Tonight has been in the works for quite some time, at least in my mind.
Months ago when I started planning it I had no idea if we would be dating at the time or if I was just going to be a super nice guy and have this special evening out for her birthday and hope it was properly appreciated.
However, as tends to happen with me, things have worked out wonderfully and tonight was an amazing date night.
She knew that I was going to be taking her out but had no idea where. She attempted to get some information out of me to no avail and a few of her friends also asked me a question or two which I promptly ignored. The secret was kept safe and all she knew was that it was going to be a damned fine meal and I was going to be dressed up all pretty and shit.
I showed up to her place a few hours early so that I could help the kid with his homework and what not. I dressed like my normal bum self but brought a change of clothes along with me. I made sure to wear a few things that would really give her pause. Like semi dress pants with black shoes and white socks... man does she really really hate the white socks lol :)
I also wore a T-shirt when I know she would rather I dress with a button down shirt with a color because they look nicer. Whatever, once it became time I jumped into the bathroom and Superman'd myself into pimp mode and was looking mighty fine if I do say so myself.
The great part was she came out of her room with her hair done up, a minor amount of make-up on and dressed in a gorgeous dress and looking beautiful. I knew this evening was going to be wonderful.
After dropping the kid off at her parents house so they could baby sit for a few hours she started to take in the other big thing that I did to make the evening nice for her - I got my car detailed.
Inside and out.
Her first comment was that it looked like a completely different car (from the outside) because the cleaning actually changed the cars color a bit.
Now, this is where I tell you all that this is a 2005 car that I bought in January of 2006 and I have NEVER once washed it. I know that this is probably sacrilegious to some but whatever. When I lived in PA I relied on the rain and snow to take off the dirt. Here in Vegas I figure'd that if I washed it then a dust storm would blow through 20 minutes later to just dirty the thing back up again. Whatever, my bad.
Today was different though, I was going the whole 9 yards to impress. My car was cleaned and hand-waxed on the outside and on the inside it was swept, shampooed and every surface was wiped down to make it look new again. No garbage anywhere, the floors are clean and the seats look nearly new. Quite honestly the damned thing impressed the shit out of me. I really like it and think I'm probably going to get this done once per year (or 6 months depending on how I feel). It really had a new car feel about it all day long and while I was impressed it was her reaction that really sealed the deal. Huge smile and surprise and big brownie points for the grrouch.
Once we got to the restaurant we were greeted and she was promptly handed a beautiful long stemmed rose as we were headed to our seats. I ordered a 10 oz Filet and she ordered the Queen Mary's lobster or something like that.
My menu item had a price listed under it, her menu item had Market Price listed under it which gave me a minor stroke but I did my best to ignore it figuring the damage couldn't have been too bad, right?
After our orders were place we had a gentleman with a cart come over to us and had toss our salads right in front of us giving us full choice of what to put in it. She had a whole bunch of random stuff that sounded disgusting like Tomatoes and Onions and I stuck to the simple pleasures in life like cheese, shrimp, dressing and more cheese. Either way, it was divine and tasty at that.
The main course showed up and my 10 oz steak that I was thinking was going to be entirely too small looked absolutely huge. It's as if they found a way to make it appear bigger than it should have been.
Dinner was amazing and I actually couldn't finish my whole plate between the steak, potatoes and fresh vegetables. After that they brought out the desert which was Chocolate covered Strawberries, Apricots and Fig. 2 of the 3 were delicious and the last one was just iffy to me, however the lady liked the fig so I guess it served it's purpose.
After that while waiting for the check they surprised us by bringing out a free birthday desert for the lady which was a chocolate mousse which was heavenly. As full as we both were we continued to stuff it into our mouths until it was completely gone because it just tasted that good.
The entire night was a smashing success.
Now I have to start planning on how to top it next year as I don't think a meal at Denny's is going to cut it for her next birthday!