Friday nights…
We’ve never really been party people. Keith and I live far too near the end of the introvert scale to ever be able to handle the bar scene (far too noisy) or dance places (too much everything), or really any crowds. Besides, we had kids too early to have either the money or the time for such shenanigans. Over the years, Keith’s schedule has challenged even the notion of Friday nights. When other folks were ending their 40 hour week, Keith often began his on Friday and ended it on Sunday.
So, we adapted. Often when the kids were younger we gathered with other families. Sometimes we played cards with the folks across the street. Sometimes we watched movies (terrible, but kid appropriate movies) with the Lyons. In the olden days, we went to the video store and tried to rent a current movie. Sometimes we just got what was left… we rewatched a lot of Disney movies.
When the kids got older, and Fridays took on new meaning, we spent our Fridays on the sidelines at the high school field. When Allie played the flute and Brian road the bench (during JV seasons) we watched the game, while our kids sat on the sidelines. Brian’s last year of football, we traveled to every single game and cheered him on. It was really our first taste of adult Friday nights. We often stopped for dinner on our way and enjoyed the time together.
Friday night date nights became a thing when we just had to find a way to be alone together and have a whole conversation. As monitoring the children became less of our focus, we began taking Friday nights seriously and planned to meet friends for dinner at local restaurants, or just snuck away for a lovely dinner and time together. We tried lots of great places to eat. Lots of great places. We spent a lot of money on our Friday night dates and eventually decided that we were just as happy with a burger down the street as a fancy dinner in another town.
This year, we tried those subscription meal boxes. Instead of going out for dinner, we had it delivered and made dinner together. It was a good way to unwind on a Friday night. We ate food we ordinarily would not have made ourselves and we saved a lot of money.
Now that I’m home more, I’m cooking more. I’ve never really been a two person kind of cook, but we are learning to adjust our meals and our expectations. Sometimes we get together with friends for a meal at a local restaurant, other times we invite folks in. And lots of Friday nights, we just pour a glass of wine and enjoy the quiet of our home and the friendship of just being together.
Tonight, we are getting ready for Steph’s baby shower. We are cooking, preparing for family and friends to descend upon our home, with gifts and love tomorrow afternoon. We each have our assigned tasks. The plan for dinner is breakfast tonight. But, we’re here in our warm lovely home, with each other. It’s my favorite kind of Friday night.
I hope you are enjoying this exploration of simple things that make life special. This is part of the Write 31 Days challenge. Click here to follow along.
