How to be a Romantic Fool or the Neighborhood Idiot

One thing that I have learned over twenty-five plus years of marriage is that you occasionally have to remind each other why you got together in the first place. The easiest way to do this is on a date but after twenty five years - how do you make this special? I believe that pure idiocy can help.

Last Sunday Stu was out, Pat was working in the office and I was watching baseball in the family room on both the TV and the PC. The game was wrapping up, I was hungry and Pat needed a break from work. I walked over and delivered her a wine cooler (step 1). Returning to my seat in the family room I waited an appropriate time for the wine cooler to be drained and then I invited her out the way the kids do it these days - via e-mail (step 2).

After the Red Sox won and shortly before the agreed upon time I took a quick shower to eliminate the debris from a day of lawn mowing and house repair and then quickly dressed in better than average weekend attire (step 3). I did not interrupt or talk to Pat during this process.

Then came the idiocy part. I left.

I got into the car, drove past a bewildered Pat looking out the office picture window, down a the block to the next cul-de-sac, turned around and came home. Under Pat's watchful eyes, I parked on the street, locked the car,went to the front door and rang the bell. (step 4).

Pat was rather bewildered when she answered the door while still maintaining a phone conversation. I stood there, cold bottle of wine in hand (purloined from the fridge on my way out - step 3a) and asked if I was early for our date (step 5). She looked at me, laughed and told the folks on the phone that she had to go.

Unfortunately, the plan fell apart from here as the first two restaurants were closed as a result of the holiday weekend causing us to drive in a zig-zag pattern across town until we found that our third choice was open.

The restaurant mix-up didn't matter as Pat was both surprised and delighted as a simple Sunday meal was changed to a date. It didn't cost me anything more than a little loss of dignity driving around the neighborhood and being seen hanging around outside our house with a bottle of wine.

Oh, we saved the wine for after dinner.