Dinner and a Movie

Before Megan and Hilary were born, Gary and I used to go to dinner and see a movie very often on the weekends.  Sometimes we would see two and one time even three movies in one day/evening.  It made for a late drive home!

After the girls were born, those days came to an end.  We were so tired with teaching and farming and taking care of the girls and the house and grocery shopping that we just couldn't spend the time or energy to drive to Lafayette for a movie and dinner.  Plus I felt like since I spent all week teaching and away from them, that I really wanted to be with them as much as I could be.

Later the weekends became full of games and other school activities, and once more, we wanted to be home with the girls while we could be and before they grew up and didn't want to be with us.  Plus the video rental stores started, everyone had a VCR, and we had Movie Nights at home.

After the girls were married and had children, if we were in Lafayette the choice of whether to go to a movie or spend time with the girls and their families was an easy one.  The kids won every time.  The few times that we did go to a movie in Lafayette I usually felt guilty that I was missing time with Landon or Tessa or Cooper or Owen or Lynnlee or any combinations of the five.

It seemed like the only time we went to the movies was when we were on vacation.  We visited the theatre at Downtown Disney several times when we were in Orlando without the kids.  It became part of the New Year's Day tradition with Karen and Clay to see a movie in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge each year.

Now that we have moved and we see the kids on a fairly regular basis, the 'trips to Lafayette' are different.  We can run into town for dinner or lunch or even breakfast.  I can make a quick trip into Meijer for something AND use the small cart! Sometimes I even go into town twice in one day!

So tonight....I wanted to go to Lafayette for dinner and a movie.  We hadn't done that for a few weeks, plus I needed to get Gary out of the house for another reason---to be shared later.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Wings Etc by Meijer with Karen and Clay and it was good!  I liked the fish tacos and they were points friendly.  The place was not crowded that evening and we thought it might be a good place to go where we wouldn't have to stand in line for a long time.  We were right---not crowded.  No line.  Fast service.  Good food.  Reasonable prices.

Then I insisted on seeing a movie.  Nothing that I REALLY wanted to see was playing. In fact, nothing really sounded that good to either of us, but we finally settled on a movie called "A Simple Favor."

We went to the early show, starting at 6:40.  The theatre wasn't crowded at all- after all it was a Friday night during September and there were numerous high school football games being played which would probably take several people.  Also from experience I knew that lots of families take the kids and go grocery shopping on Friday evenings too.  Most of the patrons in the theatre were older adults, couples, and a few groups of women.

The movie was hilarious, in my opinion.  The plot was full of twists and turns and surprises.  Even though Gary said he fell asleep a couple of times for a couple of minutes, I didn't notice him nodding off.  He said when it was over that it was the strangest movie he had seen in a long time!

Two things made me smile tonight.

One was that we were able to enjoy dinner and movie and not have to drive an hour each way to do it.

The other was that we were able to enjoy dinner and a movie and I did not feel like I should have been spending time with the kids ----because I had seen all of them earlier in the afternoon.

And I guess another thing was the movie. It WAS hilarious.  No one would ever nominate it for any type of award for anything---but it was funny!