How to Have a Girls' Night and Look Good Doing It

If you know me or my hubby at all, I'm sure it comes as no big surprise to you that we don't really "do" Valentine's Day.  But it might come as a surprise to you that for the past 3 years we have "celebrated" this illustrious holiday with our good friends Katie and Dave.  Nothing creepy, I promise.  Well, as long as you don't think Katie and I referring to each other as "special friends" is creepy...

This year, Katie and I decided to go out without the guys or the kids.  Some helpful background: Katie and I met shortly after her daughter was born, so to me, Katie has always been a mom.  She knows things like not to give an 8 month old Honey Nut Cheerios and that kids aren't supposed to wear coats in car seats.  These are things that I don't know.  So to me, Katie is kinda like Dr. Spock...she is totally responsible and on top of everything at all times. Let's just say that she is the only person outside of the family that I have ever left my son with (the old ladies in the church nursery don't count) and that he was probably better off with her than he ever is with me.

Now, back to our date.  So I told Katie that I thought we should go to a stage version of Pride and Prejudice that a small theater troupe was performing.  She agreed, but I'm not exactly sure she knew what she was getting herself into (this would be a good place to go back and read my post about me not thinking things through or planning ahead).  And I think Katie knows me well enough by now to suspect this irresponsible behavior.  So this is how our pre-date conversation went:

Katie: what time should we get there?
Me: I dunno, maybe around 7?
Katie: where is it?
Me: I dunno, it's in the Riffe Center
Katie: where is that?
Me: downtown, it's one of those building that you'll know it when you see it.
Katie: is there a place to park?
Me: I assume so.
Katie: what should I be wearing?  Is it dressy?
Me: uh, I'm wearing jeans.
Katie: okay, because at the Ohio Theater, you have to dress up.
Me: I'm still wearing jeans.

Despite my lack of planning, I was attempting to be conservative on the arrival time since tickets are purchased at the door.  So, we got there way too early, we didn't skimp on the liberal "pay what you want" ticket prices (despite the fact that I have used my student ID for approximately 21 of my 29 years of life, so it is hard for me NOT to whip it out for a discount.  I actually took it out of my wallet so I wouldn't be tempted to dishonestly save that dollar...) we were appropriately dressed for people of our age group, and the production was hilarious.  All in all, we were a couple of responsible adults out for a night of culture.  We talked about our kids, church, art / art museums, Europe, and crazy parenting theories.  It was some of the most mature, mom-appropriate fun that I've ever had.  And that's not sarcasm.

But I actually think the highlight of the night was when we were waiting to get out of the parking garage and the song Thrift Shop came on the radio.  I crank it up and start singing along (omitting the foul language, of course) and Katie turns to me and says surprisingly, "you listen to country AND this???"  Then she started to laugh and get into it...and we were laughing and talking so much that I turned into a loading dock by mistake. And I saw a different side of her; a non-mom side.  It kinda felt like high school Kelsey and high school Katie were meeting for the first time.  And you know, we got along pretty darn well...