Recharged

Since January, our weeks have been spent juggling 7th and 8th grade basketball games, the high school basketball games, basketball and cross country practices and cross country meets. There were some weeks where neither of us returned home for the night before 9:00 the entire week. Needless to say, it was invigorating due to our district championship wins on the court and the course, yet exhausting because of a lack of controlled laziness and much needed emotional intimacy.



Oftentimes the only time we got to talk and debrief was late at night while trying to fall asleep. I missed lazy and playful mornings spent in bed, cruising the internet and channel surfing. In fact, three major milestones and events passed us by these past few months without any proper celebration: our engagement, our first "official" Valentine's Day and our year anniversary. We just didn't have the time nor the energy to be able to celebrate and enjoy each other's company the way we should.



So shortly after we got engaged and began looking at the upcoming months and our crazy packed schedules, I convinced Craig to take a weekend off from everything so that we could go away together and celebrate everything that we had neglected in the past few months.



After my first full basketball game in several years on Friday night, we woke up early on Saturday morning and finished a few loads of laundry and packed for our weekend adventures. We started off checking into the Crescent Hotel in downtown Dallas, which is one of the most recognizable and famous hotels in Dallas. I was a little intimidated - I'm not really an upscale Dallas girl. I'm more comfortable in sneakers and windshorts than stilettos and skinny jeans. Regardless...I knew that with Craig by my side it wasn't about impressing anybody else or making them be envious of me. All that mattered was that we were going to have a relaxing and quiet weekend together.



After checking out our room we braved the hurricane-like winds that whipped through the towers of Victory Plaza and headed into the AAC for the Stars vs. Ducks hockey game. We have season tickets to the Stars which we have thoroughly enjoyed, despite their tendency to come out of games outscored this season. Saturday was no disappointment with the Stars losing their point advantage in the third period to lost 4-2, but the loss was quickly remedied with a fantastic fight between two Ducks and #29, Steve Ott.

We once again braved the winds and headed back to our hotel where we shut the black out curtains and both agreed to the same activity...napping. We slept for about an hour and woke up slowly and watched the end of Ricky Bobby - not my first choice of movie, but it's on Craig's level as far as comedy goes. We then got freshened up a bit, put on our nice clothes and heavy coats and headed out to Nick and Sam's, which is a very nice and well known steak house in the nicer area of Dallas. Although we had reservations for the restaurant at 8:30, being Dallas on a Saturday night we did not sit down to eat until closer to 9:00. Despite the time delay, we still had a delicious meal in a quieter section of the restaurant. It was so nice to just sit and enjoy a full meal without worrying about running into students, or keeping a running list of things to do upon arrival at home in my head.

We were just able to sit...and talk...and enjoy each other's company. Which is part of the reason I am marrying him - I just love to be in his presence and hear his thoughts, his ideas, and his perspective on things. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and shared our presents with each other. I was delighted to find out an 11:00 massage appointment had been arranged for me, along with breakfast delivered to our room at some point in the morning.

All in all, we had a simply delightful weekend. We both turned off or silenced our phones and were able to just relax and enjoy being in each other's company, which is something that rarely happens in our busy schedules.