Today the girls and I went to F's house for lunch. We have been spending A LOT of time with F and her son B. We must like them. Today, my amazing friend, who is an amazing cook, made what we like to call "stupid salad" (an inside joke between me, F, and our dear friend K) and some homemade wonton soup. I followed suit and brought some fruit - that totally rhymed. I don't know, it always seems like I bring fruit to all our lunches. I really need to learn to cook more. Anyway, it was really, good. I had two bowls of the soup and a nice pile of stupid salad. It was a great way to start the day - that rhymed too. I am on a roll, right?
After lunch we bopped home to let our house helper in and the girls and I went upstairs for a while to play and relax. I love play and relax time cause it is really just relax time and sometimes we fall asleep. I love me some sleep.
I started to get dinner ready a little early and made sure Paul had a bottle for Abs because tonight I went out with a big group of ladies to a nice restaurant near here called "The Blue Strawberry." I had heard about this place from a few people and was really excited to try it out. Apparently it is on another camp so abayas are not necessary, and the dress is "dressy casual," so I actually got to dress up a little. Normally my choice of attire is limited to casual mom stuff like long skirts, sweats, or shorts/jeans/capris with a tank or T-shirt; the lovely black abaya; or PJ's - similar to my sweats and T-shirt from the "mom" collection. So it's nice to dress up once in a while.
So I got all purdy and some friends picked me up. If you have enough people, the restaurant will send a shuttle bus to get you, so that's what we did. I didn't know most of the women who went very well. I had met most of them once or twice before, and there were three moms from playgroups I had met a few times, but most of the women were quite new to me.
It was a blast! The beginning was a little scary. It is supposed to take you 15 minutes to get to this place so after 45 minutes, and several moments that felt like we were driving through a mountain range or going four wheelin' we were all a little concerned. Apparently the driver had encountered a road block and, in an attempt to take a short cut around it, took us waaaaay off course and had to go all the way around and back to where we started to get to the right road. At one point someone commented that maybe he was driving us into the desert to make us his wives. Fun to joke about for some, but I have always had a serious fear about being abducted and taken as a hostage. I have honestly never met anyone here yet who has been unkind to me (other than those crazy women at the malls) but it just takes ONE idiot to ruin a good time. It didn't help that 9/11 was yesterday, the driver did about thirty U-turns, and the bus had curtains on the windows so you couldn't really see where he was going. Even IF he was just a nice driver who made a mistake, which is how it turned out in the end, NONE of us had our abayas and I can just imagine us trying to walk through khobar in our short skirts and tight shirts.
We finally arrived late for our reservation and in one piece. Our table was waiting and the restaurant was really quite beautiful. The menu is pre-set and before going we had all chosen what we wanted to eat. It was "seafood night." I normally don't do seafood, but I was feeling adventurous and it truly paid off. I chose crab cakes for my appetizer, Hammour for my main course, and a tartlett for dessert. IT. WAS. REALLY. GOOD. And I was quite full when all was said and gobbled. I think I would really like to go back there again with Paul some time. They do Italian night and Steak night sometimes too, which I know he would like.
Throughout dinner there was lots of laughter, lots of chatter, hugs, triple dog dares, and just some genuine good times. There were several birthdays and "Happy birthday" - the 5 minute rendition - was blasted extremely loud every time they brought out a cake. I really enjoyed myself and was very happy to have been invited. Dinner went a bit long and I got home later than planned, but the girls were asleep and I got to cuddle with my man - a perfect ending to the night.
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