New Year's

We had planned on going away for New Year's. Someplace warm, but some investments and financial jiggering I'm doing had not produced cheques in my hands yet. So without cash in hand we chose not to stretch resources.

What to do?

Smitten had been less than thrilled with a couple of suggestions I had made about nightclubs we could go to, so I was at a bit of a loss for something interesting to do. She didn't have a bunch of suggestions for alternatives.

We were a little aimless and listless about what to do for New Year's. I especially wanted to go out, because the last n (14?) years were spent with either stbx-Mrs_C's family or with one other couple in a small house event.

Neither Smitten nor I are "gotta party" at New Year's, but we agreed it would be nice to do something special or outgoing.

I heard a radio ad for an event at an arts centre here - 3 venues inside one facility - live band stage (3 bands), dance venue, and rave/techno venue. It sounded good - and was affordable ($35 each). Some of the options in the city would have hit over $100 per ticket before drinks.

She was agreeable. I promptly picked up the tickets.

I had been out for lunch at a new wine bar/restaurant a couple of days before and had noticed they had a New Year's event - wines specially paired with the meal with explanations of why and what and where from a culinary perspective - kinda cool - like attending the food network live. So I booked us for supper.

I bought some funky new shirts - and wore one of them for the evening out. Smitten looked smashing in her black cocktail dress and draped scarf/shawl thing.

It was an exquisite meal - the wines were just perfect with each course. Smitten doesn't care for sweet wines, so she only had a few sips of the ice wine with dessert (an amazing pumpkin cheesecake).

We drove to and fro the restaurant, but cabbed it to the event. Again, I had taken care to book the cab in advance so there would be no wait (this mention of the planning involved is relevant to something later).

The cab arrived a little early so we got to the event only shortly after doors opened, so the start was a little slow - but things picked up quickly enough.

We danced, and laughed, people watched, and drank. It was wonderful good fun. We even necked in a dark corner for awhile (that's been more than 20 years...).

We caught the bus home (I had gotten all the info on pick-up and connection times that night). A cab would have taken at least an hour. Smitten had brought extra clothing in a bag and slipped them on during the ride downtown before our connection to the bus back to my place (the bus was only partly full).

(where we live the government owns the major insurer [there is mandatory auto insurance when you register your car. If you have plates you have insurance. We have the lowest average rates for auto insurance in North America]. The government owned insurance company [which makes a small profit each year] pays for city buses [in the major cities] to run on New Year's - you ride for free - not a full schedule, but good enough if you plan your ride time. The police are out in full force. The government also pays for extra enforcement and spot checks. But you can take a free bus. We are not a big enough city that there is the full scale 365/24 public transit there is in really large centres)

It was a beautiful winter night and the walk to my place from the bus stop was pleasant.

We enjoyed a glass of this spiffy premium scotch i have a bottle of when we got back to end our evening (well, not quite end, but you can fill in some later blanks yourself there). Smitten thought aloud that it would be fun if we had something, uh, organic, that is decriminalised in Canada. I realised that I still had a partial organic unit stashed away (my niece had given it to me for my birthday in 2005). This would be the 5th time I've indulged in about 15 years - about the same for Smitten (I gave it up after having kids - can't be affected if you have a kids. a 30 second delay in waking up in the middle of the night could literally be life or death [at least to my mind] - if there was a fire or one of them was choking or something).

I put on a Santana CD from 1981 - Smitten likes Santana and I knew she didn't know this album. I listened to it a lot when I was younger. stbx-Mrs_C hated it, so I hadn't listened to it in about... 15 years (fyi: married for 16, dated for 2 before that).

As we were listening and enjoying our scotch (which tasted even better now) I was transported back in time. I don't know how many of you have indulged in organics but it has a way of altering perceptions. Transported back in how I felt. Feeling alive. I had felt alive all night with Smitten, but the moment provided a direct link to how I felt when I was younger.

I also had a few memory doorways open - and I realised that she was very [extremly] close to a past mental construct I had in my mind of what and whom I was looking for in a partner - in a woman. That realisation kind of bowled me over. I had closed off that piece of my memory for a long time - my ex-girlfriend K [from post Too Nice A Guy] had at one point [circa 1987 - not while we were actively dating] made me describe the woman I was looking for.

I was seriously blown away by that memory and that realisation. I'm still processing it. I'm trying to figure out why that wouldn't have popped into my head when my counsellor asked me to visualise what a fantasy person would look like and react like. I think because he asked that before I left stbx-Mrs_C. Someplace deep in the bowels of the boxes of my stuff is likely an envelope that actually has the pictures I cut out and the descriptor pages I wrote. I think I will go digging for it sometime this month.

The next day I asked Smitten what she would like for brunch. She sadi "the same thing you made me yesterday". I thought she said "Whatever you want to make me". I dug in on her choosing something - so she said quiche - knowing it would take awhile and be a fair bit of trouble to make.

But I made it anyway. Luckily I had not wheat flour in the place (from the bread experimenting i am doing) to make a crust - spelt flakes, spelt flour, and buckwheat flour. I had no pie plate so i had to improvise with a glass bread pan i had.

I have included a picture of the plated food below. I plated it to look like a plant pot with a flowering plant in it: