Things To Do For Two

If you’re looking to change things up a little bit and you’re tired of the typical “Dinner and a Movie” type of date night, give Breakfast and a Movie a try. We recently went out for a morning date and really enjoyed ourselves.

SHE SAID:

You may remember from our Sunrise post that mornings aren’t exactly the favourite part of my day. However, if you have a full schedule and are trying to find time to spend with the one you love, you make the sacrifice and roll out of bed.

Luckily, we can always get our money’s worth from eating out for breakfast. For some reason we can stuff more into our traps earlier in the day (don’t stomachs shrink overnight?). Because I usually never want to put more energy into breakfast than pouring cereal into a bowl, I love going out and having someone bring delicious, warm food to me. We chose Cora’s for breakfast, where I ordered my favourite 1990’s Harvest (but I substituted yucky raisin brioche with French toast) with scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit sprinkled with icing sugar!

After breakfast we decided to head to the movie theatre. Since we were going to the Matinee it was cheaper and we practically had the theatre to ourselves, so that meant no annoying chair kicking or talking during the movie! As for the movie itself, we went to see Michael Jackson’s This Is It. I enjoyed the movie, but I’d have to say you really have to appreciate his music and enjoy watching how a huge musical production is put together to ensure its two hour runtime.

Breakfast dates are great if you work night shifts or if you have other commitments later in the day or if you need to force yourself to get up early so you get more done later on.

HE SAID:

I think I’m slowly becoming a grumpy old curmudgeon.

Let me explain.

The typical date night includes dinner and a movie. This doesn’t really work for me for several reasons. First, I tend to not enjoy going out to dinner that much because restaurants are more crowded, and I’d rather be home eating a home cooked meal. Second, I’d much rather watch a Blu Ray at home than go to the theatre and listen to other people loudly munching popcorn right behind my head, kicking my seat, and checking their phones every 5 minutes.

See, grumpy old curmudgeon.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m totally a morning person. So taking the dinner and a movie idea and turning it into breakfast and a movie works perfectly for me. The best part about going out to breakfast is that it never feels like a waste of money. We typically can eat everything on our plates, which is something we never manage to do when we go out for dinner. Not only that, we tend to be so full that we don’t eat again until dinner time, so we save money by not eating lunch. It’s fantastic!

One of our favorite places to go for breakfast is Cora’s. We hadn’t been there in several months, so it was a nice treat to go back. I usually go for the Rosemary’s Sunday which is the typical bacon, eggs, toast, and crepe breakfast. This time I went for something a little different. I got the French toast with a mountain of fresh fruit. It was really good. The best part of our breakfast came near the end. If you add an extra dollar to your bill it goes toward the Cora Foundation and they give you a mug. That pretty much made my day.

We then headed over to the theatre. It was kind of strange being some of the first people there. I was surprised how many people buy popcorn and other treats first thing in the morning. We recently tweeted about a deal with Empire Theatres where you text a certain word to a number they provide and you get a buy one ticket get one free coupon. So after using that coupon, plus the fact that it was an early show, the cost of going to the movies was much lower than usual.

I really had a lot of fun with our morning date. I would do breakfast and a movie again in a heartbeat over dinner and a movie. We got to go out and have a fun time while still having the rest of our day ahead of us. If you’re a morning person then I probably don’t have to sell you on this idea. If you’re not a morning person, take some solace in the fact that half of your morning will be spent in a cozy dark theatre that will be nearly empty. It’s kind of close to being home in bed, right?

If you have any favorite breakfast spots we would love to hear about them. Let us know in the comments.

This is the second of a three part series where we go down memory lane together. The idea behind memory lane is that one person takes the other to one or more places that hold special meaning from their past. It can be anything from an old hang out spot, a school, or anything else. The idea is to learn something new about the person you’re with and to get a new perspective on their life.

SHE SAID:

I never realized how in the country I lived until I met Brad. The first time he drove out to my parent’s place he thought he had crossed a continent to get there. I thought as time passed he would get used to the drive, but he still acts like it’s a day trip, when really it takes 45 minutes to get there. Even though I grew up, as some might say “in the middle of nowhere,” I loved it and wouldn’t trade it for the world. Little did Brad know when he signed up for my memory lane experience, that he would be going even further into the middle of nowhere.

I hadn’t been back to my old high school since I graduated and heard they had built a new one, so I decided to take Brad to see my old school. As we drove I could remember where the bus stopped and pointed out different friends’ houses. My biggest surprise came when we rounded the corner to my old high school and there was no sign it had ever existed. I drove up the driveway to where my school used to sit atop a big hill and found a soccer field in its place. I knew they had built a new one, but I didn’t know the other one had been completely annihilated! All at once I felt sad because my school now only exists in my memories, and old because I’ve lived long enough for this to happen.

I feel like my memory lane experience was a bit of a disaster because it’s hard enough to explain how things used to be when you have an actual physical building to show someone, but it’s near impossible to try to get them to imagine what existed. I tried to make up for the lack of physical artifacts to show Brad by driving him down some back roads but they only served to creep him out even more. If I do this again I’ll be sure to scout out the area beforehand and make sure everything still exists.

If you don’t have time to actually go somewhere like your old high school, grab an old yearbook and experience it that way. It may even be more fun and will definitely save money on gas. You can laugh at all the crazy fashions and quotes people signed on the inside covers and then be thankful you found the person who loves you despite it all.

HE SAID:

I’d like to make a personal admission right off the top. Although I have an appreciation for nature, one of my biggest failings as a husband is my inability to relate to Susan’s connection with the country. We’re not talking about 10 minutes out of the city kind of country. We’re talking about middle of nowhere, complete isolation, no high speed internet (gasp!) type of country. To be clear, I don’t look down my nose at the country or the people who live there, I simply can’t relate. I’m a city boy through and through. I will admit that the first time I drove out to the house Susan grew up in I could not believe how far it was, but I’d like to think I’ve gotten used to it. I enjoy going out there to get away from the noise of the city.

For Susan’s memory lane she decided to take me even further into the country to where she went to school. Despite what she would have you believe, I really did have a fun time. There were some similarities to our days in junior high and high school that we were able to relate with which was nice. I think we both felt a bit of a loss as her school got torn down and mine is now a creepy condemned house of horrors.

She pointed out some of the homes that her friends and schoolmates grew up in, as well as other little memorable spots along the way which was nice. Over the years I’ve become familiar with some of the names of her high school friends so that made it a lot easier to follow along.

I really like the fact that we come from such different backgrounds. I think a lot of people marry someone who they have a lot in common with, but Susan and I couldn’t be any more different if we tried, and I like that. I enjoyed this glimpse into her past even if I won’t ever truly understand what it was like. I think taking each other down memory lane has been a great experience and I would recommend you give it a try.

One of the things we thought would be fun to do for this blog was themed movie nights. We recently did a retro movie night, but on Halloween we took the leap for the first time in our three years of marriage and watched a scary movie together. I survived without any claw marks in my arms, and Susan survived without succumbing to heart failure.

SHE SAID:

I try to avoid watching scary movies like I avoid the H1N1 virus. Most people can sit down in a dark room for hours and watch axe murderers, exorcists and aliens unleash their rage and walk away unscathed. Not I. As soon as the movie ends I feel like a murderer is hiding in the shadows, or worse, under my bed! I avoid mirrors for weeks. Even previews at the movie theatres can give me nightmares. I blame it on watching Rescue 911 and Unsolved Mysteries at too young an age.

It goes without saying that when Brad suggested “scary movie night” this past Halloween I was hesitant, to say the least. However, I hadn’t watched any scary movies since “The Happening” (I know, not technically a scary movie…) so I thought I’d give it another go. Our friend picked “The Others” for us to watch, starring Nicole Kidman.

As soon as the movie started with an unexpected blood-curdling scream I wanted to turn it off. I fought through it, though, despite the eerie music, horrifying camera angles and downright creepiness.

Once the movie was over, something miraculous happened. I didn’t sense any doom, I wasn’t afraid to look in a mirror (for too long), and I wasn’t crying like a fool! I believe this is due to several factors that might help you along, should you somehow have the same irrational fears as me:

• We watched with friends after much lighthearted conversation.
• No one snuck up behind me or latched on to my neck in an attempt to scare me.
• No one quoted any creepy lines from the movie – THIS ONE IS KEY.
• We continued with lighthearted conversation after it ended.
• Brad let me squeeze his hand as much as I wanted.
• I had comfort food.

As much as I can’t stand the thought of a scary movie, once in a while it is fun to scare yourself. It may even be healthy to get the ole’ heart a pumpin’. If nothing else, it definitely brought us closer together.

HE SAID:

Of all the themed movie night ideas, I never thought Susan would agree to do Scary Movie Night. I’m not the biggest fan of scary movies, but every now and then I get the urge to watch something creepy. For the last three years it hasn’t even been an option for us to watch a scary movie together.

The movie we chose would likely not be considered scary by most people’s standards. But you have to understand that we had to take it easy since I’m not really interested in becoming a widower. “The Others” was more of a loud noises and creepy children type of movie rather than the kind of movie that keeps you up at night from fear of being murdered by a strange creature of the night.

Now, I’m not going to lie. It was very tempting for me to do something to add to the scariness of the night for Susan. I could have left the room and then crept up behind her and scared her, or in the middle of an especially tense scene suddenly screamed “BOO!”. However, I value my marriage. I also value sleeping in a bed, not on a couch (although I’ve never been kicked to the couch). Both of those things combined are far more important to me than the fun of scaring her.

I tried taking videos of Susan clutching the arm of the couch and covering her eyes, but it was too dark in the room so it didn’t turn out. Here’s a picture of her first time driving across the Confederation Bridge to show you what she might have looked like had the pictures turned out. Regardless, I really enjoyed scary movie night. It’ll probably be a while before we indulge in such things again, but I’m glad she got over her fears even just once. In the end it’s just more proof that it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing, as long as you’re enjoying time with another person.

If you have a favorite scary movie we would love to hear about it. Maybe you have a fun story about watching one with someone. Let us know in the comments.