Yesterday was such a great day!
I woke up right at 9:30 and realized that this was precisely the time that my MIL was supposed to be here to pick up the kiddo. I had forgotten to set the alarm! I literally leaped out of bed, waking the husband in the process, and peeked out of my bedroom door to see who else might be up. My intention was to dash to the kiddo’s room to get him up and moving, but I spied my in-laws sitting on the couch first. I swear I squeaked and jumped a little at the sight and slammed my bedroom door shut again. I threw some clothes on, ran a brush through my hair and pushed a headband over the frizzy mess to try to tame it a bit. What a way to start the day!
Of the three of us (me, hubby & kiddo), I was dressed and decent for company first, so I slunk out of my room, totally embarrassed, and said hello to my MIL and sister-in-law. The hubby was right behind me, but the kiddo was still getting ready, so we both sat and chatted with the in-laws for a few minutes. Thankfully, Dad had gotten up at, like, 6am (which is ridiculous for a man who is now retired!), and was available to answer the door when my in-laws got there. They hadn’t been there long when I finally dragged my butt from my room. We had a nice chat, drank a cup of coffee, and finally the kiddo was dressed and ready to go.
Once the kiddo was safely on his way to the MILs for the weekend, the hubby and I started surfing the intarwebs for options on things to do. We had settled on going to the Movie Tavern (www.movietavern.com), and had even agreed on a movie (10,000 B.C.) and a time (5pm). Now we needed to find something to do until then. Since we didn’t want to do anything that was going to take us very far from where our movie place was and we didn’t want to spend an exorbitant amount of money, our options were limited. We considered going to a museum, but none of them were really close enough, nor were we really interested. We settled on going to the mall in Humble - Deerbrook Mall – since neither of us had ever set foot there before. We checked out the mall’s website (http://www.shopdeerbrookmall.com/html/Index2.asp) and, after looking over the store offerings, we decided it would be a great place to just wander around in.
It was only 11am by this point, so we weren’t in a huge rush. We both showered, dressed and got our things together, and we were out the door by noon. We arrived at Deerbook Mall at 12:30 (not a bad drive, all things considered), and circled it twice, just to check out where the anchors were. We then exited the mall parking lot and drove down the road to find the Movie Tavern. We needed to know how far it was from the mall so that we would know when to leave. Two minutes later, we spied the place and turned around to go back to the mall. Deerbrook Mall reminds me of Houston’s Galleria. Two stories, balconies, marble floors, pretentiously upscale. Typical mall. 
There was a Spencer Gifts that we wanted to check out because neither of us had been in one since we were teenagers. It hasn’t changed much. We also wanted to check out a store called Earthbound Trading. It’s one of those New-Age, hippie places that reeks of patchouli incense and sells weird wind chimes, but they also had some cool stuff to look at. The hubby bought a refrigerator magnet that says, “Vegetarian: Indian word for ‘lousy hunter’.”
Once we were through at Earthbound Trading it was time for a pit stop at the bathrooms, but this involved going all the way to the other end of the section we were in. On our way back, we planned on stopping at the Spencer Gifts, but my husband pulled me into a jewelry store first. He had caught me looking at rings on the internet earlier in the week (I didn’t know this at the time), and had correctly guessed that I was dreaming of replacement wedding rings again. Every few years, I threaten (jokingly) to make him buy me a new wedding band, since my original ones no longer fit and are too delicate to make bigger without sacrificing the integrity of the ring strength. I have a ring I wore in place of the originals, but it was one I bought at Wal-Mart, it was sterling silver (which is okay by me. I don’t particularly fancy yellow gold), and it cost me less than $5. I’ve been wearing it, for lack of a better option, for about 7 years. I never told my husband how little that ring had cost me. It would have humiliated him to no end, and that’s not what I was about. This little symbol of marriage is very important to me. Its importance is not so much in how pretty it is or how much it cost, but rather in what it symbolizes to the world. I am a married woman, and I want you to know it. So, he made me sit down with the very nice Asian lady who was very happy to be selling us anything, and explain to her my odd requirements for hand jewelry. It must be silver or white gold (the hubby’s is white gold, so it makes sense to match), it can’t be very big because I have very small hands, any settings on the ring can NOT sit very high, or I will eventually lose the stone and/or break the ring. The perfect solution was to get channel-set stones.
I tried to get him to leave the store. He was having none of it. I did not need a new piece of jewelry. My old ring sufficed quite well so far, and would continue to do so. He could buy me a new ring when we’d been married for another 15 years. My arguments fell on deaf ears. He was so…proud…to be able to buy this for me. It made him so happy. I can only say that I was humbled by his final argument, “I love you and you’re worth every penny and more. Let me do this.” How can you argue with that and not look petty? It took a lot for me to step back and tell him that I would go along with whatever he decided. Thirty minutes later, we left with the ring. They even sized it for us right there in the store.
The cheapskate in me is cackling in glee with the deal he got on this ring. 80% off the Christmas sale price. Even if it had been 80% off the normal retail price, it would have been a good deal. However, the insecure little girl in me knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that I do not deserve such favor. I do not deserve this ring. It is an extravagance that should be spent on someone that needs it more. But I will not say these things to my husband because every time I start, he just shakes his head, smiles, and tells me to shut up. Sometimes he doesn’t even go so far as saying anything, and simply kisses me. I love this man.
Once he had me firmly silenced (and transfixed. So pretty! Shiny! I should have been a bird.), we stopped at Spencer Gifts where we browsed and guffawed at the gag gifts. They haven’t changed their stock much in the last 20 years. We looked over the shot glasses with all the snarky sayings, found one perfect for a friend of ours, checked out and left the mall. We were just on time to leave for the movie. By 4:15, we were at The Movie Tavern - hungry and ready to sit for a while.
The Movie Tavern (if you haven’t checked the link) is both a restaurant and a movie theater. The theaters are set up with big, padded leather executive desk chairs and small tables that are lit by tiny LEDs, instead of the typical movie theater seating. Some of the chairs are set up in front of long, bench-style tables, which is where we chose to sit. Before the movie started, a waiter came to take our orders, and told us that if we needed anything else once the movie began, to stand our menu up on end and someone would come over to assist us. Just as the lights were dimming, we got our drinks. Not ten minutes later, our food arrived. The service was good, the food was decent (not earth-shaking, but good), and the movie was only okay. It was a very pleasant experience and we are definitely going to have to go again, but next time we’ll take the kiddo with us. When we plan a nice night out, it usually involves dinner and movies. This lets us do both in one place – and for no more money than what we would have spent had we gone to a traditional movie theater and separate restaurant. The food is priced in the same ballpark as, say, a Bennigan’s. Maybe a little cheaper. The actual movie tickets were surprisingly cheap – $5 per person. Normally, tickets would have cost us at least $7 per person. Anyway, my point is that we were very impressed and pleased with our experience and we will definitely be going back.
We were home early enough to spend the rest of the evening together at home, which was incredibly nice. We don’t get much alone time these days. We could have done so many things to celebrate our anniversary but all it seemed like we wanted to do was to spend time together. Unfortunately, the hubby had to go back to work tonight – he’s working overnights again. After getting him to myself for a whole day, I’m left wanting more. I really miss him right now. Even if, at the moment, all he’d be doing is playing on his computer. At least he’d be here.
