Our 3rd date

I took it upon myself to plan our third date, I wanted it to be a memorable, magnificent, special day for the both of us, I wanted it to be the very last third date we both would ever experience (but then again, the same goes for the first date, the second date, the first kiss…, pretty much for every first everything).

So here are the things I considered, while planning our third date: K.I.S.S. – keep it simple, stupid!

1. There HAS to be food involved, either I’m cooking or we’re going out, doesn’t matter BUT INVOLVE FOOD
2. Plan an activity that still allows me to be close (and talk) to A (memo to myself: no ice skating, I fail miserably at making ice skating a romantic activity), also, plan an activity I know I will enjoy and therefore A hopefully enjoys my enjoyment, if he doesn’t enjoy the activity itself

For number one, I went to a ‘world market store’ (if you haven’t been, you should definitely check it out: http://www.worldmarket.com/storeLocator/index.jsp) and browsed around for what seemed like an eternity. They have a wide selection of Asian, European, African, Australian and also American furniture, decorations and food related items. Now, thinking about food was quite difficult for me, since I am not a cook nor am I someone who prides themselves as being a ‘foody’. I eat for the sole purpose of eating, at least that’s what I used to do, until I met A. Mr. Mic (my microwave) was my best friend and since I thought A would eat, what ever I brought with me, I thought, ‘Why not instant Indian food?’ Well, here is why: A is not a fan of (read: absolutely dreads) instant food, unless it’s kraft’s Mac’n’cheese and he does not at all appreciate Mr. Mic’s magic powers, when it comes to heating up food.

Needless to say, that A’s reaction was far from being flabbergasted and amazed. But being a wonderful boyfriend, he didn’t show his true feelings and ate the food anyways, without saying a word (and to this day I believe, that he actually enjoyed it…) but towards the end of our meal, he looked at me with his big blue puppy eyes and said, ‘Please, don’t ever feed me instant food ever again.’ Which I promised and I haven’t since.

For part two of our date, I planned going to the Franklin institute in Philadelphia, checking out their planetarium (I didn’t mention any of this to A). This was my first time in a planetarium and also my first time at the Franklin institute, how was I supposed to know that A had been to the Franklin countless times before? As A recognized the area of the institute, his eyes showed a glimpse of disappointment. He had already seen all their exhibitions, he had no interest of going through any of them again, since apparently they weren’t what he would call ‘mind-blowing’. But he quickly recovered and enjoyed the enjoyment I got out of my first Franklin experience.

It turned out, A had only seen the temporary exhibitions at the institute, not however, the permanent one: the planetarium. A too, never had been to a planetarium before and when he realized what we were about to see, he became all giddy. He was incredibly happy, pointing out stars, telling me stories about the milky way, pointing out Orion and just genuinely enjoyed himself.

And we’re back to number 1: Food. I figured, since my attempt to make A happy with instant food failed completely, I better find a good restaurant to redeem myself. I found an Italian restaurant close to the river, the ambience was supposed to be very romantic. And I am sure on a Friday night at 7pm it would have been, however on a Saturday afternoon at 2.30pm it wasn’t so much. Our waiter was a Russian fellow whos’ pronunciation had us in tears before he could take our orders. Not so much because of his accent but because he tried very hard to pronounce everything in Italian. A Russian Native speaking English with an Italian accent – priceless. The food was alright, I guess at this stage, A was just happy that I didn’t try to comfort him with canned goods.

In retrospect, it wasn’t the activity or the food that mattered so much, it wasn’t the most out-standing date we ever had, nor was it the best date either of us had ever been on, but it was the memory we created by an okay-3rd-date. And that was what mattered and something must have been right, because 3 years and 4 months later, we are still together and I can’t think of any person I’d rather have by my side than A (except Mr. Mic, I wish he would be fully accepted as an equal part of our relationship but A unfortunately highly disagrees).