THE date

DISCLAIMER: The following events were ALL accomplished for UNDER $50.

It begins....
Tuesday February 28, 2012
I walk out after work to find the first "clue."

CLUE #1. On the driver's window was a note inviting me on a date for that Friday. Inside each ballon was a small strip of paper with one or two words on it. I put them together into a sentence that said something like: "DIRECTIONS: DROP SYDNEY OFF AT MICHELE'S AT 3:25 SHARP. YOU WILL RECEIVE FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS FROM THERE."

CLUE #2. Then, I was left in darkness for the next 3 days!! Finally, Friday morning, THE Friday morning, when I got home from the gym I found this note taped to our computer.

CLUE #3. When I asked Scott later in the day what I should be wearing, he sent me two more "clues," via email.

I ended up with kind of a combo of the two...black skinny jeans and grey boots and one of those above-the-knee, black-knit sweater dress tops with a coordinating necklace and earrings. But who really cares, because 3:25 came all too fast and I was not at Michelle's!! =Mistake #1. CLUE #4. Ten minutes sharp (after 3:25 haha)- I show up at Michelle's to drop Syd off for the evening. Michelle provided me with a first piece of paper which she was supposed to fold, tape, and write on it "Open when you arrive at your first appointment BEFORE ENTERING!"  Instead, I read it on her computer screen before leaving her house. She hadn't printed it yet and I was clearly in a hurry, so we improvised.  =Mistake #2 (which ended up in my favor..) It was supposed to be a surprise where the address in CLUE 2 was sending me, but I was grateful I'd read the secret destination on Michelle's computer screen because if not, I would not have known that my GPS was not supposed to send me to Home Depot.  That was just a nice scenic detour. Thanks GPS. ;) This is what I was supposed to open up and read upon arriving at the given address from Clue 2 (but instead read on Michelle's computer: I wondered how our date could start a whole hour and a half before he got off of work! He was just prepping me with a one-hour, full-body massage at Massage Envy. The certificate was inside clue #2 that I opened when I got there. The $10 I was instructed to bring was for a tip... =Mistake #3-the guidelines on a plaque in the room for a one-hour massage were $12-18 for a tip. Good thing I brought more than $10! CLUE #5. I opened this piece of paper to find another address and decided to give my GPS another shot...BUT as I was en-route, there was a major slow down from a wreck in addition to me being late getting to Michelle's in the first place and so I ended up missing out on this fun mystery: Scott had to "call and cancel the driver" and just met me there instead. We had another appointment and time was spending! The worst part about dates is when you can't be WITH each other. So Scott was going to be the driver I was supposed to give the password "DANCE" to and take me to the next appointment together. Can you guess what it was? We enjoyed a 1/2 hour private, ball-room dance lesson; a little refresher course from that ballroom dance 101 class we'd both taken in college. It was so fun. I LOVE DANCING WITH HIM! I'm always begging him to dance with me and somehow it never happens so this was special :). Afterwards we had a 7 o'clock reservation at Johnny Cascone's Italian Restaurant, (Italian is my favorite!!) and then we went to Michelle's to get Syd. When I asked Scott why he'd planned such a special, fun, creative date for me, I thought maybe it was pay-back for all of our anniversaries being spent traveling home for Christmas break.  He just said it was because he loves me, and there was no other special reason. DEALS EXPLAINED: *MASSAGE ENVY: "Welcome to Olathe" pack of coupons mailer - free half hour massage +$26 to make it an hour. *PRIVATE 1/2 HR DANCE LESSON: Scott found it FREE online...we had to deal with a sales pitch to join the dance club and pay for future lessons...but we wouldn't have minded even if he did talk us into it! *DINNER: Groupon- $15 gave us $30 to spend at Johnny Cascone's. GRAND TOTAL: $41 We rarely go on dates that require spending over $5. But every once in a while it's fun to "splurge" ;) Shout out to you Scotty: YOU ARE THE BEST!! TE AMO MUCHO!!!