You read that accurately. DateLife. Not to be confused with Date Night, or maybe, Night Life. DateLife. Some may ask, “how’s your dating life?” Not the same. Let me explain.
A couple weeks ago, my sweet, sweet hubby @MikeRaymond had planned a wonderful night away for the two of us. Long overdue. We have been running DEAD SPRINTS since the holidays. We needed to see each others eyeballs and spend time with the person we are still wild about (most days!) and would marry over and over again. (ENOUGH with the gushing, already, I know, I get it…on with the story.)
Mike mentions we’re going to a great restaurant that we love but neither of us have been to in ages. I casually ask Saturday morning, “should we get a reservation?” Him, “Nah, I checked their reservation options, they were really wide open. Worst case, we’ll belly up at the bar, that is always so fun!” Okay, let me not take on additional responsibilities and overthink or worry, you got this, bro.
We head out and Mike takes us to this supercute, kinda swanky but cozy hotel in downtown Stillwater, MN. (The Crosby Hotel, shout out to this place, newly remodeled, great staff, nestled in a fun little spot. #notanad) We walk in and notice there is a great restaurant inside the hotel (literally, the hotel lobby and this restaurant are largely in a shared space, totally fun!). We walk up to the desk to check in and Mike says, “Hello! I have a reservation for a room tonight under Mike Raymond.” Super nice young man begins to type away on his computer. A minute later, he’s still typing. Still typing, like, he’s the one writing this blog. Then, to add to his literary work on those keys, he starts to show a clearly confused facial expression. He looks up and says “You do appear to have a reservation, but it’s not until APRIL 9th, sir.”
I giggle. Yes. Hilarious. Love this. Mike looks a teeny thrown off . I look at Mike and say “all good, we’ll figure it out and still have fun!”
Conversation with Mike and Hotel Guy runs like this:
Mike, “Huh, okay, well – do you have ANY rooms available?” Hotel guy, “We do, it’s our King-size-something-or-other.” Mike, “Okay, sounds good! Let’s book it!” Hotel guy, “It’s going to be XXX, is that okay?” (It’s honestly some dollar amount, $200? I don’t remember, I’m dying of laughter at this point.) To which Mike replies, “Sounds good, buddy. You could have said $500 and, standing here with m’lady, ready for a night away, and I would have said yes to anything. You might have wanted to think about saying there were some special add-ons for yourself you needed to charge me for!”
We head to our room, drop our bags, relax for a hot minute and start to get ready to head to dinner. We decide we’d leave around 6, take an Uber. Super simple.
We walk out to the hotel lobby and notice that the lobby/restaurant crowd has EXPLODED. Standing room only. Kinda crowded, frankly. It’s impressive. Clearly, it must be a fun spot, but we’re still gonna head to our little honey hole.
So, super simple Uber, or, not. As it turns out, Uber, not a big thing there in downtown Stillwater. To be fair, downtown Stillwater IS considered a little hot spot – though, we were thinking that was more a summertime thing. And ‘downtown’ isn’t real big, so mostly, people walk. But, as it turns out, nope, winter draws the people in, too (as evidence starts to show itself in this little restaurant/hotel lobby we’re standing around in). So, we are likely the only people leaving downtown to head over to a little spot about 15 minutes away. FINE, no Uber. Turns out, no taxis at this point either. Aww come on.
We get the truck and we head out. It’s 630ish and I’m starting to get HANGRY. We roll up to the street the restaurant is on. There is NO parking within a 2 block radius. I start to feel the reservation regret creep up a little bit, but, we press on. Mike drops me off, I wander in. NO reservation availability until 8pm. I walk through the bar (you know, plan B, “Kim, we’ll belly up to the bar!”) and like a TOTAL CREEP, I eyeball everyone and their plate, trying to determine are they ‘close to being done?’. Not a chance. Except for one couple who was just wrapping it up, however, I was getting very clear signals from another couple that had already “done their time” swirling like vultures, before I got there to do it myself. Well done, couple, well done.
I walk back out, jump in the truck. We start solutioning. Looking at other options online, I call, and get the standard (as I hear the background noise level that was similar to the hotel restaurant/lobby…ugh) “no reservations until 8pm”. We drive around, we’re texting some friends that know the area. It’s now call it after 7PMish. We finally decide – to heck with it, let’s just go back to our dang hotel, kick off all these winter duds, grab a cocktail and just wait our turn to eat at the crazy busy restaurant there.
Mike drops me back off. I spy one of my favorite sweets place on the planet, Candyland. I score their Chicago Mix (the best on the planet!!!) for myself, some gummy bears for Mike and drop them into my fancy purse (fancy: there is no remnant of snacks for the kids, hand wipes, kleenex, charging cords for some device…you get it. Fancy!!!) and inside I go to find the hubby. We order cocktails and eat Candyland food until they tell us our table is ready. As per usual, Mike has made friends in the lobby/bar area and we have a blast during our dinner with our server who is a former-comedian-turned-some-kind-of-science-student (WAH?) at the U of M.
All that to story to say, datelife. Dates are really just really awesome, intentional time, with your spouse, partner, friends, kids…they need not be perfectly scripted and executed flawlessly. In fact, I advise against this. You’ll miss the fun. You’ll miss the conversation. You’ll miss the views. You’ll miss the purpose. To spend time, focused on people you love, that you keep choosing, over and over in life. If your date plan falls apart, and you end up eating popcorn out of your purse and sipping on a cocktail in a crowded hotel/restaurant lounge, laughing and creating new memories and filling up your love buckets, or whatever the evening creates for of all your ‘feels’, then my friend, you, too, have a very blessed, datelife. That is dating, that is life.
And also, go try out MatchStick, it’s the amazing restaurant in the hotel.
#noneofthisisanad #wespentallourownmoneynodiscounts