Formal Date

The next big thing we did was go on a really nice formal date; I got Bwige all dressed up and took her dancing! First, I took us to get private ballroom dancing lessons. We got 2 instructors all to ourselves for 2 hours. The guy was a really good dancer but I didn’t like what he was telling Bwige to do. It seemed like he was wanting to her not think and I didn’t like that.

Anyways…. Next we went to Bella Italia West, a SUPER nice restaurant. It specializes in exotic game (moose, caribou, elk....). I had the caribou and Bwige had the pheasant. Both were very tasty but Bwige’s was MUCH better than mine. I paid $35 stinkin dollars for my plate and I got like 2 freakin ounces of meat!!! What a rip off!!! The sides were a little mini-ice-cream scoop of collard greens and a mini-ice-cream scoop of rice. Geez… And the bread wasn’t very good either (the bread at olive garden is much better). Bwige got a lot more, she got 2 pheasant breasts covered with ham and cheese – they were VERY rich and VERY tasty!!!

The other thing about the restaurant was that they had lots of wall murals. We were sitting against one that had some war scene on it so I couldn’t see it very well. The one that was in my view was a full wall picture of naked ladies bathing. Why do restaurants do that? I know its supposed to be classical art, but seriously, guys have enough trouble keeping their mind in good places as it is…. large paintings of naked women don’t help! Arg.

After dinner we stopped at Braums for some very tasty ice cream. Then we headed for the ballroom dancing (where everyone was gathering to actually dance). So we get there and sat with our instructors which was nice. We got to dance a bit (the foxtrot) but I wasn’t very good at it so we mostly watched other people dance. Ballroom dancing is a lot like swing dancing…. if you were to take out all the fun parts of swing dancing like smiling, and being relaxed, looking into each other’s eyes, and enjoying it, then you would get ballroom dancing. In ballroom dancing, you have to stay absolutely rigid the whole time with your arms up in the air while your partner looks up and away from you in the most hoity-toity expression she can possibly muster. Yah.

All in all, there are 2 perspectives on the evening…

1) I really enjoyed the evening because my wife had a fabulous time. She really enjoyed the lessons, the meal, and the dancing. Therefore, it was a successful evening. (in the end, this is the perspective that actually matters).

2) This was probably the most ridiculous date I have ever been on. I literally spent our whole month’s fun & restaurant budget on this one date. I could have gone to KFC and paid $2 for 1 chicken breast with more meat than my $35 plate of caribou. Ballroom dancing is totally opposite of my style and I really didn’t enjoy Bwige’s rigidity during it.

But like I said, this night was for Bwige. I am ridiculously in love with her and am very glad that she enjoyed the evening. Marriage is all about pleasing the other person. And I would not have changed a thing about the evening because she got a formal fancy date like she wanted. She felt like a princess (which she is). Mission Accomplished.