Brian's Birthday

Last year Brian kind of got shortchanged in the birthday department. I still couldn't drive, and could barely walk after the c-section, so there were no gifts. Maybe a handmade card compliments of Vicidin, but that was about it.

So, this year, I figured we'd do it right. I got Heidi, Hayden's fabulous daycare provider, who has been offering to babysit forever, to come over to watch the kiddo. Then, I got reservations to an amazing restaurant in Haverhill (who know, right?). They were even kind enough to honor an amazing weekday special for us, even though it was a Friday night. We decided to go early so we could have a whole evening to ourselves.

Heidi came over at about 5pm and Brian and I took off to the restaurant, where we had a 2 hour meal, complete with martinis, amazing wine, and some of the best food I've had in years. It was great to just catch up. We did pretty well with the "don't talk about work or kids" thing. Not a word about work, and we didn't even talk about Hayden all that much. We toasted our 20 year anniversary of knowing each other, and we reminisced about living in San Francisco, and what an amazing period of our lives that was. I couldn't have asked for our lives to have turned out any better. (OK, a bit more financial security would be nice, sure...but aside from that...) life is just very good to us.

After our fantastic dinner, we called Heidi to make sure she could work the tv remote ok. This was our big concern. We knew Hayden would be fine, she adores Heidi and the feeling is mutual. Besides, Hayden goes to bed pretty well in general. No, we were really worried that Borat, which we had scheduled to record, would switch on and she wouldn't be able to get back to what she wanted to watch. Or, worse yet, it would pick up an episode of Real Sex or Cathouse or something else that would forever color her impression of us.

But, the tv situation was under control and she had all the snack food she would need for a while, so Brian and I came back to Epping and went to The Holy Grail, a restaurant/bar we've been meaning to check out for a long time. It's an old church that was converted into a restaurant, and it represents a piece of our shining hope that Epping is di-hicking itself just a bit. Not that Epping is totally backwoods, but any town that's known for its racetracks is going to have a tough time breaking into the fine dining scene.

We loved Holy Grail. The owner used to teach at Exeter High, and we talked about the school, the politics etc. for a while while Brian and I enjoyed a good scotch. The atmosphere is really comfortable and interesting, and the food looks good. Plus the drinks were "Epping priced" rather than "Boston" priced. Always a good thing.

We got home at around 10:30 and then we talked to Heidi until well after midnight. I love having people we can trust our baby with. It just makes it so easy to go out, and Brian and I really needed some time to ourselves. It was wonderful to have a meal that didn't include the words, "Honey, could you..." in any context other than, "please pass the rolls".

I think we're going to see about date night once a month. I'm sure between Michelle and Paul, Heidi, Jenn and Patrick, Luanne and Dave, and any number of our friends we can work out some kind of trade. I feel like this really recharged my batteries.