enjoyed when we were first married. Intimate. Romantic. Attentive service without a sningle, How is everything tasting to you two tonight? We had a tomato and warm mozzarella salad and lobster flatbread as an appetizer.  Muri had rack of lamb and I had filet mignon, all of it lovely and at a leisurely, romantic dinner pace.   With great service by the way.

After dinner, we walked across the street to the South Coast Repertory Company to see the new play by Theresa Rebeck, Zealot, which takes place in Mecca, Saudi Arabia during the annual Muslim pilgrimage, the Haj.   A group of Muslim women remove their head scarves (hijab) as a protest and are brutally attacked for doing so.  A single member of the group who did not remove her hijab in order to be a witness to what happened turns up at the British Consulate where an American Under-Secretary of State has arrived without notice.    When she asks for asylum as Saudi guards surround the consulate and a Saudi official demands that the British consulate turns her over to the police, we get an interesting view of the intricacies of diplomacy between very different cultures and what nations (and individuals) will … and won’t … do in the name of human rights.   It was the kind of drama I enjoy, with humorous dialog between the players overlaid on the intensity of the situation.  Highly recommended.

So, last minute football losses be damned.  It was a great Date Night with good food, great theater and of course, the best of company.  It’s Monday.  I’m smiling.

** OK, in learning in music, rote means learning b Koiralay memorizing without understanding, while note learning requires not just reading the notes but understanding the music. So I think having our dates play out by rote would mean we’re just going through the motions. Which is what I meant.

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Tags: Date Night, love and marriage, restaurants, smiles, theater

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