Thursday, March 25, 2010

Looking at Dead People + Tacky Dining + Blizzard = The Birthday Date

Last week, aka Friday of the snowstorm, Mr. Curls and I trekked to Denver to visit the museum of Nature and Science. His birthday was that Wednesday, yup, his Bday is on St. Patrick's. So, our excursion was a kind of birthday field trip, which was cool. (Side note: now that he's officially 33, I may have made an old man joke or two. That is, until he pointed out that while some might call him a cradle robber, it would be just as appropriate to call me a grave robber, and I've made fewer old man jokes since then.)

It was the perfect day, too, lemme tell ya. Driving through snow to get there was fun. Also, I was feeling pretty lousy from the cold/strep, but I didn't want to put it off 'cause I was looking forward to the museum. Yes, I am a nerd. Sue me. Once we got there, I decided to spring for the extra tickets to check out the Body Worlds exhibit. Way cool, and also surreal. Being able to walk through it with Mr. Curls and see him have the same reaction to it that I did was nice. It's not everyone's cup of tea, and certainly not for the faint of heart, but it was fascinating and he gets it.

After the museum, Mr. Curls wanted to go to Casa Bonita (as seen in South Park!) for dinner. The last time I'd been there was a field trip in third grade and I was afraid it wouldn't seem as cool now that I'm a grown up. Luckily, I had nothing to be worried about. It was way fun. We got a table right by the waterfall/diving pool and got to see the diver do his show while we ate. After, we went to the arcade and played silly games to win tickets and get silly prizes. I am now the proud owner of a set of chattery teeth and a rubber pirate ring that lights up.

Then, the drive home was outright blizzard-y for about half the way. It took an extra hour to get home, plus a stop to clean off the wipers so I could see through the windshield again. Mr. Curls was calm enough about me driving through the storm, which was a relief. There's nothing more fun than driving in bad conditions with a freaking out passenger. There was a spot or two where he got nervous, so it's not like he was oblivious, just that I was careful and he didn't think I'd kill us.

He told me later that I'm now on the list of about three people other than him who he trusts to drive in crappy weather. "There have been times when I've been riding with someone in bad conditions," he said, "and I have literally asked them to either let me drive or let me out."

All together, it was a very eventful day. It was also a day that could have ended with frayed nerves and us snapping at each other, but it didn't, which makes me happy.

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