This Friday Night...

It's been a busy summer! Tonight, after a quick happy hour drink with a friend, I plan to enjoy my perfect Friday evening. I'm going to enjoy my own company over takeout food, a movie or two on Comedy Central (which don't require me to think) and a bottle of wine. After a summer filled with many events and changes at work, a move and a few weekends out of town, I feel no shame in admitting that the combination (although boring to some) of rest, solitude and wine are what make for my ideal weekend evening.

Sure, lots of people in their early thirties, like me, are eager to spend the evening at home with their young families enjoying meatloaf and Netflix before tucking into bed at a reasonable hour (since they have an early soccer/baseball/karate/dance/banjo practice.) On the other hand, there are also lots of people my age planning to tear it up tonight at one of the many evening hotspots where they'll "see" and "be seen" until the early morning hours and a nightcap at Barbara Lee's Kitchen (a local "kitsch-ier" Waffle House.)

Now, I like to go out in the evenings and on weekends (afterall, I am just a handful of brews away from my 100-beer "Centurion Club" membership at the local pub - you don't get that award sitting at home!) and experience all there is to offer in this party town. I also enjoy meeting friends for dinner, checking out new restaurants and bars, and, ok, "seeing" and "being seen" occasionally.  But, not tonight.

Tonight I choose to sit on the couch, in my underwear, surrounded by enough Chinese takeout boxes to feed three (I'm not kidding, my usual order typically comes with three forks and fortune cookies. Then, when the delivery guy comes, I have to pretend that I'm waiting on the arrival of a couple of friends, while, really, the steaming, greasy, MSG-laden haul is just for me.) Then, after enjoying my delicious takeout dinner and a bit of wine, I will probably also do what I tend to on Friday nights with a full belly and the week's drama safely behind me. Yes, I can see it now. By 10:00 I will lose the battle to keep my eyes open and fall asleep slumped over the couch with a half-drunk glass of wine clutched to my chest, an open Reader's Digest laying at my side and Dateline on the TV in front of me.

Hmm... You know what, maybe I'll go out tonight...