Friday, August 01, 2003

It's A Date

In case you hadn't heard, I'll be in Bangladesh for a few weeks starting next Tuesday. I return on the evening of August 18th after a twenty-four hour journey home via Heathrow, and get back on a plane at 4 the following morning for the Alaskan Cruise with my siblings and parents.

The 18th, of course, is my anniversary. August ninth, Darcie's birthday, I'll be missing altogether. And, of course, I'll miss her -- this is the longest we'll have been away from each other after dating for thirteen years.

So this afternoon at four, beard trimmed and Teaching with Technology Institute module outlines posted to my coleaders for critique, Darcie's parents came by to watch the baby, and we went off to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen down at the mall across the road from UMass Amherst. There's not much to say about the film save that it was quite possibly the the worst movie I've ever seen, with an almost incoherent sense of plot, some fake-as-all-heck special effects (check out the first close up body shot of Mr. Hyde, the first strong man with styrofoam arms), and a bunch of just dumb inconsistencies (Like a cruise ship in the canals of venice. Get real, Nemo.). The theater, which had come highly recommended, made up for the difference: comfortable high-backed seats, soft classical lighting along velvet walls, and an especially large screen, anomalous for what is otherwise a sparse and seedy mall, three dollar stores and a collectables shoppe.

Dinner afterwards in another well-recommended place, the Lord Jeffrey Inn in Amherst itself. No disappointments here, though: the room, set around a crackling hearthfire, was otherwise dark and romantic, furnished with old books and a minimum of faded mallard decoys upon old bureaus. And the food was excellent: gorgonzola and pancetta cream sauce over spinach linguine and under steak tips for me, pecan-encrusted chicken and spinach greens for Darcie, and a plate-swap midway eagerly and mutually agreed upon.

It was a good date, with a lover and an old friend, the kind you wish you could have more often no matter how often they come. Good enough, even, to make me wish I wasn't going anywhere, after all. And moreso when we got home to see the baby smile at us, and hold her arms out to us both.

God, I'll miss you, girls.

posted by boyhowdy | 11:38 PM |

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