my date with craig

my "probationary" period for work was supposed to end on friday, falling near valentine's day, which is tuesday. so craig & i figured we'd go on an official date as a celebration of my full salary coming into swing, in conjunction with that cheesy made-up holiday. (of course we found out later - after the plans were made - that my stupid low salary lasts an additional week.)

we started our day by braving the blizzard watch and going out to the NY public library. they currently (ending today) have a display of illuminated medeival books, which i was drawn to. something about specializing in medeival literature in college....
but we got to see these books that are around 600 years old and have exquisitely detailed drawings in the margins, and the text is hand - written in fancy calligraphy that i can't read because i don't speak latin, greek, or german (yet). and the library also had a gift shop, so craig bought me a copy of aesop's fables, with replications of the illuminations. i've always wanted an illuminated medeival book, but since i am neither rich nor powerful enough to own a 600 year old book that was hand-drawn and hand- written, and which only 12 copies still exist, i settled for a $30 replication. and i say "craig bought me the book" but the money comes out of our joint bank account. but it's more romantic if craig "pays" for it.

then we wandered around midtown NYC while the snow lightly fell. we stopped in a small cafe to get a snack & hot beverage (my hot chocolate came from a packet, but it was still good). then we continued on our walk & ended up in a giant sports equipment store. this actually did have a purpose, as we need to start excersizing again (we had a gym membership and karate class back in california, but have been only lazy slugs since we moved). we didn't by anything because we didn't want to carry it around all day, and we can have it shipped directly to our home thanks to the magic of the internet.

we still had a couple of hours to kill before our dinner reservation, so we continued wandering around while the snow fell. we went in & out of stores, mostly to smell things. we went in illuminations (and tactfully restrained from buying anything, as we have no money or room for additional candles) and bath & body works. in bath & body works, i picked up a bottle of scented oil to smell, but the outside of the bottle was already all oily, and got all over my mittens. yeah, i know, i should have taken my mittens off inside the store, but i didn't, so now i have to wash them because they stink.

eventually it was time to eat, which was good because we were getting mighty hungry. so we found the expensive vegetarian korean restaurant that we had made reservations for, 2 weeks in advance. it was a no-shoes restaurant, so we continued in socks to the little cubby where our table was. the tables look like they're sitting on the floor so you have to sit on your knees or cross-legged on the floor to eat, but they really had a cutout below where we could stick our legs.
we had a pot of warm sake and a 7 course meal. each bite was better than the last, and all the people were really nice. if i could afford $100-plus tabs every night, i would live at that restaurant.

after our meal, which apparently lasted almost 2 hours, we were full of yummy (extremely healthy) food, and getting a bit sleepy. so we made our way home. our current netflix selections are metropolis and watership down, which are both depressing and a bit off-putting. not good date movies. so we watched the simpsons. big surprise there.

when it was time to go to sleep, i washed my face & brushed my teeth like normal. but i rubbed facial moisturizer into my eyes instead of eye makeup remover. here's a tip: moisturizer is not as effective as makeup remover, and it burns more. to my credit, however, they are in the same shape bottle, though vastly different sizes and colors.

then, in the middle of the night, the cat woke me up to tell me he was going to throw up on me. i sat upright, and he threw up where i had been laying. craig cleaned it up for me, and we went back to sleep.

a perfect end to a perfect evening.