two-thousand-and-nine.

This post is a little late for the start of 2009, but what the heck. The picture above was taken on New Years Eve. Cory and I had high hopes of going on a romantic date to a chic restaurant where we could dress up and enjoy a bottle of wine along with some amazing food. Didn't happen. We called nearly 15 places for reservations only to be told they had openings at 4:30 or 10:00 or not at all. I expected to get home from work and have to rush to get ready and out the door, however that was not the case. Instead I put on sweatpants. Cory called a local place — The Mississippi Belle. Oh, they had an opening at 7:00 (and 6:00 and  6:30 and 7:30 and so on). That, itself, was red flag #1. Screw it we thought, lets just go. We walked in to a room full of nobody. Red flag #2. We took our seats. After interacting with our server a few times we came to the conclusion that he may have been a mechanic who was laid off, therefore began serving. He tried very hard (and did a decent job) to be all professional like it was a fancy place, but it was mostly just awkward.

I took a bite of a cherry tomato in my salad and literally gagged. I thought I was going to barf from the fishy taste. And at the bottom of my plate underneath the lettuce was some weird liquidy stuff.. wasn't the dressing because I got that on the side. Gagged a little more as I pushed the plate to the edge of the table. Our food came. I ordered scallops with a pasta and Cory ordered his usual salmon. Mine was okay. I'm not sure if it was the whole atmosphere and the barfy salad that only made it "okay" or if it really was just that blah. After Cory had a few bites of his salmon he decided the white sauce on top was a can of cream of mushroom soup with added mushrooms. Classy. I didn't eat much so just got a to-go box out of kindness. The best part of the meal was the glass of wine and the best part of the experience was doing so with Cory. A good reminder that New Years Eve is just another day!