The Best Date

Matt's aunt kindly came up to stay with the kids and watch them last night so that I could surprise him with a date for his birthday.  The kids got to have tea parties and play games with their Auntie, and we stayed in a nearby hotel.  (I really did completely surprise him, by the way!)

It was the best date we've had in a long time.

I didn't know it would be that way.  Especially after we had a rough few days of hurt feelings and disagreement and had just managed to make up with one another the night before.

We had a nice dinner with just enough time to check into our hotel before our movie showtime.  There was a bit of a line at the front desk of our hotel.  Matt dropped me off to get us checked in and I asked him to park and come in and wait with me (because it looked like it was going to be awhile).  So I got into line (as the 4th guest) and stood behind a young businessman.  Stuck to the back of his yellow shirt was a blue string, and therefore, a conundrum.

I immediately turned to Facebook (on my phone) to post this dilemma and ask for feedback as to what to do.  (Later I discovered that somehow I did not submit this status update and it was lost and never posted.)  So Matt walks in as I was finishing this post on my phone and takes a seat in one of the lobby chairs.  I put my phone away and get back to the matter at hand:  the blue string.

I stare it down.  I concentrate.  I debate.  You see, this young man is nicely dressed; his pants are ironed.  He clearly has a business meeting.  But he doesn't know that there is a blue string stuck to his back!  (Picture a bunched up little half-fuzzy blue string that takes up about the space of a dime on his back.)  So I brace myself and go for a trial run of a quick grab.

"Shilo."

I look over to my husband in his lobby chair about five feet away.  He is shaking his head and mouthing a silent "no".

And we begin a silent exchange.  Because I cannot help my wandering focus... that blue string!  I would be doing this man such a favor if I could just remove it for him.  And I can't just tap him on the shoulder and say, "Excuse me but you have a blue string on the back of your shirt, can I remove it for you?"  No--that would be crazy!  Maybe if it was like a "kick me" sign or something, but I can't say that about this blue string.

But it should not be there.  So I can't help the setting of my jaw, the narrowing of my eye, the contemplation of how I could best remove it.  I mean, seriously, most likely he wouldn't even feel me grab it.  But my husband is repeatedly stopping me.

I stand behind this man, having a silent/whisper conversation back and forth with my sitting husband.  Surely this man hears the occasional whisper, so every once in awhile I say some random sentence out loud to call less attention to ourselves.  (Because nothing calls less attention than: whisper, whisper, whisper, "I should put that on Facebook.", whisper, whisper, whisper--remember, we're sort of talking across the lobby.)  A few times, Matt is like, "Shilo, come here for second."  So I walk over, lean over his chair, and he whispers to me not to touch that man and I nonchalantly pretend that I'm showing him my cell phone as he argues his case.

At one point, Matt shakes his head and mouths to me the dire threat that he will expose me if I try to do it.  So if I try to make a move, he audibly says, "Shilo."  Yeah, we were super-inconspicuous.  I waved my hands and tried to mouth to let me just see if I could get close (without touching!) without being ratted out.  Finally, Matt called me over, explained that it was the end of the day, he was checking into his hotel, he wasn't going to any other meetings, and it was okay--he wasn't going to any more meetings.  And that finally set me at ease, though I sure did eye-ball the thing some more.  I love my perceptive husband, that he knew what my greatest motivator for removing the thread was.

So finally it was my turn to check-in and we got our keys and headed to our movie.  We saw Pacific Rim--super good.  And then feeling like maybe we should hit up another movie, I saw that Austenland was out!  Matt, so kindly, agreed to go with me and we both really enjoyed it.

We got back to our hotel room at midnight and then we talked for hours!  And it was such good conversation!  I seriously think it was the best we've had in years.

We spent awhile talking about the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and it was so good.  Recently Matt had realized that I really respond to joy.  He very much thinks over the fruits and tries to exercise them and he struggles with being joyful.  Whereas, I'm very susceptible to joy and can interpret a lack of joy to mean a variety of things, including that someone is upset with me even if they're not.

So based on this conversation, we decided to discuss the fruits together.  We each went down them one by one, talking about whether we have successes with it or struggle with it.  We had to define them and apply them and talk about how we relate them to one another and we how exercise them with others and whether we really struggle with a particular fruit or do well with it.  Or if we express them differently, etc.  It really turned into a very deep and very productive and insightful conversation.

So we were up late.  So we got up late this morning.  Had a really nice lunch together at a restaurant on the way home.  And now we're back.  But what a nice 21 hours!  We've done dates like this before, but who knew just how good one could be.  :)