Thoughts by Richard Bleil
Watching a movie of the same name, I’m reminded of the first time I knew of a couple that had “date nights”. I worked with her in an analytical chemistry lab where she worked in the front office. One day, she excitedly hung up the phone with a smile on her face, and I had to ask her what is up. She told me that her husband of many years had just called to ask her out on a date. I think it was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen.
Date nights count. They are a great way to keep a marriage fresh and young. As for me, I rarely had the opportunity to truly enjoy date night. For a couple of years I was, actually, married and we did have date nights, but for most of my life, I spent date nights alone wondering how much the rest of the world was enjoying their time.
In college, Friday night was an excellent time to do my laundry. I never did drink, so while everybody in the dorm was getting drunk and dating, the laundry room was completely empty. By Sunday, the guys in my dorm were all suffering horrible hangovers from their two-night binges, and I had clean clothes.
Today I face special problems but having date night plans is certainly not one. As my inheritance runs short, I have suddenly had far too many unexpectedly large bills sopping up what little remains far more quickly than I would have liked. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been able to “coast” without needing to work, but the clock on that luxury is up. So now I’m stuck with the question of what it is that I want to do.
I am working at a drive-in theater as a ticket taker, and I find I enjoy that job. There are a couple of reasons for this including the fact that I like the owners and the people with whom I work, but more than that, I’m enjoying the lack of responsibility. It’s truly a low-stress job, and I enjoy that. So, maybe I need a job with low responsibility, and the ability to set my own hours. And I can work on date nights.
Today I took a step that I have been considering for quite some time and signed up for one of the major food delivery services. I haven’t delivered anything yet (maybe tomorrow), but it will be interesting to see what my most successful nights are. My prediction, though, is that date nights will be my best nights.
While everybody in the entire world are enjoying spending time with that special someone, I’ll be bringing them food. Yes, it’s kind of pathetic, but if they’re in a good mood, let’s hope that they’ll want to show their appreciation with tips.
If you have a significant other, regardless of how long or in what capacity, don’t forget how special that person is to you in your life. If you’re too busy on date nights to deliver food to people who have much better lives and are far happier than you are, then be happy about it, and don’t forget to show that special person in your life how much they mean to you. Take advantage of time alone to do something special, even if that doesn’t mean going out.
These days, “date night” can easily mean a night in. In MY day, the only food that was delivered was pizza (and not even good pizza), and the only thing to watch in the home were three channels, and PBS. And sometimes that channel in Cincinnati, but the snow was very bad. By high school, you could rent tapes for your VHS player if you planned ahead, but always remember to be kind and rewind.
Today, there are streaming movie services and lonely people like me delivering food on date nights because we literally have nothing better to do, but our loss is your benefit. Give that special person a massage, or if you don’t normally cook, make a special supper. Oh, no, don’t; order food so I can make some money. And don’t forget to tip.
I’m kind of wondering how long the food delivery craze will continue. As the cost of food continues to rise, I’m guessing that it won’t be long until people decide they no longer want to pay delivery fees. But for the moment, I’m going to see if I can make some money with it, and set my own hours in doing so.
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