A Smokin' Date!

Last night, Mr. Wonderful and I got to go on our first date since 1947. It was fabulous and wonderful!

We did some Christmas shopping, laughed, talked, shopped some more, had a lot of indecision, and ticked off the workers at Border's...who ended up hinting not so subtly to us that the mall was closing. Wha'?!!!

See, I thought the mall closed at 10, when, really, it closed at 9...so we were takin' our own sweet time looking at books. I swear...when we walked outta there, they closed those gates so stinkin' fast, I'm surprised I don't have marks on my back. Sheesh.

Talk about "Don't let the door hit you on the way out!!!"

Anywho...so we finished up our shopping, and headed out for a (very late) bite to eat. We sit down, and order quickly...'cuz we had "twelve minutes to order...otherwise it'll be appetizers".

Yikes!!! I'm a horrible decision maker, but under pressure, I perform, baby!! I made my decision lickity split! (For the record...it was Chicken Fajitas...you know, in case you were wondering!!)

So, we're enjoying our late meal...whispering sweet nothings to one another and staring into each other's eyes (*snort*)...when suddenly there was a lot of action in the bar.

No...not that kind of action...shame on you!!!

Mr. Wonderful couldn't see a thing...he had his back to the bar area...but I had a front row seat! (Kinda) I saw people rushing around, saying "you've gotta clear outta here"...and "I called 911"...and more rushing, scurrying, and...well, rushing and scurrying.

My first thought fear was that someone was either; a) having a heartattack...or b) choking. Not something I would like to step into. I'm a labor nurse. I'm not good with trauma or...or...hearts and choking. Well, I take that back. I could handle the choking. It's the heart attack that would give me a heart attack.

Next thing I notice, is a peculiar blueish fog begins to fill the bar area...and then, the acrid smell of smoke (actually, it smelled kinda good...I'm a campfire girl...). Then, chaos set in...on behalf of the servers.

Some were all take charge dictators, some laid back "whatevahs", and then there were the power strugglers, "No paying tabs, you've just gotta leave!!" "No, they hafta pay their tabs!" "No, Brad said to just get everybody out!"

And, what do we do? We sit and soak it all in...and try to finish our meal that had just barely been set on the table. It's funny...while the servers were frantic...the customers were all relaxed and laid back...

Like, "Dude...chill. I just wanna finish my supper."

In the end, our server came (calmly--she was great!!), threw a coupla boxes our way, rushed to get our bill, and then we were outta there!

And that's when the excitement began!!! (Let me preface this by saying no one was hurt...I think it was just a lot of "protocol"...)

First, this was waiting outside: (if you look farther back, you can spot the first fire truck...that had just arrived...)

Then, pretty soon, this showed up:


And then? This:


Next...and most exciting...was this:



A ladder truck?!!! Wow. A ladder truck...all that for a little water heater fire.

So, we sat in our van in the parking lot...and finished our boxed up meal.

How utterly romantic.