FINE DINING

Michael and I are doing pretty well on the financial side of things right now. I mean, we’re not rolling in the dough, but we are being fiscally responsible. We have a small amount of debt that continues to shrink each month. We’re paying our bills on time and we even have a safety net in savings for emergencies. That last part seems almost like the most adult thing I have ever done. I come from a paycheck to paycheck way of life. Life growing up fluctuated between poor and okay. Chris and I were poor. We were not good at managing our money in any kind of way and we were bogged down with student loan debt. We started out our career journeys already in a deep hole. Michael and I started our relationship when both of us had just barely made it out of our own financial holes and because we had not learned any lessons, we immediately fell back into a hole. I think we finally learned some lessons in finances.

Every other week, we sit down to review bills and Michael looks at the bank account to see what has processed and where we are spending our money. Really, we are starting to change our mindset about not just where we spend, but where we want to spend our money. Turns out that there aren’t too many ways we want to spend our money. One way is charity. I am all the time throwing twenty dollars at some charity and Michael is all the time asking “What’s this international charge?” This month was to help Ukrainian refugees. Planned Parenthood just automatically gets ten dollars a month. I feel like I should do more. I want to do more. But…this is where we are. We also want to spend our money traveling. Traveling has been a very solid part of this relationship. Michael and I have very different interests, but we both agree on going places and seeing stuff and we both agree on eating really good food.

We went to Farina for my birthday in January and had such a nice dinner. The food was amazing. The service was impeccable. We were not crowded or rushed. It was all just really so nice that I asked why we didn’t do this every other month. So, before we had even finished our dinner, we scrolled through a list of fancy restaurants, chose one from the list and made reservations. That reservation was for Novel and happened Saturday evening and it is going to be a very hard one to top. Michael and I ate some of the most full flavored dishes that I think we have ever eaten. Michael took one bite from his appetizer of his beef sirloin tartare and closed his eyes in bliss. He said it was so good that it almost made him mad, like he should throw his fork across the room. I had the Brussels sprouts salad that was so good that I didn’t even notice until I was almost finished that I had eaten raisins. Those of you who know me, know my feelings about raisins, but I was not at all mad about the plump golden raisins in my salad. We shared an order of butternut squash ravioli and shrimp ramen, where I basically licked my ramen bowl clean. Then we finished out our order, Michael with a pork chop and me with a perfectly cooked piece of salmon. We got dessert to go and ate it for breakfast the next day.

We had to be rolled to our car.

As per tradition, while we were in Novel, we picked the next place, Corvino Supper Club. The couple next to us heard us making our decision and the woman chimed in “Corvino’s is so good. We were just there an hour ago.” I looked at her, she and her partner were both very fit. I had noticed that they had each had an appetizer of the tartare. The had both had entrees where they had cleaned the plate; his was a giant steak. I said “You were just there tonight?” She nodded her head enthusiastically and said “Yeah! We had drinks and appetizers.” Michael asked her what appetizer she had and the woman responded “steak tartare.” Michael and I looked at each other to make sure we had both heard the same thing and he said “You had the steak tartare there and here?!?” Again, nodding enthusiastically, the woman responded “Yeah.” Michael said “Okay then…I think we’ll be happy with our next food adventure.”

I think I like being a grown up. Well…at least this part.