So.

Last night.

Zach and I had a date night!!!! Like, a REAL date night. My mom graciously had offered to babysit and since she is my children's most favorite person in the whole wide world, they could not have been more excited.

Ok.

And she's my most favorite person too.

She came over early, at 4, because our intention had been to go to a matinee movie and then dinner and then maybe one more place and come home early.

We're not spring chickens anymore people. I mean, this girl needs her beauty rest. And besides, we didn't want to spend a whole lot of money, and it seems that the later you stay out, the more money is thrown into oblivion.

We got to our movie. At the new Aksarben Theater, which is nice, but there are so many NEW theaters in Omaha now-a-days that it's hard to say that it was any better than the other ones out there.

Although they do serve beer. Even though we didn't get any. And they do have a Step and Repeat, which I was able to explain to Zach thanks to my Real Housewife Ladies.

But. The best part of going to the movie was that we saw..... HARRY POTTER!!!!!

Oh my word. We have been wanting to see it forever. Like probably since the beginning of time. And finally we got an opportunity to go.

And it did not disappoint.

And now I understand what everyone is talking about when they say they have Harry Potter Depression.

There is nothing else.

That was the last one.

Boo.

But it was fantastic.

And if I had been by myself, I could have easily cried through the entire movie. Like from start to finish. From the moment Harry is at Dobby's grave until the very last scene in the movie.

But thankfully Zach was there to save me from making a complete blubbering softy out of myself.

I can't help it.

I just have this thing with good versus evil. It will always get me when good prevails or is fighting to prevail. I'll cry every time.

Ugh. I know.

So after the awesomeness that was Harry Potter, Zach and I walked around the new Aksarben Village area just to see what was there.

Not a whole lot...

A small grocery store that people love and ok, if we didn't enjoy Walmart prices we would totally love it too.

And Jones Bros. Cupcakes.

There was an article about them in the newspaper and ever since I read it I have wanted to go there. So Zach and I went at his suggestion to buy some cupcakes for the girls.

Isn't he the best dad?

And so we did. And they were good cupcakes....

BUT NO CUPCAKE IS WORTH THREE DOLLARS A PIECE!!!!

No cupcake.

I get that cupcakes are like the "In" thing right now, but seriously. Good grief. And they weren't even huge. Because I expected them to be Gigantic. Like fill up a plate kind of big.

But no.

They were just total standard cupcake size.

I did get great cupcake flavors though. Like, Strawberry Lemonade and Blueberry Lemon.

And they were good.

But not A-mazing.

My kids didn't even finish them.

So, my new goal is to make some kick-ass cupcakes and sell them for $2.50 a piece. And $20/dozen.

(At Jones Bros. Cupcakes a dozen costs $33!!!!! Can you believe it????)

Do I totally sound like a cheap-o or what?

But I'm just looking out for the good of the people. Although, since I am a Capitalist, I also have to say, more power to them if they were able to come up with a product that people will pay that much for.

So.

There's that.

Ok, and then, after that, we were going to eat at a new Restaurant there but we couldn't decide.

Because here's our problem. Zach and I NEVER go out anymore. Like. Never. The last time we went on a date was Father's Day. Where we grabbed dinner because I had a coupon and the meal was like half price.

So, a night like last night, when we had the entire city of Omaha to choose our mealtime location from was overwhelming!!

We talked for thirty minutes about where to go. There are so many new restaurants in Omaha plus the ones we already love that it was nearly an impossible decision.

And we were so hungry by this time.

It was like 8PM.

Really in the end, dinner was this $7 meal that we split! How awful is that!!!

Ok, but our plan was to start at a place called Eat the Worm. Sounds amazing, right???

But they have just like street fair kind of food. And so we thought we would start with like an appetizer there and move on to somewhere else for like the main course.

Kind of like a progressive dinner.

Kind of.

Except I will never get Zach to go have dessert with me... :(

Although, my diet is thanking him!!!

Who are we kidding. What diet? Didn't I just say I was going to get really good at making cupcakes????

Anyways, as it turned out after the $7 nachos we were super full! And they were pretty amazing.

Ok, the plan after dinner was to meet Zach's brother and his girlfriend for drinks at another restaurant. Which we did.

They had been wanting us to go to a Reggae concert with them in NoDo (North Downtown. I am a hipster, remember???) and we were on the fence about it. We didn't want to pay for the tickets and although I love Reggae, (That's a true story. Love it.) we are not concert people at all.

Like. At. All.

We both love music. LOVE IT. And in my humble opinion have the most eclectic taste. Our music catalog ranges from Ke$ha to Simon and Garfunkle, from Johnny Cash to Cage the Elephant and from Eminem and Lil Wayne to Dolly Parton.

Like. We love it all. And realistically, Zach doesn't love Dolly, but he does love Country.

And he can't even tolerate Ke$ha but he doesn't mind Rihanna.

Ok. So we both like Reggae and eventually Aaron and Raven talk us into going.

Part of the problem for us too, was that we go out so little that sometimes we just need time alone. Just one on one time. Which has been all of our dates this year because they are few and far between. BUT. Next week is our anniversary, Woot Woot, and so we will be getting another date on Friday AND That one will for SURE be an exclusive night out.

Aaron and Raven are tons of fun and they were meeting up with our other friend James and so we figured why not.

Turns. Out. Reggae Concerts are the most chill, most fun kind of concerts ever.

Well, and I think we all know why.

But we had so much fun!!!! There were two bands, the opener: Tugg. And the main band: Soja.

Loved it.

Like, seriously loved it.

The music was phenomenal, and not just like the guitarists and the keyboardists and even the bongos, but Soja had a trumpet player and a saxophonist that could seriously blow.

Like, holy cow.

They were so good.

And their bass guitarist was my most favorite person I have ever seen. He was white. Like, allergic to the sun kind of white, but he had these knee length(Not even joking) blonde dread-locks. Oh, he for sure hasn't washed his hair since at least the 90's....

First of all. Awesome.

But what made him even better was that he totally defied the Bassist Dance. You know the one I'm talking about, that every bass guitarist adapts.... The guitar is sitting high on their waist and it's like a bop back and forth. A sway, if you will, of constant movement that doesn't ever really go anywhere.

Or you get the ones that just move their heads around like paralyzed chickens.

This guy. Did not do that. Oh. No. He skipped around the stage. Like a skip. Like what my girls do at dance class. Only it was super exaggerated and his knees would like reach his chest. And then every once in a while he would do a high kick. And not like the karate kind. No, like the high school cheerleader kind.

And even better is when he played his guitar while swinging his Repunzel length dreadlocks around and around and around.

Best. Bass. Guitarist. Ever.

Oh. And in a band full of black guys.

He was the one that rapped.

Yep. Him.

And whenever it was his turn to bust some rhymes... He pulled out these like super dark ray-ban sunglasses.

Now you're all jealous aren't you???

I knew you would be.

Oh my gosh. We had so much fun!!!

And.

I.

Even.

Did.

The.

Unthinkable.

I danced.

Yes, I did.

Yes, I did!!!!

It's hard to feel self-conscious when you're in a room with the whitest kids you've ever seen rocking out to Reggae in polos and crew cuts. The lady next to me was getting pretty funky and she was like this fifty year old woman in any other circumstance you would have assumed she was a librarian.

And like I said, those people don't care. Super Chill.

But. Let me tell you about the most disappointing part of the night!!! This is awful.

Just awful.

Out of every other night of my entire life, the ONE night I would have fit in with my whole Hippy-Dressed-Homeless-Vibe would have been last night.

It totally would have been last night!!! Hell, I already have the dreads and my wardrobe is like any pot-heads dream come true.

But dang it. Last night I didn't look like a hippy at all. The farthest thing from it.

Well, I don't know if that's true. I still rocked my clunky jewelry....

Zach bought me a dress while I was out of town last weekend that is super cute and flattering and all of that, but nothing hippy about it.

Which, I was all, THANK GOD someone in this relationship has good taste.

But then I wore it on the wrong night.

I should have saved it for my anniversary dinner and went with the same-old-same-old-bag-lady-gypsy-extravaganza last night.

Dang it.

And I also just need to say this because we were downtown a lot and there were a ton of street corner musicians.

It has always. ALWAYS. Been my dream to sing some Friday night on the street corner with an open guitar case and slow covers of pop songs.

Like seriously. I have always wanted to do that!

And not just because I think I can sing or that people would want to listen to me. Because I can't really and they don't.

But because there has to be just a tremendous amount of life lessons to be learned out of that much rejection.

Wouldn't it just be fantastic????

Well, I think so!

But the biggest problem holding me back is that I don't play the guitar.

I play the bassoon.

And I can't sing a slowed down version of Womanizer and play my bassoon at the same time. It's impossible.

Back to our night.

After Soja the friends we were with wanted to go to the After Party. Not like with the band or anything. Just our version of an after party.

So we decided to go back to Eat the Worm, because it had been such a hit earlier in the night and it's just a super fun, super cheap place.

But, the almost empty bar that it was earlier in the night had turned into this packed, body-to-body, hot spot.

James had gotten there first and was waiting outside for us and he was like, there is no way we are going to get in tonight. Like. No. Way. The bouncer isn't letting anyone in.

But right as he said that a group of people came out and so my husband, who I'm pretty sure can do anything, walks over to the bouncer and flashes his ID to get inside.

And the bouncer is like kind of fumbling, because he wasn't expecting someone maybe so confident, I'm not sure.

But he starts to tell us we can't go in.

At the same time, the waiter, who is also the bartender, and had waited on us earlier in the evening just happens to walk by the door, somehow recognizes us and yells to the bouncer, "Hey, they're cool, let them in."

And the bouncer looks at me, and he's like, "Oh, you know Chris?"

And I'm all, "Um, yeah I know Chris!!!"

And he's all, "Well, cool, ok then."

And lets us in.

First of all. That has never happened to me before and I kind of felt like the coolest person in the room.

Yep, I know the bartender.

But mostly it was hilarious and all just based on chance. And I should say, it's never happened to me before, because I've never been rejected entry before! I mean, I've always been let in.

And not because of these smoking hot looks ok.

I live in Omaha, NE.

It's not like we have lines around the block to get into our clubs.

I'm pretty sure we don't even have... "Clubs."

But it was just icing on the cake. And we had a big laugh about it.

And now on, I'll probably use that excuse wherever I go. It doesn't even have to be the same bar, I'm just going to be like, "Don't worry about it. I know Chris."

Boom.

Ok, but lets face it. I was up until past 2AM last night. And today I am tired, and cranky and exhausted and I haven't seen 2AM on purpose in a seriously loooong time.

The only other times I am up at 2AM is because one of my million children are up at 2AM.

So, as fun as the night was last night and it really was fun, I am not that person anymore.

I'm old.

And a mom.

And not like a MILF mom.

Just a regular old mom, with grey hairs and crows feet and a pension for shopping for my dream minivan online during the day.

Maybe next time Soja is in town.... Or maybe not. But regardless, I love my husband and it was fantastic to get out of the house and away from Parental Responsibilities for a while.

BLUE POLO.