An Unusual Date (Rated PG-13)

Recently Carl & I went out on a date. We planned to go to an early movie, then have supper--at a restaurant where someone would wait on us, keep our drinks filled & clean up the mess: HEAVEN! We watched Bourne Ultimatum, a movie based on a novel by one of my favorite authors, Robert Ludlum; and pigged out on popcorn and nachos. Completely stuffed with popcorn and junk food after the movie, we opted to skip the restaurant supper, but we didn't want to waste our babysitter time by going home. What to do in Pittsburg, KS on a Tuesday night???


Carl and I celebrated our fourteenth wedding anniversary this past August. We stopped trying to impress each other before the turn of the century...for the most part. Frankly, I'm thankful for that ease & comfort...at least most of the time. This comfort allowed us to trade our restaurant ambiance for Wendy's take-out in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Can you say redneck? That decision resulted in more entertainment than we banked on.


Immediately upon pulling into our front-row, handicap parking space (ah, the benefits of chronic illness), we witnessed a police officer handling a hit-and-run. When that resolved, we turned our attention to the people coming & going, half of whom were talking on cell phones or blue tooths. What did we do prior to cell phones? I watched one couple pull up in a minivan with their two-year-old daughter. Sporting his blue tooth, "he" stood back smoking his cigarette while "she" procured a cart, loaded the child into it and pushed the child into Wal-Mart. The reverse occurred when they returned from their shopping, mom pushing the cart full of kid and sacks of stuff. Mom unloaded the stuff, buckled the kid into the car seat and put the shopping cart away. Dad drove them off. What a man.

I looked over at Carl with new appreciation.


Next is the PG-13 part of today's entry:


We watched as an elderly woman pulled into the handicap parking space directly in front of us with her 80- or 90-something husband. She walked into Wal-Mart while he waited in the car. About ten minutes passed while we crunched our salads and watched people come and go. The elderly man then exited his car, where he stood in our direct line of sight with his car door open and commenced babystepping in a semi-circle and fumbling with the front of his clothing. This continued for about five minutes, which doesn't sound like much, but really is when one is trying to watch someone without appearing as if she is. Finally, the gentleman...um...how do I say this...SHOULD I say this... relieved himself. Right there in front of us, with his back to us of course.


What a date. We got more than we bargained for, but all-in-all we enjoyed ourselves.


This reminds me of my FIRST date with Carl...well, sort of. We met one summer day when I visited my brother where he worked for Carl in Wichita. Carl later asked me out--to the boat races being held on the Arkansas River in Wichita that weekend. I agreed (obviously) and remember being semi-impressed that he had invited me to do something other than dinner and a movie.

Life has been interesting ever since.