Thoughts on a night off

Today is Thursday, the infamous Chang parent night off. All our friends know this by now: Tom and I alternate Thursday nights off from the kids. We still eat dinner together but evening entertainment and bedtime are "off" for the lucky parent.

Tonight was my turn off and it's amazing the thoughts that are allowed to bubble up to the front of my mind when it isn't cluttered with 2 year old yelps or 4 year old random questions like why does Lightning McQueen wear stickers. And while none of these random thoughts warrant a post by themselves, they were the events of my late night off.

- Tonight was probably one of Tom's easiest nights "on". I took the kids out for a bike ride with the neighbors and wasn't back until 7PM. We went out for dinner, therefore fewer dishes and generally agreeable kids in a restaurant. Tobey was so dead tired he was out within 10 minutes of coming back home which means Tom didn't have to lie in bed and chitchat with him for 15 minutes nor deal with him popping out of bed with random excuses for the next 30. Eli was in bed by 9 as usual. I hadn't even left home for "night off" by then.

- Alternatively, it was one of my most tiring nights out, since I was active with the kids all afternoon through 7PM. I took the kids to the library where they had outdoor water fountains to play in, perfect for an 85+ degree day like today. The second we came home we went on that bike ride with the neighbors' kids which is becoming a great little tradition on our block. By the time we went out to dinner, I was pooped. I literally had my head in my hands as I waited for our number to be called at In-N-Out while Tom and the boys were washing their hands in the restroom. Imagine, I might feel like that everyday if I actually played with my kids everyday.

- When I did finally get out of the house for my night off, I decided to drive the minivan because I was too lazy to switch my keys to the Camry keys. That was a mistake because I felt very "mommy" in the minivan and the very point of night off is to take a break from mommyness. Something about driving around in a big box, bigger than you'd ever need as a single person. I also realized that I never drive the minivan at night, Tom always does because he's the driver when we're together. I would have felt much more human had I driven the Camry.

- I perused Border's, something that I've been wanting to do on my own since going there last week with the kids. It was fun to read excerpts from books and pretend to be well-read. There were actually a lot of books I was interested in reading but didn't buy any because 1) I wasn't sure I'd actually read any of them and 2) I'd feel bad if I got a better deal on Amazon. I ended up also looking for books for our next couples Bible study but at least the one thing that I really didn't feel like doing was looking for bargain books for kids. I started to out of habit and I was so bored of it, I almost felt ill. Tom and I once made the rule that on night's out we can't shop or do things kid related. Neither of us really have a problem keeping to the rule.

- When I dropped by Starbuck's for the night off drink, there was this kid about Eli's age. By this time it's pushing 10PM and whenever I see kids out that late, especially on my night off, I immediately feel bad for the parents. I always assume their kid is so awful at bedtime that they just keep them up to wear them out. Why else would anyone voluntarily bring their kid to Starbuck's at 10PM? This kid wandered from his parents' table, stood in line, half dancing and pulling up his shirt. He reminded me of Eli actually. And I wondered how wonderfully free it must be to be a kid, with no clue of social norms and who must have some kind of happy song in his head to spontaneously walk like he's dancing.

- Speaking of Starbuck's, I spent 5 minutes too long at Starbuck's because the people in front of me took their coffee way too seriously. The gentleman was literally telling the barista girl how to make his drink, something about running the hot water for a while before using it to rinse his cup for blah blah blah. He even admitted that because he's old (50's from my point of view) he gets pickier and pickier. No kidding. No Starbuck's drink should have more than 4 standard adjectives in front of it. Tom's drink? Grande iced soy decaf mocha. He barely makes the cut because technically "grande" isn't an adjective, it's a size. My drink? Tall decaf Java Chip Frappucino, one adjective because "Java Chip Frappucino" is the name. Okay, two adjectives if you consider "Java Chip" a flavor adjective like "caramel" for a macchiato (which I think is a totally made up drink but then again, I've never been to Italy). 50 year old guy needs his own espresso machine at home. If he's that picky, you'd think he was too good to drink Starbuck's.

- While walking to my car in the parking lot, I was gathering thoughts for this very blog post, like why do so many people in Sunnyvale adore PF Chang's, cluttering up MY Chipotle and Border's parking lot. I reached into my pocket to unlock the minivan to have nothing beep or blink for me. I had walked to the wrong minivan. The world has one too many gray Odysseys. I felt like an idiot.

But at least I was a happy idiot with a night off.