Colleen and I celebrated our 17th anniversary. Plan A was to import Maine lobsters, smoke them on my grill, and enjoy them with a great bottle of Italian wine I had picked up our our favorite wine shop. That plan fell apart, however, when I learned that FedEx won't guarantee Saturday delivery to my home.
So we moved to Plan B. We cautiously and nervously decided to brave a restaurant for an outdoor meal.
I found us a fancy restaurant with a huge outdoor patio. We had a cocktail, (still) a great bottle of Italian wine, one hell of a good meal, and tiramisu (our favorite) for dessert. It was glorious. And, minus the masks we wore walking from the car to our table and the masks the restaurant's staff wore at all times, it did not feel all that odd. Indeed, far from odd, it felt really, really good to feel "normal," even if just for a few hours.
Oh, and one more thing. We arrived home from dinner to a surprise our kids planned for us. They met us in the driveway with blindfolds and led us to a candlelit backyard with a plate of homemade chocolate-covered strawberries and marshmallows … and Norah's guitar and Donovan's keyboard. They serenaded us with "Come Way with Me" by Norah Jones (our wedding song). A perfect end to a perfectly "normal" day.