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During this time of uncertainty and time of seeing thousands of our fellow citizens stricken with COVID-19, many of whom have unfortunately perished, we, the citizens of the greatest nation to ever exist, have done and are doing all we can to defeat this unseen denizen – and at great sacrifice, to say the least.

We’ve been asked to self-quarantine.  We’ve been asked to stay at home.  We’ve been told to social distance. We’ve lost countless jobs and businesses.  We’ve lost national treasure, never to be restored.  But we do it because we are all in this together.  Our lives have been turned upside down and what we knew as normal is to be no more.  Our world will forever be changed by this pandemic.

With everything that’s going on with our self quarantine and stay at home instructions, we decided to try to normalize just one tiny part of our lives – just a little something to take our minds away from the chaos and tragedy surrounding us every day.

So a few days ago I proposed an idea to Dixie that we have a “date night” at home. By now I know we are not the only ones going a little crazy not being able to go anywhere and do anything. There’s only so much shopping you can do on Amazon and Walmart.

And while I love my wife’s cooking, I know she is running out of ideas having to prepare every meal we have.  Its been over a month now so she’s prepared nearly a hundred meals with very little break. That’s a lot of meals.  I have been able to grill a couple of times but even that has been constrained due to this incessant winter like weather.

I proposed that we have a date night at home.

Being the empty nesters that we are, and this would even work if you have children at home. You’ll just have to figure out how to either include them or exclude them – no guidance here. Just use some imagination and I think you’ll figure something out and you’ll have a lot of fun too.

We’ve missed being able to just go out to dinner once in a while or to a movie or to even drop into one of the many small local bars in our area for a drink.

Here’s how it worked:

We thought if we could have just one thing that we’ve really missed what would it be? We decided it would be pizza. So we started looking at the different pizza chains a few days ago and dreaming about pizza – imagine that. But that’s where we are during these troubling times.

With eager anticipation, date night finally arrived on Friday. We decided just what we wanted and waited until just before our normal dinner time to place our order – for hands off delivery of course. 

But before that we got ready to go out like we normally would have. But this time we had to use some imagination.  We used the game room (THE BAR IN OUR KITCHEN) to play dominoes while we waited for the pizza to arrive.  Exciting stuff I know, but hey you do what you can to pass the time, right?

We had to make it seem as real as possible – as close as we could get to actually being somewhere different and not really at home. To make that happen, the first step was to decide where to dine (within the confines of our house and not really out at an actual restaurant). We have a nice dining room we rarely use – only when we have family or guests visiting.

So now we’re ready for our date and have decided to eat somewhere different – (OUR VERY OWN DINING ROOM) complete with candlelight, wine and mood music in the background.

During dinner we made several comments on the surroundings and how nice the view was and how quiet it was around us. No one talking loud on their phones, no one arguing, no kids crying. It was really very peaceful and we thoroughly enjoyed the pizza. I almost forgot, but we indulged in dessert too – something we rarely do.

After dinner I asked Dixie if she would like to visit a local bar (VERY NEARBY) that had an amazing pool table, with no waiting to play and the best drinks around. She jumped at the idea and we made the thirty foot or so trek (TO A DIFFERENT ROOM IN OUR HOME) and played pool and had a couple of fantastic drinks and just enjoyed the time together. She hustled me and kicked my behind as usual, but it was a lot of fun.

I asked her if she would like to see a movie (NETFLIX IN OUR FAMILY ROOM), but she declined so we listened to some music and danced a while.

By now we were worn out – it was almost ten o’clock after all and all of this partying had gotten to us. So then we traveled another thirty feet to our hotel room (OUR GUEST ROOM).

We finally got to enjoy what our guests are able to enjoy when they visit. We have a beautiful view of the lake from this room, a very comfortable bed and everything we need. We felt like we really were somewhere else, not in our very own home, but at a nice bed and breakfast. In fact, I crept down to the cafeteria (OUR KITCHEN) the next morning and brought coffee back to bed.

 

It was a lot of fun play acting like we did and we thoroughly enjoyed doing something a little different until we are able to resume some of the normal things we used to do. We hope that is very soon.

So make a plan. Use your imagination and transport yourselves outside of your home without ever leaving the four walls that surround you.

Thanks for reading.
Paul