Wake Up, Little Susie

I can hardly believe it.

It hasn't happened in such a long time I had forgotten what it was like.

I'm talking about a date, folks. A real, honest-to-goodness date with my hubby.

We dropped Savannah off with some friends around 6 this evening, then took off to the mall/theater. We bought movie tickets for a show starting a little later on, then walked over to Johnny Rockets, which has always been a favorite date spot of ours. I know, nothing fancy, but since I apparently belong in 1952, I guess it should come as no surprise that I enjoy a noisy burger joint with dancing waiters and oldies blasting over the speakers.

Johnny Rockets brings out Ricardo's romantic side. He always puts a nickel in the tableside jukebox thingy and selects "Wake Up, Little Susie" for me. We decided tonight that if The Newlywed Game is ever resurrected and we are chosen to go on the show, and if they ask us what "our" song is, we will mutually pick this song.

The reason this is our song? Well, back in the day when I actually had a "real" job (ha!) working outside of the home, Ricardo would wake me up early every morning.

I am not a morning person. I wish I could say I bounce out of bed full of vim and vigor every day, but I would by lying. Cranky? Yes. In no mood to converse with anyone? Definitely yes.

So here I am newly married, and Ricardo would wake me up in the most jarring fashion possible. Jabbing me in the side while saying, "Get up! It's 6:30!" And not in a quiet, pleasant voice, either.

And I would roll over and groan and snap at him to stop poking at me.

I guess it's not his fault...he can't help it that he is up every morning at 5:20, and unlike me, chock-full of vim and vigor at that hour.

After a few mornings of this cheery routine, it became evident to him that he needed to come up with a different method.

And so he started singing to me instead. He would serenade me with "Wake Up, Little Susie" every morning.

I'm pretty sure I still rolled over and groaned. But at least I didn't snap at him anymore. And so was born "our song". Maybe not so romantic, but it works for us.

Now that he doesn't have to wake me up every day anymore, we don't think about the song very often. Except when we go to Johnny Rockets.

It was fun to sit back and relax and talk, just the two of us. I know we don't get out by ourselves often enough, but we're working on it. We have some great friends who love Savannah and have offered to take her anytime (thank you, Tara...we will take you up on that soon!)

It was almost 9:30 when the movie was over, so we drove back to pick up Savannah. She hadn't missed us in the least. Apparently the highlight of her evening was racing around our friends' house with a toy vacuum cleaner, because the rest of the night she kept telling me that she "cleaned, Mama, cleaned!"

For the record, she didn't get her love of cleaning from me.

So that was my night. Thank you for taking me out, honey....makes me feel like a newlywed again.