The Rookie Dad is about to burst. He is full of romance and doesn’t care who knows it, not even his wife. But she’s about to find out.
—
I’ve decided to put myself out there. It has been way to long. You would think that this gets easier as you get older. But it isn’t. I want to spend each Friday and Saturday night sitting in front of my TV watching re-runs of Bones. But that gets old. The perfect print of my butt in this chair is starting to get uncomfortable.
It is the same feeling I had when I first moved to Kansas City. I was an introvert. I spent most of my time holed up in my apartment while other 20 something, recent college graduates were out having a good time. Except that feeling was my back on the first piece of adult furniture I had bought, a couch.
There is a yearning for this. Again, I don’t know why this is so hard. It isn’t like I have to go out of my way to find that one girl who would even slightly show me interest in a crowded bar. She is sitting across the room as I write this. In fact, she looks like a mirror image of me now with her laptop in her lap, lost in either some Facebook conversation or studying the fine art of arguing (she is going to school to be a professional arguer, a Lawyer).
There is something missing though. Since the birth of the Rookie, this has been missing. There have been times where we have been really good about it but lately, we have been in a rut. Between school, work, and parenting finding time to ourselves is to put it lightly, difficult. But there is nothing more than I would love now than a —
DATE!
With Mrs. Rookie Dad!
There is something about getting all dressed up and going to your favorite restaurant and spending an evening together, without a child. We always say that we won’t talk about the Rookie while we are out, but the conversations always seems to make it back to him. Which isn’t a bad thing, it is just a reminder that we need to be enjoying the time we have together.
I wish that we had more time to date each other. I wish that we could make a regular time for a date but life with a 4-year-old can be unpredictable. The last time we had planned for a date, the Rookie ended up getting sick. Then there are the times where we can’t find a babysitter. It isn’t for a lack of trying I guess.
I look over at Mrs. Rookie Dad as she sits on the couch and often wonder how I landed such an incredible woman. Maybe that is why I want to go out on a date with her, because I feel like she is out of my league and any man like me would be lucky to have her and want to make her feel special.
I looked forward to last week knowing that finally, our date was coming. Even though it was the week of Valentine’s Day, and many couples spent the day together Saturday, our date was not on Valentine’s Day. It was on Friday the 13th (I’m not superstitious) so that we avoided the crowds and the high priced 6 course dinners that those couples will be having.
That is how you know you have landed that special girl. When it isn’t so much about Valentine’s Day, but about knowing the entire year that you love each other. Knowing that for the rest of your life, you are with the person that loves you more than anything in the world.
Originally appeared on The Rookie Dad.
Photo: Flickr/BryanCampbell