Honey, leave the cat at home...

Last night, Paul and I had a genuine date night. One of those where we both showered and got dressed up and even went to dinner beforehand. Because we have had dates in our past that weren't worth not stinking or even eating. I felt so special.

Paul, the sweet boy, suggested we go to the fancy-schmancy place we'd gone for my birthday fo dinner but we weren't sure we'd have time, what with the showering and all. We opted to go to a "gourmet" pizza place near our house instead. (We also went there for our anniversary as Paul had declared the "traditional" gift for the 6th anniversary to be pizza.) We thought this would be faster but in the world of Carrie and Paul, we should know this is never the case. Our food was delayed in getting out to us because of some problem with Paul's pizza. We still had plenty of time to eat, and Paul was fine with the wait because it meant he got a free piece of chocolate cake out of the deal.

After dinner, we headed to the South Broadway Cultural Center, a small venue near ABQ's Downtown, for the big "date" portion of the night: Bellydance Superstars

That's right--we went to see bellydancing. Who know there was even such a thing as superstars in bellydancing? Or that this would be the second time we could see them perform?

On a whim, we bought tickets to see a performance about 18 months ago. The performers were amazing--I don't think either of us blinked for two hours--and both the evening and the audience, with it's scent of patchouli and loads of bangles and scarves, proved entertaining. On Sunday night, Paul came downstairs announcing that the Bellydance Superstars were coming back to town on Wednesday and that we needed to buy our tickets RIGHT NOW. We checked to see if our Wednesday evening was booked (because we have such the active social life that we thought that by some off-chance, we'd have other plans), and finding it clear, we bought tickets RIGHT THEN and made our plans for date night.

Last night's show was as entertaining as the first performance we saw, although the two "big" stars of bellydancing didn't perform. The show last night was more vaired than the first we saw--it included hula dancing and a routine with a Spanish flair (think bellydance samba). I did remember to blink this time, but it is still amazing to see the type of muscle control these women have. I'm hoping it will inspire me to be less cranky about going doing abs at the gym.