Stoking the Fires

Every year, on the two weekends following Thanksgiving, there is a craft show at the Frederick County Fairgrounds, and for most years for the past decade my friend Fish-Flopper and I have gone to the show, most times a break for me without the kids. We always have a great time, we eat what we want, and it's still hot, and no one is trying to get our attention. She is one of my before-kids friends, and has no kids herself. We used to work together, but haven't for a few years now, and since she lives in another state we don't see each other very often anymore. For whatever reason, we never seem to make plans well in advance of the craft show, and I don't know why because it's not like we don't know when it's going to be. We'll have to plan now for next year. Anyway, this year she couldn't go, so I asked BigDaddyFish if he wanted to go.

He did, and we went. We got a sitter starting at 10 am (thanks, Uncle Orca) and went to the craft show. We ate what we wanted. We idly looked at everything there, mostly repeats for me, but all new to BDF. We walked and talked and laughed and joked around. We did a ton of Christmas shopping, with a few things for ourselves. When we were done at the craft show, it was nearly sundown, and we drove around the wonderful city of Frederick, where we used to live and which we both still love. We bonded. We ran home for a quick check-in, and then went to a Japanese steakhouse for dinner. When we first drove by, it was packed to the gills, so we drove around and went to the train tracks and saw a train. We went back to the steakhouse, and had this conversation:

"We drove around so long that I don't want to eat here anymore."

"What?"

"I don't. I'm not in the mood anymore."

"Well, where do you want to eat?"

"Home."

"HOME?! But, there's kids there, and we have no meat."

"Well, we have meat. It's in the freezer."

"Yes, but that would make it FROZEN SOLID."

"Yeah, I guess it's a little too cold to grill out."

"Ya think? Come on, I got my heart set on the vegetables, and the meat, and the soup, and the salad. PLEEEASE?"

So we went in. As we were walking in, I happened to look in the window and see what looked like a familiar head to me.

"Hey, that looks like Minnow and Mr. Minnow!" We walked a bit further and I looked again. "It IS the Minnows!"

And so it was. So we went out, to the Japanese steakhouse, had a fabulous dinner, and got to sit with friends of ours. Grown ups. We had grown up conversation, and a wonderful meal.

And when we went home, our lovely, lovely children were sound asleep. And so we went to sleep ourselves, rejuvenated.

Comments

[angi]

Sounds WONDERFUL :)

[Agincourtdb]

You're welcome :-)

[Fish-flopper]

I'm sorry I couldn't make the Craft Fair this year!! Glad to see that you and BDF went and had a fun time... except now he knows what he's missing out on :-) [kettle corn, anyone?!] I'll have to catch up with you on who The Minnows are in real life.