The last time I did one of these was in 2019—you know, pre-pandemic when life seemed simpler. Some things are similar from 4 years ago but things are also different, in a good way.
My dad’s birthday is the 16th, so Josh and I met my parents out for dinner on Thursday at LongHorn Steakhouse. Funny enough, that was the last place we went out for dinner in 2020 right before the world shut down, again for my dad’s birthday. But things were better this time around, and Josh got to join.
Friday night was, of course, date night with my parents. Josh always has an open invitation, and we had an extra guest join us, too.
Family friends, a husband and wife my parents have known for years, are moving back to the area from Illinois, and the husband is in town for a few weeks to get the new house ready for their final move from their current house. He asked my parents if he could join us, and they said yes. We hadn’t seen him since December 2021 when they came back this way for the holidays and we went out to dinner with them.
My mom, Josh, and I were excited for this particular date night because the restaurant has specials for St. Patrick’s Day that includes a boiled dinner and Reuben—and we could not wait for the Reuben sandwich.
When we sat down, I immediately asked why my mom’s beer was green, and it was something the bar was doing with any of the light beers. I ordered a Bud Light for the sole purpose of it being green and I was very happy.
The Reuben was everything I remembered it being and more. I ate the whole thing, no shame.
In the parking lot before we all left, I got a container of corned beef hash from my mom, made special for Josh and I. (It looked a lot sketchier the day before in the LongHorn parking lot when she gave me a container of pea soup.) This is my favorite time of year because for about a solid week, all I eat is various versions of corned beef and I love it. Josh and I are excited to have the hash and pea soup for dinners—on different nights, of course—and a big shoutout to my mom for making it all.
Our usual Friday night routine is to go grocery shopping after date night, so we headed over to a less crowded store, even for a Friday night; everyone was probably out drinking. After we got home and unloaded everything, we went for a quick walk around the neighborhood to walk off our dinners.
Since Josh had Saturday off from work, we decided to have a sleepover in the living room. We’ve done this a few times before, and I finally remembered this time around to take a picture of the setup. We move our mattress out between the couches, and thankfully it fits perfectly.
We caught up on a few shows—Animal Control and Abbott Elementary—before going to bed before 10:00 p.m. because we’re old souls. It was so nice to sleep in Saturday morning and take our time getting up. I know Josh appreciated getting up around 9:00 a.m. instead of 3:30 a.m. when he gets up for work on the weekends.
When he decided to take the day after St. Patrick’s Day off, Josh told me he wanted to go to a local breakfast place for brunch because they’ve done specials before for the holiday. I said yes, and boy was it amazing.
We both got the Irish Skillet with eggs over easy, onions, peppers, corned beef, home fries, and wheat toast—very Joe and Jill Biden of us to get the exact same thing.
After we left, I wanted to stop in Target, because why not. I ended up getting another bathing suit for our beach trips this summer. (I’ll have Fridays off again from June to August, so Josh and I can do more day trips since we’ll both be off on Fridays.) As we walked around, I remembered why I don’t go to Target on Saturdays—it’s way too busy—but we got in and out and headed back home.
Since Josh wanted an easy day off, and I didn’t have much planned for myself, we decided to go for a walk down at the river canal where we’ve gone before. However, we didn’t realize it was closed for the off-season and won’t open until April 1. Thankfully, there’s a shorter path in the opposite direction of the canal path that we were able to walk on.
The path is right next to the Connecticut River, and we walked about 2.25 miles around. And we saw some dogs, which was great.
I was craving an iced coffee, so we made a quick stop at a Dunkin’ on the way home before we had a few hours to ourselves. I read on the couch and watched a few women’s March Madness games while Josh gamed on his computer. We made dinner and then started season 3 of You.
Also: I’d like to note that for the first time in 4 years, I’m not signed up for the local St. Patrick’s Day 10K road race. For some reason I thought I’d be able to run it in 2019—hahaha nope—and then I was actually training for it for 2020 before it got cancelled. My registration ended up getting deferred to last year’s race, and I remember getting my bib number email and being like, uh, yeah no thanks. I got the shirt regardless, but I knew I wasn’t signing up for it this year, which felt like a relief. One of these years, though, I would like to do it. Maybe next year?
Strikeouts + Sprinkles 