Monday, December 10, 2007

Close misses

I'm keeping busy busy, and I feel like someone has stolen half of December! I cannot keep up with everything. Two days last week I missed my writing goals. I started to catch up this weekend, and I passed the 30k mark, but I have more makeup words to write today. So far so good.

Friday night we had date night. I know there are a few McEwan haters out there, but I love his writing and Atonement is my favorite. I've been waiting months to see it, and it was finally released in the US this weekend. Unfortunately I didn't find out until Friday afternoon that it was a limited release, so it wasn't playing anywhere in the south bay. We did have a lovely dinner downtown, where we were seated next to a couple on their first date. We could hardly talk because we were so absorbed in the oddities of this couple. They were probably in their mid-40s, both had children of their own, but they acted so immaturely it was as if they were teenagers on their first date. The man said he wanted to sit next to her after dinner, so he invited himself over to her house. Uh huh. "Sit next to her," my arse. She ordered sorbet for dessert and when she didn't want anymore, she dumped it in the to-go box with her dinner. Okay. And then I was horrified to hear him say, "I am so aroused right now. Nobody should ever be this aroused." *shudders* No. No they should not (or he should not). Mind you, the seating in this place was tight, and I'm sure we weren't the only ones to hear that declaration. I wanted to wash my ears out with soap. Eurgh.

Saturday night was Hubby's work Christmas party, which was interesting. Hubby remembered the time of the party wrong, so when we arrived fashionably late at 5:30 for a 5:00 start time, we were actually stupidly early for a 6:00 start time. Hello Starbucks. We were by far the youngest people there by 10-20 years. I knew he was young for his job, but I didn't realize how young until we were there. Then I had a strange experience when I was meeting his co-workers and their wives. I was worried about the dreaded question: "What do you do?/Where do you work?" I prepared myself to be brave and pronounce my writerly ambitions. (Sort of. At least, I was planning to tell the truth: "I'm a writer.") However, people didn't ask that question. Instead they asked me: "Do you have children?" While chatting with one friendly wife, I discovered that her oldest child is my age. Ha! The 50s/60s dance music after dinner was a tip too. Hubby was honored to be one of only a dozen who received gag gifts. They called his name right after the new CFO and right before a VP. Guess young hubby has made a good impression! He was so embarrassed, I loved every second of it.

Finally, we dropped Drew off at a friend's yesterday so we could spend the day in San Francisco at the Dickens Christmas Fair, but we had to run an errand downtown first. I bought Adam some jeans a few months ago at H&M, but they didn't fit and we haven't driven up since then. (Incidentally, H&M did open a mile from our house, but sadly they only sell women's clothes.) We left our friend's place an hour late, and with all the Christmas shoppers downtown--including a man who asked us to give him change so he could buy drugs--we didn't leave Union Square until 4:30, so we ran out of time for the fair. Hopefully next weekend. Although Atonement does open here next weekend, so we'll see if we have time left.

I can't wait for Christmas Day to arrive with morning mimosas and relaxation (and, um, you know, presents!). (Sorry for the novel-length post. It's been awhile.)

5 comments:

Jenny Beattie said...

OMG, Angie, 'I'm so aroused' on a first date? Are you quite, quite sure? eeeeewwwwrrrgh. That poor woman.

You're okay with me I really like McEwan, can't wait for Atonement in Thailand - not til March, I think.

The work Christmas party sounds fab. I'm still trying to recover from ours!

JJx

Alix said...

Oh no that couple sounds terrible, What a thing to say on a first date, how did you not laugh!
We saw Atonement on Friday (only in art cinemas) for some reason and I loved it. It's very faithful to the book and beautifully shot and really well acted especially James McAvoy.
Well done on the word count!

Lane Mathias said...

aw you have date night. That's lovely but eugh yuk to the 'aroused' man. Enough to put you off your food!

That Dickens Fair looks wonderful:-)

Kristen @ frostingandfroth.com said...

Um, gross. PDA is one thing, but references to physical arousal in public are quite another! To put my reaction in less-than-sophisticated terms: yuckety yuck yuck!

Yay for Atonement! I can't wait!

Just finished reading Gentlemen and Players. Have you read it? It's by the author who wrote Chocolat. So very delicious (Gentlemen and Players, not chocolate, although chocolate is delicious as well). You must read it!

Angie said...

JJ, quite sure, unfortunately. It was traumatic for me. I did feel sorry for her, but she was a bit strange too.
Yay, another McEwan fan. Sorry to hear you have to wait so long. It's been out in England for months. Maybe you could catch it next time you visit (if that's sooner).
It was fun, but weird. Hope yours was swell!

Alix, I think I was snickering under my breath, and hubby was definitely giggling, though he was next to him, so he wouldn't have seen him.
*sigh* I can't wait to see it this weekend. I'm glad you liked it. I've seen a lot of praise for McAvoy's performance.
Thanks!

Lane, it's more like forced, twist-his-arm date night. ;) Good thing I'd finished my dinner already. I was trying to gulp down the rest of my wine asap! (Nothing new then. ;)
Hopefully we'll make it to the fair this weekend. If not, we'll have to fight traffic the weekend before Christmas...


Kristen, yuckety yuck is right!
You mentioned that book to me once. I may have to borrow it. *wink wink* And mm, chocolate!