Olive Garden, the mall, and Ray

Date night!  What a night.  I got my "sick check" yesterday at work.  My employer pays out any remaining sick time (we get 40 hours per year) in December each year.  Perfect attendance gets you another prize...a gift certificate to the Country Club Plaza...but I had too many funerals this year for that.

My sick check wasn't huge (17.8 hours) but it was enough to send me out on a date with my husband.  Throw in a wonderful mother who keeps my girls on most Saturday nights nowadays, and the night was set.  We never go out.  I mean, we see a movie a year, if we're lucky.  Eating out is just too expensive, unless it's McDonald's after a long day.

We went to Olive Garden at 2 this afternoon, and the line was horrible.  The bar was empty, though, so we decided to have a beer while we waited.  The bartender had the best service (and the best personality, for that matter) we'd ever experienced, so we decided to just eat at the bar!  Wow, what wonderful food.  We've always loved their food, but boy...they were *on* today.

After that, we had some time to kill, so we went to the mall.  ROFL...the mall on a Saturday afternoon during the holiday season...and we both hate crowds!  We laughed so hard at people...people walk like they drive.  Someone needs to tell them that they are NOT the only people there.  There ARE others around them.  It is NOT acceptable to stop suddenly and start a conversation in the middle of a busy walkway.  Buttheads....all of them. 

We got out of there and headed to the theater across the road (across the road took about 10 minutes!) and found a parking space that was relatively in the same zip code.  Then we bought tickets to see "Ray" on mom's recommendation.  Good call, Mom!  What an awesome movie.  Not since Titanic has a movie that long held me.  I cried a lot, too.  I wish Kevin wouldn't keep checking to see if I'm crying.  We've been together more than 10 years....of COURSE you know I'm crying.

Now we're home, and I feel like all of this overtime might be worth it.  We spent a stupid amount of money for a meal and a movie (could have cooked and rented for less than $10) but it was more than that.  We had a truely relaxed and wonderful time.  Life is good.