Date Night

Last night Husband and I went on our biennial date night. Guess where we went?

The Lion King! 

And if you wonder why we only go on biennial date nights rather than biannual date nights (and yes, I had to Google these words to make sure I was using them correctly--every other year, not twice a year) it's because of a little detail found in the upper right corner of this photo. See it? No? How about now?

We only go on dates every other year because holy cow, dating is expensive. We were four rows from the very back of the balcony, and our tickets cost $67. Each. On Thursday night, which is the "cheap" night of the week.

Fortunately, we were slightly paranoid about making the opening curtain so our romantic date restaurant was our favorite hometown burger-ish place and...I'm sorry, was I making a point? I suddenly had an image of hand-breaded onion rings and I think I passed out for a moment.

Anyway, as we waited for the animals to appear (and the animals were SPECTACULAR), Husband and I reminisced about our long-ago dating years when we didn't think twice about getting tickets for this kind of the show, what with the two incomes and the no kids.

Then we got married and had Boy#1, and I quit my job to stay home and not work. (Hahahaha! I always have to laugh about that not-working description. Ha.) We also moved to Small Town, where we knew we'd prefer to rear our children but where the concerts and theater productions are largely homegrown and free admission. We simply couldn't think of shelling out the cash for theater or Mannheim Steamroller tickets when all four Boys needed shoes and a free orchestra concert was going on right across the street.

Now, though, we've reached the stage where we're not paying for babysitting or school lunches or music lessons or any of those day-to-day kid-raising expenses, and $67 tickets don't seem like the exorbitant splurge they did a decade ago.As I was dithering over whether or not to order these, Husband pointed out that he'd spent more than this on the tickets to watch Boy#3's marching band show and accompanying football game.

Huh. The date night schedule may be going from biennial to biannual. Chalk it up to the win side for the empty  nest.