Adventures among married people on Friday night
So the other night Aryn and I came to the grim realization that we might be adults now. I mean, we're both over 30, married, and we have a mortgage. And we might even end up having a baby one of these days. That's really weird to think about, because we still don't feel like adults. We were both somewhat traumatized by this realization, so we kind of shuddered and quickly started talking about something else.
I mention this to try to defend the fact that I am like the worst blogger on the planet. When was the last time I updated this thing with something that wasn't a political rant? The biggest problem is that I am lazy; I won't even try to deny it. However, another part of the problem is that since I am apparently an adult now, my life is pretty boring, I think by definition. It's like, what would I blog about? "Hey guys! I went to work today and wrote code for 10 hours, occasionally stopping to play solitaire while I was waiting for a program to run. Then I came home and made dinner. Aryn and I watched TV together for a few minutes and then went to bed." It's like WOO-HOO! I know your day would not be complete without reading about that. I mean, have you ever read a married person's blog? With very few exceptions, most of them kind of suck. "Here are pictures of our kids. Here are pictures of how we decorated our house. Here are pictures of our kids. Here are pictures from our family vacation. Oh, and did I post any pictures of our kids? Let me post some more..." No offense to any of my married friends who have a blog like that who may be reading this (I actually enjoy reading those updates on occasion) I'm just saying... ;) If people are going to take the time to read my blog, I want to have at least semi-interesting material to blog about. And that just hasn't happened much lately.
However, Aryn and I did have a little adventure Friday night. Granted, I am using the word "adventure" in a very loose sense. We are still married adults who are boring. Our idea of a "hot date night" is often a trip to Target. So it doesn't take a whole lot for us to consider a night to be an "adventure." But, well, last Friday was more eventful than normal.
Aryn has been going to the mall after her classes to exercise. (As an aside, isn't that totally brilliant? I say to Aryn, "We should exercise more." She responds by saying, "That's a good idea. I'll start walking around the mall after class." I mean, what I'm supposed to say to that? "Never mind; don't exercise." If any of you ladies (or men for that matter) are looking for an excuse to go to the mall without having your significant other complain about it, there you go. ;) ) So Aryn was at the mall Friday night. She had called me and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner when she got home. (Okay, romance/dating doesn't totally die at the altar. ;) ) I said that sounded fine.
But then problems arose. Aryn apparently backed into another car in the parking lot, denting it a little. This had never happened to her before, she called me and asked me what to do. I said to leave a note on the car telling them to call us and we would pay for the repairs. Easy enough. Unfortunately, she was so freaked about this that she locked her keys in the car when she got out to inspect the damage. Which meant that I had to go and rescue her.
Now performing this rescue proved to be somewhat tricky, given that the mall is probably like 10 miles from our house. I checked the bus schedule, and there is a bus that goes from downtown Chapel Hill to the mall. Unfortunately, the next bus didn't leave for like an hour and a half, after which it would take another half hour to get there. I wasn't sure I wanted to wait around for two hours twiddling my thumbs. So I was like, forget that; I will just take my bike. I ride my bike to work every day so I consider myself to be a decent bike rider.
It seemed like a good enough idea at the time. However, there were a few things that I did not consider. Number one, it was about to get dark. I wore my bright reflective vest and put a blinking red light on the back of my helmet, however, I still haven't gotten around to putting my head light on my bike. Number two, well, I never really paid much attention to the bikability of the road that I was taking. I had driven along it many times and had noticed that there was a little bike path next to the road. I'm thinking, "Nice bike path, I'm sure nobody will be on it at this time of night... This will be a great way to get some exercise and save time instead of waiting for the bus."
So yeah... It started out pretty well. Then it got dark. I had never really noticed that there weren't really any streetlights on this particular road. And there wasn't much of a moon. So the bike path was very, very dark. But I could see well enough to stay on the trail, so I was okay. Then the bike path ended... And in addition to lacking streetlights, this road didn't really have a shoulder, either. And the speed limit was 55 MPH...
I'm sitting here like, "Oh suck." If I turned back, I would miss the last bus and Aryn would have to call a cab or something. But if I kept going, I was potentially putting my life on the line. Being a (relatively) young male, I of course kept going. Testosterone FTW! (And we wonder why accidents are the leading cause of death for men in my demographic... ;) ) The rest of the ride I kind of alternated between two states: 1) Panicking because there were no cars and hence no headlights so I couldn't see anything... (I almost drove into a ditch once in this particular state.) 2) Panicking because there were cars behind me/passing me... And they were going really, really fast... (Although at least I could see when there were cars around, since their headlights illuminated the road in front of me.)
Well, the fact that I am writing this means that you probably already realized that I survived. Although I probably won't be trying that again any time soon. (The best part is that I got there maybe 20 minutes sooner than I would have if I had just taken the bus. There is noting better than putting one's life on the line to save 20 minutes. xD )
Once I got there, I called Aryn to see where she was. She said, "I should be easy to find; just look for the cop cars." I'm like, "Cop cars!?!" Yeah, apparently while she was waiting, the guy whose car she hit came back to the car. And insisted on calling the cops. And they couldn't do anything without her license and registration. So there were like three cop cars sitting there in the parking lot waiting for me to get there with the car keys so that they could get Aryn's license and registration. (All I can say is, "Wow..." I mean, if this were Chapel Hill, then maybe, but this is Durham, where people are getting shot up every night on the east side of town. Did you really need three cop cars to come fill out an accident report? Did they call for backup because I am some kind of terrorist watch list and they wanted to make sure I didn't blow up the mall when I got there? Come to think of it, maybe that's why I keep getting the "wand in every crevice of my body" treatment every time I go to the airport... Anyway...) The best part was that the cops said that there was so little damage that the accident didn't even need to be reported... They said we can just pay for the damage and it won't show up on anyone's record. (Which is what we would have done anyway if we'd left a note... Glad that we got three cop cars out there to tell us that. :P )
That was most of our adventure for the night. We decided to go out for dinner at the mall after that since we were already there. We had a little mini-adventure at dinner as well. We went to dinner and sat down. We put in our orders and waited. After a few minutes, the server brought out our order and said that Aryn's order wasn't ready quite yet. Aryn told me to start eating anyway. After a few more minutes Aryn's food still hadn't come. The server came back and said, "I'm so sorry; I don't know what happened, but they forgot to make your order. I'll put it in right now." So we waited more. I let Aryn eat part of my food. Then the manager came. "I have no idea how my employees are so incompetent, but they still haven't made your order. This is totally unacceptable and I am very angry about this. Just so you know, I'm going to cover the cost of your entire meal tonight." We're sitting here like, "Sweet!" We proceeded to order a salad and a large dessert. And Aryn finally got her food like an hour and a half after she originally placed her order. But you know, it was still free. xD
(And yeah, I know I was severely stretching even the definition of "mini-adventure" in that last paragraph. Yes, I am to the point where a restaurant screwing up an order qualifies as a "mini-adventure." Go ahead and shoot me to put me out of my misery. ;) Look, I could be torturing you with the 800th picture of our kids... Well, except that we don't have any kids, but you see what I mean. ;) )
Okay, my code is done running so I guess it is back to work now. I hope my blog did not bore you too much. I will try to update it more regularly in the future. (Yeah, I know you've heard that before, so don't hold your breath, but I'm going to try...) If I wasted 5-10 minutes of your life when you read this post, well, then you know not to read my blog again. ;)
I mention this to try to defend the fact that I am like the worst blogger on the planet. When was the last time I updated this thing with something that wasn't a political rant? The biggest problem is that I am lazy; I won't even try to deny it. However, another part of the problem is that since I am apparently an adult now, my life is pretty boring, I think by definition. It's like, what would I blog about? "Hey guys! I went to work today and wrote code for 10 hours, occasionally stopping to play solitaire while I was waiting for a program to run. Then I came home and made dinner. Aryn and I watched TV together for a few minutes and then went to bed." It's like WOO-HOO! I know your day would not be complete without reading about that. I mean, have you ever read a married person's blog? With very few exceptions, most of them kind of suck. "Here are pictures of our kids. Here are pictures of how we decorated our house. Here are pictures of our kids. Here are pictures from our family vacation. Oh, and did I post any pictures of our kids? Let me post some more..." No offense to any of my married friends who have a blog like that who may be reading this (I actually enjoy reading those updates on occasion) I'm just saying... ;) If people are going to take the time to read my blog, I want to have at least semi-interesting material to blog about. And that just hasn't happened much lately.
However, Aryn and I did have a little adventure Friday night. Granted, I am using the word "adventure" in a very loose sense. We are still married adults who are boring. Our idea of a "hot date night" is often a trip to Target. So it doesn't take a whole lot for us to consider a night to be an "adventure." But, well, last Friday was more eventful than normal.
Aryn has been going to the mall after her classes to exercise. (As an aside, isn't that totally brilliant? I say to Aryn, "We should exercise more." She responds by saying, "That's a good idea. I'll start walking around the mall after class." I mean, what I'm supposed to say to that? "Never mind; don't exercise." If any of you ladies (or men for that matter) are looking for an excuse to go to the mall without having your significant other complain about it, there you go. ;) ) So Aryn was at the mall Friday night. She had called me and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner when she got home. (Okay, romance/dating doesn't totally die at the altar. ;) ) I said that sounded fine.
But then problems arose. Aryn apparently backed into another car in the parking lot, denting it a little. This had never happened to her before, she called me and asked me what to do. I said to leave a note on the car telling them to call us and we would pay for the repairs. Easy enough. Unfortunately, she was so freaked about this that she locked her keys in the car when she got out to inspect the damage. Which meant that I had to go and rescue her.
Now performing this rescue proved to be somewhat tricky, given that the mall is probably like 10 miles from our house. I checked the bus schedule, and there is a bus that goes from downtown Chapel Hill to the mall. Unfortunately, the next bus didn't leave for like an hour and a half, after which it would take another half hour to get there. I wasn't sure I wanted to wait around for two hours twiddling my thumbs. So I was like, forget that; I will just take my bike. I ride my bike to work every day so I consider myself to be a decent bike rider.
It seemed like a good enough idea at the time. However, there were a few things that I did not consider. Number one, it was about to get dark. I wore my bright reflective vest and put a blinking red light on the back of my helmet, however, I still haven't gotten around to putting my head light on my bike. Number two, well, I never really paid much attention to the bikability of the road that I was taking. I had driven along it many times and had noticed that there was a little bike path next to the road. I'm thinking, "Nice bike path, I'm sure nobody will be on it at this time of night... This will be a great way to get some exercise and save time instead of waiting for the bus."
So yeah... It started out pretty well. Then it got dark. I had never really noticed that there weren't really any streetlights on this particular road. And there wasn't much of a moon. So the bike path was very, very dark. But I could see well enough to stay on the trail, so I was okay. Then the bike path ended... And in addition to lacking streetlights, this road didn't really have a shoulder, either. And the speed limit was 55 MPH...
I'm sitting here like, "Oh suck." If I turned back, I would miss the last bus and Aryn would have to call a cab or something. But if I kept going, I was potentially putting my life on the line. Being a (relatively) young male, I of course kept going. Testosterone FTW! (And we wonder why accidents are the leading cause of death for men in my demographic... ;) ) The rest of the ride I kind of alternated between two states: 1) Panicking because there were no cars and hence no headlights so I couldn't see anything... (I almost drove into a ditch once in this particular state.) 2) Panicking because there were cars behind me/passing me... And they were going really, really fast... (Although at least I could see when there were cars around, since their headlights illuminated the road in front of me.)
Well, the fact that I am writing this means that you probably already realized that I survived. Although I probably won't be trying that again any time soon. (The best part is that I got there maybe 20 minutes sooner than I would have if I had just taken the bus. There is noting better than putting one's life on the line to save 20 minutes. xD )
Once I got there, I called Aryn to see where she was. She said, "I should be easy to find; just look for the cop cars." I'm like, "Cop cars!?!" Yeah, apparently while she was waiting, the guy whose car she hit came back to the car. And insisted on calling the cops. And they couldn't do anything without her license and registration. So there were like three cop cars sitting there in the parking lot waiting for me to get there with the car keys so that they could get Aryn's license and registration. (All I can say is, "Wow..." I mean, if this were Chapel Hill, then maybe, but this is Durham, where people are getting shot up every night on the east side of town. Did you really need three cop cars to come fill out an accident report? Did they call for backup because I am some kind of terrorist watch list and they wanted to make sure I didn't blow up the mall when I got there? Come to think of it, maybe that's why I keep getting the "wand in every crevice of my body" treatment every time I go to the airport... Anyway...) The best part was that the cops said that there was so little damage that the accident didn't even need to be reported... They said we can just pay for the damage and it won't show up on anyone's record. (Which is what we would have done anyway if we'd left a note... Glad that we got three cop cars out there to tell us that. :P )
That was most of our adventure for the night. We decided to go out for dinner at the mall after that since we were already there. We had a little mini-adventure at dinner as well. We went to dinner and sat down. We put in our orders and waited. After a few minutes, the server brought out our order and said that Aryn's order wasn't ready quite yet. Aryn told me to start eating anyway. After a few more minutes Aryn's food still hadn't come. The server came back and said, "I'm so sorry; I don't know what happened, but they forgot to make your order. I'll put it in right now." So we waited more. I let Aryn eat part of my food. Then the manager came. "I have no idea how my employees are so incompetent, but they still haven't made your order. This is totally unacceptable and I am very angry about this. Just so you know, I'm going to cover the cost of your entire meal tonight." We're sitting here like, "Sweet!" We proceeded to order a salad and a large dessert. And Aryn finally got her food like an hour and a half after she originally placed her order. But you know, it was still free. xD
(And yeah, I know I was severely stretching even the definition of "mini-adventure" in that last paragraph. Yes, I am to the point where a restaurant screwing up an order qualifies as a "mini-adventure." Go ahead and shoot me to put me out of my misery. ;) Look, I could be torturing you with the 800th picture of our kids... Well, except that we don't have any kids, but you see what I mean. ;) )
Okay, my code is done running so I guess it is back to work now. I hope my blog did not bore you too much. I will try to update it more regularly in the future. (Yeah, I know you've heard that before, so don't hold your breath, but I'm going to try...) If I wasted 5-10 minutes of your life when you read this post, well, then you know not to read my blog again. ;)