It was Monday and my turn to plan our date. I knew our energy would be waning by the time Steve got home from work, so I wanted to keep things close by. I had been scrolling on Facebook and saw a new food truck in our area called The Breeze. They serve gourmet burgers and a variety of seasoned fries. I knew Steve liked seasoned fries, so I opted to give it a go.
When Steve got home we hopped in the car and headed out. When I told him my plan he took a deep breath in and let out a disappointed groan.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Nothing." he said. "Your choice. It's fine."
"Well, why did you make that sound?" I pried.
He admitted, "I just get nervous trying new places. Have you heard good things?" A flood of thoughts started to fill my mind...Have I heard good things? Are you serious? Are you seriously questioning my date plans all because it's a new experience? Psh!
Feeling somewhat dejected I responded matter-of-factly, "Nope. Just wanted to try something new and thought you might like to try the seasoned fries."
Trying to keep the mood light, he said, "It's fine. We'll give it a try." I sensed him trying to be accommodating so I also tried to push past my hurt and move on.
You know, side note, I hate disappointing people especially when I've put a lot of thought into trying to please them, and Steve can't help his anxiety of trying new things- so we were both in a place of insecurity. But guess what? Going through hard things together is good for us. Facing our fears- it's important in developing resilience and strengthening our relationship. Right? This too is an important part of dating.
This reminds me of when Steve and I went on our first single date. He took me to the Pizza Factory. I ordered a caesar salad and so Steve decided to do the same. Then he asked me, "What is a caesar salad?" I was sorta surprised he didn't know, but told him the dressing is made with a little anchovy, lemon, egg yolk... and he got visibly nervous. When I questioned him about it he said that he's normally strictly a ranch dressing kind of guy. We could've changed the order, but he decided to try it anyway. Luckily, caesar dressing wasn't as horrifying as he thought and although he didn't really like it, he ate it.
And while I'm reminiscing let me add one more memory. My family took Steve to eat at an Asian buffet when we were first married. He had never tried octopus and there was a dish with little mini octopus tentacles in it. He went for it and only dry heaved twice trying to get it down. We were all laughing. He had a harder time when he tried raw fish. Just the thought caused him to gag multiple times before even eating it. It was funny.
Now back to our date...
Since the food truck didn't post their precise location, we had to drive around and look for it, but luckily we live in a small town and we found it within 5 minutes, parked at a car parts store across from Burger King.
We parked and walked up to the menu.
After perusing the options, I decided on the Breeze burger made with berry jalapeño jam, cream cheese, sautéed bell peppers, jalapeños and pepper jack. I chose chipotle pineapple fries. Steve then surprised me and made me a little nervous for him- he ordered the strangest burger on the menu- the Black Pearl. Go big or go home, I guess. His burger advertised blackberries, bacon, cheesecake spread and pepper jack cheese. Cheesecake spread on a burger? That's right folks. With a side of garlic parm fries.
While we waited for our food to arrive, I introduced our activity- hijacking a song we both agree on and changing the lyrics to create a parody about our first date and how we fell in love. We scrolled through some songs and decided to go with Blinding Lights by The Weeknd. Then our food was ready so we picked it up and drove up the street. By this time the sun was beginning to set, so we parked at the nature park and watched the deer in the field while eating our food.
The drive wasn't that long, maybe 5 minutes, but the steam from the fries and the moist burger toppings totally sogged up the bottom bun. Nevertheless, we both thought flavor-wise, our burgers and fries were really good. Practicality though- the cream cheese fillings were slippery and causing everything to slide out. These were MESSY burgers. I think the food truck owners must've known that because they included hand wipes in our take out containers.
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| I know it kinda looks like a murder scene, but it was tasty. |
Steve's burger was really sweet and we were both relieved that the cheesecake and berries actually paired nicely with the burger. He said he'd order it again. WIN!! Yay! Trying a new place didn't bite us back. We enjoyed our food and they gave us each enough fries to feed a family! And may I say I appreciate a place that includes fry sauce. I love the stuff! Their fry sauce has a little smokiness to it as well.
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| If I get the Breeze again, I'll request light on the cream cheese. |
If I go back I wanna try the cowboy burger- pineapple on a burger sounds yummy. I only say "if" because the prices were on the higher end of what we normally pay when we go out to eat. It cost us nearly $50 after tax and tip for these burgers and fries we had to eat in our car. That's steep considering I just paid the same price for 4 of us to eat at China Star.
After we ate, we sure enjoyed laughing at our creative song lyrics. We started with the chorus and it fit well, then we created the 1st verse and it was funny (probably only to us) and also a bit rough on the rhythm. And since my posterity is sure to be curious and want an eye-raising (and possibly eye-rolling) experience reading what we wrote, here it is:
VERSE 1
I've been tryna call
We've been playin' phone tag long enough
Ain't got no-o cell phone or Facebook
aiding me
Now I get to pick you up
We'll have a good night out on the town
Smoothies, bowling, rando-tennis courts, baby!
I look around and
His cardigan's an heirloom
It's from his dead grandfather
But in the end it's from D-I-I-I
CHORUS
I said oooooh I'm blinded by your legs
The brightness of the sun couldn't do as much
I said oooooh I'm drowning in the white
Oh now I see why pants are things you trust
(Hey Hey Hey)
Alright, that song is a crack up to me, it's full of inside quirks of our first date and getting to know each other. Yes, I remember what Steve wore, his grandpa's old grey cardigan. My first thoughts were, "I like a guy who doesn't seem to be overly-occupied with how he looks and is confident enough to sport his own style." He wore that cardigan several times and told me that it was his grandpa's. Then his sister DoraLee set him straight one day, "That wasn't grandpa's! I bought it for a high school dance from D.I.!" (D.I. is a local thrift store.) After that, Steve was less attached to the cardigan and it found it's way back to D.I..
So, when I video called with Lily who is currently on a mission in Maine, she couldn't stop laughing, especially at the last line- now I see why pants are things you trust. And take note- Steve still trusts his pants to protect his white legs.
We both agreed that the song kinda grilled Steve so the next verse needs to be about me. So hopefully that means we'll continue this later.
Anyway, I really love our dates together. By the time we went home, we had been writing in the dark for about an hour in a practically empty parking lot. We laughed a lot and reminisced. I'm glad we included this creative activity for our November date. I just love spending time with Steve!
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