Over the years, our joking about "the curse" actually began to make us question if it was a reality. Either it's a fluke that the worst behaved human beings seem to gravitate towards us, or it's simply just true. Don't believe me? Go to a movie with us.
So this takes us to last night. Our Anniversary dinner. It's weeks past our actual Anniversary, but it was the first night of freedom from activities, so we jumped on it...and oh how excited we were.
Mom and Dad had the kids, Adam and I were going to one of the fanciest restaurants in town and I even got to wear high heels.
The perfect trifecta.
The smell of gloriously juicy steaks greeted us as we entered and I don't think my feet touched the ground as we were taken to our quaint table for two. The little candlelit one in the corner nudged in between a wedding party of about 25 with muuuch to laugh and drink about and the other table with only 8 from a different country. An impressively loud, different country.
Smiling, Adam and I squeezed our hands together nonverbally agreeing to make the best of it. It didn't matter if we couldn't hear each other speak, all we needed was the language of love, right?
It had been so long since we've gone on a date, we'd forgotten how fun the curse could be, however.
The more the wedding party partook, the less they worried about the seven kids ranging from I'd say the ages of 4 to 12 they pushed aside at the end of their table so they wouldn't bother them. They, instead, were about an arms length away from us and the kids were perfectly aware of the fact that none of their parents were watching them. Screaming, laughing, under the table, over the table. One of the boys in a blue shirt was so out of control, I think he may have had a little too much to drink himself. Around the time our salads arrived was when he had his shoes off, smacking them together and taunting the other kids with them as they all howled.
Foreign country table became louder and louder and blue shirt and his posse were raising the roof.
Adam and I were trapped in our own personal hell, wondering if take out and a movie at home would've been a better bet.
No.
We never get to do this. We're going to focus only on each other and laugh it off, even if blue shirt is about to take his clothes off and streak the restaurant.
The waiter politely brought some bread, stating our dinner would arrive shortly.
A little while turned into a long while, and we wondered if it was all just a funny joke. Watching mouthwatering meal after meal traverse the restaurant floor to different tables as we were wedged between two mosh pits, we began to feel hopeless.
One meal. Just one, quiet, romantic meal without chicken nuggets or our own wild children is all we had hoped for.
Then, it happened.
For whatever reason, foreign country table began to stand and hug as they gathered their things. Maybe it acted as a subliminal message to the wedding party table or maybe it was simply because the kids were running laps now, but THEY began to stand as well.
Birds began to sing and the tension I didn't even realize I was holding began to melt away. Just like that, as though God Himself decided to smile upon us, the gates of Heaven opened and our fabulous server magically appeared with two plates of decadent bliss.
Peace. Love and meat.
Our server returned with an adorable miniature pound cake and a wink, smiling that our anniversary meal had been "taken care of".
Wait. WHAT?
We can hope our curse has been broken once and for all, but regardless, I know one thing for sure.
In the midst of the chaos, mind numbing loudness and stress of our everyday lives, there is a calm that can be found. Faith, family and friends will get you though the flying shoes of life with the promise of better days of pure and utter deliciousness to follow.
Thank You, Mom and Dad and Happy 17th to the Love of my Life. Next year we're staying in. : ) XO