A Night to Remember

Aaron and I went to a Valentine's Dinner/Dance last night at Thanksgiving Point. I was very impressed that he planned a night that included wearing a tie (his least favorite piece of clothing) and slow dancing (not on his top 10 list either). It was kind of him to endure both for his loving wife.

When Aaron told me about our Valentine's date, I hopped on the Internet to check out the details of the night. This is what the writeup said:

Arrange a very special evening with The Joe Muscolino Band and enjoy an exceptional dinner, featuring sparkling cranberry juice, pull-apart mini bread loaf, mixed greens salad, Bartlett pear, pomegranate and blue cheese mixed greens salad, marinated chicken breast with dried cherry-orange marmalade, yukon gold mashed potatoes, buttered baby carrots, and a dark chocolate cake with strawberry truffle filling.

Sounded fabulous!



When we arrived, we were not disappointed. The bread, salad, and drinks adorned the tables, and the Joe Muscolino Band was set up and ready to go. As we were seated, we noticed some coupons by our place setting. One said, "Coupon good for one trip to the photo booth," while the other read, "Coupon good for one trip to the candy table." Wow! Freebies. I was so excited that we'd have a commemorative picture of the evening.

As we stood in the LONG line for the photo-op, I pictured the romantic backdrop that Aaron and I would soon have our picture taken in front of. Suddenly, I saw a couple returning to their seats with what looked like a strip of photos from an actual photo booth like you'd find at a mall. The coupon that read, "Good for one trip to the photo booth" actually meant what it said! There was no photographer, but there was a man running the booth. When we finally reached the black velvet drape that enclosed the booth I said, "Hey, do you ever catch anyone doing anything nasty inside the booth?" I guess my line had already been used a couple of times that evening, because he did not look amused. Aaron and I did a terrible job inside the booth. Though we were the shortest people there that evening, we somehow got our heads chopped off in the first photo, did a really awkward looking kiss in the third, and look severely handicapped in the fourth.



The candy table was more of a success. They had lots of conversation hearts, gummy hearts, chocolate pretzels and chocolate covered cinnamon bears. Since chocolate covered cinnamon bears are my absolute favorite, I just loaded my entire bag up with those, much to the chagrin of the woman in charge.

Back to the meal . . . The only questionable part of dinner was the main dish. The writeup had said we were having a chicken breast, so you can imagine the horror I felt when I returned to the table and found something other than a breast on my plate. It was like no piece of chicken I had ever seen. Each person's plate had a large piece of chicken "breast" with a big leg sticking straight up out of the right side. Was it a genetically enhanced chicken, produced just for this special meal? Did the chef somehow tie a chicken leg to each breast just to gross me out? My family would've been proud of me as I did manage to cut around the strange looking appendage and enjoy the meat.

On to the dancing . . . I had a fabulous time watching people on the dance floor. It seems that taking a social dance class was a prerequisite for attendance that evening. There were couples out there that should've been on "Dancing with the Stars." They were good! I saw people doing the jive, the swing, the salsa . . . It was crazy. The other thing I noticed was that many of the couples in attendance were over the age of 65, and they were shaking it. There were a few things I wish I wouldn't have seen. One older gentleman was groping his date's deriare the entire evening, there was a woman wearing a torpedo bra (like you'd see on "Mad Men")with a white T-shirt that didn't leave much to the imagination, and there was also a woman dressed up as the Bride of Dracula. Very entertaining!

It was definitely a night to remember!