Our Sweet Escape

In a few short hours, Norm and I will be heading North on the 101. The wind in our hair, the sun in our faces and best of all, the backseat empty. Norm's sister Joanie is coming over and watching Josie and Owen for the night. Now that the clothes are laid out, the instructions and schedule clearly written and the house thoroughly cleaned, the excitement over our night away has surfaced.

We are going to Evvia, a Mediterranean restaurant in downtown Palo Alto. We will be dining with good friends whose company we always enjoy. Our hotel is walking distance to the restaurant. Our reservations are at 6:30 pm which leaves us plenty of time to walk around after dinner but get home before the drunken sorority girls are trolling the streets. I know from experience drunken Stanford sorority girls don't start showing up until well after 11pm.

The real excitement is that for one night we can pretend that we don't have kids. We can pretend we are a new couple who has nothing to worry about but whether to hold hands or walk arm in arm. We can pretend we are interesting and intelligent and are capable of more than cleaning up spilled milk and playing I spy. But my most favorite thing about tonight is that for one glorious night we can pretend that we live in Palo Alto.