We were talking this evening about how strange it is that we don't really go out to eat much anymore. That's pretty strange, since at least now we have the cash flow to support such a habit. There are several factors at play here.
The first is that we just haven't found any places yet that we love going to. If I could describe the problem, it would be that restaurants here try to be too complex, whereas in the Midwest places try to be simple and comfortable. The Winking Lizard continues to be one of my favorite restaurants of all time, because I was always comfortable going back, left satisfied and never paid much for pretty solid food. I miss that.
Don't get me wrong, we've had some really good meals out here, but we want the whole package, including atmosphere, comfort food, lots of beers and inexpensive food. It seems like such an obvious concept that would work anywhere, yet it's so hard to find. (I think there's also a perception out here that anything inexpensive can't be good, but that's another blog post.)
The other problem is that I'm still not in a groove where I'm actively ready to go out after work or on weekends. I've really enjoyed just relaxing. Diana is the polar opposite, desperately wanting to get out of the house to fight the stir crazy. But she's also got the issue where she digestively suffers late in the day, so that doesn't help.
It's not just dining out though, as we really don't do much for ourselves overall. We don't really treat ourselves to anything (though Diana is clearly not in the right condition for buying clothes, for example). I find myself pounding away at the debt we racked up in the last year. I think that's why I wanted Diana to have the new laptop for her birthday, because she deserves something nice of her own, especially since it's her portal to the world right now. A minor delay in paying that stuff back wasn't going to hurt anything.
It's certainly not that "stuff" makes you happy, but as it is we're going to be very outwardly focused in a few weeks. I feel like we've accomplished so much in the last year, and haven't really rewarded ourselves for it. It really is OK to reward yourself.
So I'm not sure what that means exactly, but we're going to do something to correct it. Maybe it means buying new picture frames to fill with new pictures around the apartment, or maybe I buy myself that Lego carousel (you know, to build with the boy, six years from now). Maybe we buy a new coffee table or kitchen appliance. Shit, I should probably start with a haircut, since it has been around four months. I've even thought about trying to put holes in my body again too.
At the very least, we're going out for dinner soon. We've worked our way through local Italian places (all average at best), so perhaps we'll try Japanese next.
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