4 and Still Cooking

Yesterday was our 4th anniversary. (Yes, it was also Juneteenth.) To celebrate, we enlisted Cristin to babysit and had dinner at The Melting Pot in Addison, where we ate on the night we got engaged. Then we caught The Promotion at the Angelika Film Center at The Shops at Legacy and wrapped the night with a stroll and two double-sized cappuccinos.

I have to tell ya. It was pretty darn nice. We dressed up and everything! And we haven’t done that for a date, since, well, the last time we had dinner at The Melting Pot.

Over fondue, we tried to recall how we’ve marked our previous anniversaries:

1. We were still in Abilene. We know we ate crab at Red Lobster. We think we purchased and watched Jurassic Park in bed with the top layer of our wedding cake.

2. I was huge. Caelyn only had 11 more days of sweet womb time. We had crab again. Neither of us remembers what happened afterwards. Maybe we came home & I fell right to sleep. Maybe we went to the theater. If we did, we can’t remember what we saw. I think it came down to Cars or Nacho Libre, and we saw the former because of the time. (I STILL haven’t seen Nacho Libre.) Or maybe it was Mission Impossible: III. Last night we were thinking we saw Superman Returns, but we actually caught that one two days before Caelyn arrived.

3. We did a back-to-back double feature with Ocean’s Thirteen and Mister Brooks, after packing it away at Saltgrass.

I know what you’re thinking. Since we’re obviously not mondo-anniversary celebrators, why would we have a big-to-do date for the 4th? It’s not like 4 is 5 or 10 or 35.

Honestly, we didn’t have a reason, other than the fact that I had told Chris that I thought he ought to take me back to The Melting Pot if and when that unforgiving black skirt I wore on our engagement night fit again, and we both could’ve more than used the retreat from the norm.

So we made a night of it.

Dinner started with Fiesta Cheese fondue, served with assorted breads, tortilla chips, granny smith apples, & veggies. Next came salads — Chris got the Caesar. I got the Caribbean (greens with hearts of palm, mango, coconut toasted cashews, & citrus dressing. They held the tomatoes to spare me Anniversary Salmonella.). The main course included: lobster tail, filet mignon, jerk-seasoned sirloin, vanilla rum chicken, pork tenderloin, peppered shrimp, potstickers, yellow squash, broccoli, white mushrooms, & red potatoes. (You personally cook all this stuff in the fondue pot on your table.) That spread came with ten different dipping sauces. Dessert brought chocolate fondue with a chunky peanut butter swirl and cheesecake, pound cake, chocolate pound cake, strawberries, bananas, brownies, rice krispy treats, toasted marshmallows, & chocolate-covered marshmallows for dipping.

The movie was pretty good. Not phenomenal or great. But cute with some funny stuff, a gentle satire, and a bit of heart.

It was nice to see Sean William Scott out of full-on raunch mode and John C. Rilley doing something more subtle than the Talladega fare. Plus, Jenna Fischer. (Just so you know, there’s still plenty of foul language and some raunchy humor. It’s just not American Pie.)

When we walked out of the theater and felt a cool breeze, we knew we couldn’t go straight home. So we walked around the shops, which were all closed. But don’t you worry that we were out late at night, all alone, susceptible to the riff-raff. The Shops was hoppin’!

Every restaurant patio bustled with 20s & 30s & 40s & 50s, dressed to the nines, with no recollection of the fact that they’d have to go back to work in the morning. The Martini lounges overflowed with laughter and candlelight and, I’m guessing, more than a couple internet match-ups. A street band covered Santana & Beyoncé, while couples danced on the sidewalks and chatted on benches. Valets swung Jags and Vipers around the corners and out of view.

I’ve lived in Plano for 3 years, but it still got to me. Thursday night at 10:30 and this place wasn’t even thinking about going to sleep! Not only that, but I’m pretty sure at least 75% of those people live like that every single night, while we watch the Apple TV in bed and eat frozen yogurt parfaits two blocks down the street, completely oblivious.

It was one of those few summer nights right in the middle of chilly and blazing, where I could sit outside all night. But we didn’t want to keep Cristin too long, so we just sipped a couple cappuccinos at Main Street Bakery and headed home.

Anniversaries are one of those things that make time feel funny to me. Four years isn’t that long, and it doesn’t feel that long. Yet, it feels like we’ve been together a long time too. I think part of that comes from being together all day every day. We’ve probably spent more time together than a lot of couples who have been married several years longer. Having Caelyn makes it feel like we’re more “settled down” too. When we were talking about the anniversaries gone by, we both said it was crazy for Caelyn to be less than two weeks from being born on our second anniversary. Second! It doesn’t feel that fast, but saying it out loud sure makes it sound fast.

Regardless, I know four years ain’t a life-time. I don’t need Emily Gilmore to tell me that my four years isn’t anything next to her forty to know that I don’t have the clout to be handing out marriage advice. And I won’t. But I do think I’ve learned a lot in last 4 years, especially in the last one. Certainly enough to know I’m livin’ the good life, whether it’s beneath the glow of swanky street lamps or the hue of the Apple TV.

(I’ll let you know if Chris hires Chef Atkins and a calypso band for our 27th. Or if Bill Cosby drops by.)