Post #176: Our First Dinner

Today, all my plans were done in. I was to go book club today to discuss, The Ha Ha: A Novel by Dave King (HIGHLY recommend this book!). However, my sitter had to take her husband to his doctor's appointment! We all know men can not go to dr.'s by themselves! Book club was my big outing for the week. My other plan for today was to finally dump all the boys' clutter in their room. This may still happen but not as sprightly as I had hoped. You see, I was up until 2:00 a.m. this morning with preggers insomnia. Some of you may know what I am talking about. It is that combination of backache, restlessness, heart burn, and hormonal heat that keeps you from getting some decent sleep. I have dragged the whole day. The overcast weather does not help either.

As I often do when I lie awake and my hubby is gone off to work in the tropical paradise that is Nigeria, I reflect on many of our moments together, especially those of us when we were still courting, as brief as that time was.  These memories are further reinforced by browsing through the endless digital "photolog" I have created since knowing him, far cry from my boxes of "old school" print photos he discovered when we were hitched and moved in together! Yes, he proudly takes credit for bringing me into the  digital world full of electronics and technological gadgets. Alas, Babylon! Since him, I now run with an iPod (before I ran with no music), run with gadgets strapped to my shoes and wrists,  upload all my  pictures, use a Kindle, use an iPhone, and am the proud owner of a very user friendly Mac.  I also am a better blogger (especially since he edits my posts when I am asleep), since he switched me to Google and swept me away from Yahoo.  And with everything he has introduced to me to, perhaps the one thing that is the most precious to me is just him. Okay, my iPhone runs a close second. On many days, I could do without monitoring my run times, too.

From Around the Apartment

Here is a picture of me making our first dinner. Before this, I had never tried to cook for him. We usually went out. This time was different. We were in his apartment in South Africa about to entertain his good friends to ask them to be our witnesses at our secret lighthouse wedding taking place in a few days. I had the brilliant idea of making a traditional Mexican meal for the occasion, Arroz con Pollo, in South Africa. Mexican restaurants are hard to come by over there. Even harder are Mexican ingredients! This Mexican-American also did not know that icing sugar was the same as confectioner's sugar or powdered sugar. My un-savvy hubby did not know either.  I could not make my Tres Leches. I think in the end he picked up a dessert that I made into semi-homemade parfaits.  We topped the meal off with Sangria that I nervously overloaded with fruit! Some of the few things I remember about that dinner was 1) I hated searching for things in that kitchen but was to sweet on my man to complain 2) while I loved the South African grocers, I hated not know where everything was or how it was labeled! 3)being nervous about my Mexican rice being too soggy 4) wishing I had not volunteered to make such an ambitious meal in a strange place!

What my husband remembers is that it was the first meal I cooked for him and that while I cooked it, I danced to music in the kitchen. He has it on video. Which I have threatened him to NEVER air.

What still brings tears to my eyes is that he acknowledged later that he did not know I even knew how to cook, but was proud of how great everything turned out. Something that simple (so to speak) made him beam with pride.

From Around the Apartment

Bringing my memories into the present, making dinner for him is still something I love to do. It is hard not to love it, when he always thanks me and kisses me on the cheek. He is my best food critic and fan!

Looking back at these pictures I see things that traveled with him into our kitchen, such as the bread basket and the food scale. Neat.

I also see how long my hair was!