Anniversary

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. I was thinking 7 wasn't an important year, not like 5 or 10 or 15 (or 50), but honestly, 7 years, that's a long time. We've been married for 7 years. How did that happen?

Anyway, kind of at the last minute we decided to go out to dinner, to celebrate those 7 years. Back in Boulder we would probably have gone to the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse http://www.boulderteahouse.com/index.html. I vividly remember our 5th anniversary dinner at the Teahouse. I was 6 or 7 weeks pregnant, and so very nauseated. I made it through the dinner without vomiting, and then we went home and waited for some houseguests to show up. We can't remember what we did last year, but we think we went to the Teahouse with the babies. Sat outside, by the creek. Sipped a glass of sparkling tea. Oh well.

Well, OK, so now we live in Ridgecrest. Our very nice babysitter, from the boos' daycare, agreed to sit for us. Ridgecrest supposedly has a couple of "fine dining" establishments which we might have tried, but today is Monday, so they weren't open. Finally we decided to go to Farris' Italian Gardens, on East Ridgecrest Boulevard. The ads say "It's the perfect place to take the family for a delicious Italian dinner." It's right next to Farris' Diner, which serves breakfast and lunch. The Italian side has low ceilings and pale green cement walls, plus a dark floral carpet. Mismatched tables and chairs. Artificial plants in the corners. Large families enjoying Italian dinners. But since it was our anniversary, we pretended we were in a much fancier establishment. We talked about the babies and our jobs. At one point the waiter came by and apologized for the wait, saying my salmon was taking longer than expected. When it arrived, I could see why -- it was distinctly overcooked. But it was still pretty good, and the roast potatoes that came with it were delicious. Rocket Boy enjoyed his scallops. We each had a glass of Chardonnay and toasted ourselves: "7 more years!"

Afterwards we decided to go to Charlie's for dessert and coffee, just to try out another bit of Ridgecrest nightlife. Charlie's is associated with the Carriage Inn hotel. It has an extremely high ceiling, with flags of various countries filling up the empty space. It's kind of a sports bar, full of television sets. We ordered decaf coffee, one piece of carrot cake, and one piece of Godiva chocolate cheesecake. We split the two pieces of cake and proceeded to make ourselves sick. In retrospect, one piece of cheesecake would have been a better choice. But navigating dessert menus is hard for a Weight Watcher. We toasted ourselves again with the coffee: "14 more years! No, make it 21!"

Afterwards, Rocket Boy said, "Is there anywhere else you'd like to go?" I said, "You mean like Walmart?" We agreed there were no other choices and headed for home.