Once in a while my husband and I like to get out of the house, find a sitter for the night, and go have a nice evening alone together. It is nice to recharge the relationship. my favorite reasons for having the date night other than the recharge are:

To recreate the nostalgia of when we met and dated the first time

to remember we are a couple in love and that the kids do not totally control us at all times

And my favorite reason of all is to redo our dates and do things we did not do last time we dated. :) 

so with that in mind  we did a simple dinner and a movie.I know it does not seem like much but when we were younger we did not have much money at 18 and 19 years old. I was fresh out of high school and he was in a housing transition form one city to the next, plus he was looking for a different job than the one that he had. I had always ( on the side of frugal) asked for just a movie and if we got hungry we would just do a small snack at a fast food place. 

So now we are taking it slow. It has been years since the two of us went out to dinner and movie in the Lansing area. We decided to go to the movie Superbad at the NCG Eastwood. Then through my husband's lack of planning we did not have a place picked out to eat at.

We drove through the eastwood center. Looking. All we had seen were bars and pubs. ICK not very romantic for the casual couple. We were not in the mood for Chinese and we wanted a steak. Well i hate going to applebees, chile's and TGI fridays because they were always too noisy and crowded. So we thought we would go somewhere that we have not tried in a while. We went to Red lobster.  I have been misled about the way our dining experience would be. I liked our waitress. she was decent,. Polite, prompt with our food, appetizer check so no complaint with the server we had, but there are a lot of things that made it such a terrible experience.

First thing. The place was hideous! I have been to red lobsters in the past but this one was awful. There is no atmosphere. nothing! just a few trinkets made by a mass producer on the wall, poorly matched wood and scheme.. ICK! Music that you can not hear through the poor sound system. When my husband and i go to a place like Fridays or something we at least get something interesting to look at even tho those places are loud and cramped and cluttered to the highest degree. But here there was nothing. At all the other places we would have paid a total of 30 $ for food on average. at red lobster we paid 60$  at least we could have had some enchanting mood lighting for that price. Bad business.

Anyways, we get the appetizer and it was suppose to look like this. 

But what we got were clam strips that were like rubber! the stuffed mushrooms were not stuffed they were mushrooms with toppings poured on them and then covered in oily  cheese. and the scallops were wrapped in bacon but the flavor was not melded very well like they should have been sauteed, but were frozen and put in the oven. 

then onto the main dish. We ordered

Look at that New York strip. and those full shrimp. they fill the plate! Well in reality the New York strip while cooked very nicely was drenched in so much salt and seasoning that i could barely taste the fact it was meat and not a bit-o-jerky sitting on my plate. I was up all night long drinking water like i had ingested a whole bottle of salt. And the shrimp did not fill the plate. They were no different in size and taste than what i would get at the local bar in our small town that comes in one of those red plastic baskets. And i got a side of cottage cheese that tasted like lemon juice. Could be a way to make it so it does not spoil? could be something they placed it by? i could not eat one bite. 

*sigh*  Not my husband's fault. Just the fault of the restaurant that lost its way.

Now the other dining issue was not the resteraunt's fault. and i do not know whose fault it is. I have two kids myself but i do not take them to places like that until they are older especially on a Saturday night when it is prime date night. I felt bad for the mother because she could not control the high pitched screaming of her little girl and the little 4 or 5 year old boy running around the table but that was not my cup of tea for the night that i had found a sitter for my two.  And i know it would have been like that no matter what restaurant we went to. There would be some crying kid or what-knot. Now that people are giving up the smoking sections could there be one for people who are anti kids for when they eat.

"party of two for non screaming?"

But then when we left i felt more like i had just finished a chore eating there. 2 waters, 2 steaks and shrimp and an appetizer 64$

Now onto the movie

SUPER BAD

I loved it! Chicago tribune says three stars and then gave some stupid long winded review about plot and the science of the characters and so on. BLAH BLAH BLAH. Whatever happened to watching a movie that was good and liking it. Now everyone listens to reviews and abides by the ratings. STOP IT! if you want to see it then go see it. Who cares about what others want to make you think. I do have to say that taking kids to this one would be frowned upon and a lot of the crowd that was there should have not been there because of age but still it was a good chuckle movie. Nice catch lines and room for a sequel. So i would at least recommend you to give it a try if you do not mind very strong  language and sexual content.

As for the theater. Very nice as usual. Rather clean, busy, good atmosphere. decent seating. decent service and so on. I just hate the location because when movies get out the traffic is congested with the shopping area. but all in all a decent night out.

Heck we did not have the kids for a few hours. I would ave even enjoyed a nap Just kidding!

But a few tips for the guys. ALWAYS have planned out the night. Always order for the lady (unless instructed otherwise) Alwauy make a fuss with opening doors and car doors. Always make her feel like she is center of attention even with watching the movie. And for the younger guys who are dating the girl for the first time. NEVER go on a date with a certain expectation. Let her call the shots. (just something i would have advised my own boys )