Last night my husband and I went on a date, a real Saturday night date. During the last five years of my sickness with Crohn’s colitis, there weren’t many romantic moments, and dates were long gone. So maybe we just forgot that we could go on dates again. Even though it has been a year and a half since my surgery, it is only now that we are rekindling the excitement of a date. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve gone out to eat plenty of times, but let’s face it – grabbing a meal together or landing at the movies isn’t quite the same thing as going out to dinner and a movie on a date.
Last night, I dressed up. We went to a new restaurant we’d never been to before, one that serves authentic Neapolitan pizza. I was so excited – my grandmother is from Naples, and several years back I visited some third cousins in Naples and had true Napolitano pizza, but had never had the real thing since. We read that this restaurant followed the rules – a true Neapolitan pizza must satisfy a host of rules, including using San Marzano tomato sauce, being no more than 1/8 inch thick, and cooking in 60-90 seconds in a 900 degree oven.
We had a little wait, so we sat at the bar. It struck us both as odd – it’s been forever since we sat at a bar together. I ordered some wine and we toasted, and it felt so new, so special, that we had to ask the bartender to take a picture of us. Special occasion? No, but yes. My honey and I are sitting at the bar together, we are enjoying a glass of wine, we are letting it sink in that this new life is unlimited.
We had a big field greens salad with pickled pearl onions; a pizza with roasted fennel, balsamic roasted roma tomatoes, and wild mushrooms; and a pizza with shaved garlic, baby arugula, wild mushrooms, and goat cheese. And as we sat there enjoying what turned out to be exquisite pizza, and staring into each other’s eyes like newlyweds, I could hardly get over the fact that not only was I on a date with my husband, but I was enjoying pizza and wine and the only consequence I would likely face is being about a half pound heavier in the morning! As if that weren’t enough, I had plenty of energy to go to a 10 PM movie afterward.
(sigh) What a lovely summer evening.
