the amateur

Have you ever had one of those nights when you think 'I'd better write all this down so I don't forget it' but then you realize you could never put the night into words?

Yeah.

One of those nights that you thought only happened in the movies, because it doesn't seem like it's possible that in real life your date takes you to this amazing restaurant and oh by the way knows the chef who insists that he make you a three course meal and visits your table to chat so many times that you want to take him home with you so he can be your Italian grandfather. And you spend the night asking each other silly and serious questions and eating so much food you might die but it's worth it. And you even eat fish and seafood and mushrooms because how could it not be good? (And it is good, but you still aren't converted to food from the ocean.) And then he asks (as one of his questions) if you'll see him again on Friday and of course you say yes (because don't forget, this is a movie, and you always say yes in movies).

How could a night be real when your face hurts from laughing by the time you get to the door and when he kisses you goodnight you don't realize you're leaning against the doorbell and your roommate comes out and it's awkward for everyone? But you actually don't really care because these kinds of things happen in movies all the time. And your life is a movie tonight.

I was right. Words don't do it justice.

Sometimes we need those nights, to remind us that they're possible. So that on all the days when life is just life and not bookended by credits and songs, we can look back and remember that one time when...