My Chuck-E Valentine

So, I took my kids to Altoona, PA to Chuck E Cheese for Valentine's day. Or, as I like to call it, the madhouse. What I thought would be a short jaunt for some pizza and some arcade fun, turned into a 10 hour mass of confusion and exhaustion. The kids had a blast (as did I), though, so it was worth it.

Seriously, it was insane how many kids were running around. I was originally just going to take my two kids by myself, but now I'm glad I coaxed my mom into coming (with my dad) and bringing my nephew. I'm not sure I could've handled both of my kids on my own in all the confusion. Seriously, the place was a madhouse. Kids were running everywhere, there was a huge birthday party in the back, and trying to keep up with my own kids amid all the people was sort of like trying to coax a donkey through a mine shaft (whatever that means).

There I was, King Jackass, chasing my kids through the maze of people, trying to spend the 100 tokens we get from coupons online. When each game takes only one token to play, spending a 100 tokens was a tricky ordeal. It took us almost 4 hours to go through them all. Fortunately they serve pizza (which wasn't really the best pizza I've ever had, but ah well) so we ate while we were there. But by the time we left, the kids were hungry again.

Walking out the front, we spied an Olive Garden and thought "Hell yes!" We walk down to it (amid the snow flurries that were flying through the air), and as soon as we get to the front door it was a wall of people. A woman coming out told her family that there was a 2 hour wait. We quickly decided that you'd have to be a complete idiot to wait 2 hours for ANY restaraunt (even though Olive Garden has the best salad and breadsticks ever), and we left. We drove down the street and found another restaraunt that wasn't near as busy. The food was fine, but it reminded me of a place that old people would come (sort of like an old fashioned version of Dennys). The service was slow and even though we didn't have to wait for a seat, it was still packed full of people.

I remember thinking to myself how foolish it is to think you are going to go out to eat on Valentine's Day. And the people who wait 2 hours? Absolute fucking idiots.

We finally managed to get out by about 8 o'clock and arrived back home at 10. My nephew was staying with my parents, so I decided to just take my kids up their and spend the night so that they could play (as if they didn't play enough at Chuck E Cheese's lol).

All in all, as exhausting as the day turned out to be, we had a lot of fun. Probably one of the best Valentine's Days I've had since my divorce. My first V-day after my separation was on a Wednesday, so I had my kids then too. Last year I was alone on V-day, so, at the behest of a friend's advice, I decided to go to the bar. My friend, who shall remain nameless as the "fucking idiot," told me in plain terms that "Valentine's Day is the best night of the year to go into a bar and get laid."

So I, being the ever diligent researcher, decided to test his theory. I walk into the bar, and immediately I am struck by how full the bar was of COUPLES. I silently cursed to myself as I walked up and ordered a beer. After the first beer, I managed to spot a girl who was alone. So, I went over and talked to her. I secretly hailed my friend as a genious as I spent a good half an hour working on her. But there is no happy ending to this story. My little foray was cut short when her boyfriend walked in later. I cursed my friend and paid the tab and walked out, vowing never to waste my time on V-day in a bar again.

That was my experience last year, and it left me a little agititated. This year, I didn't even give a shit about trying to hook up with someone. Somewhere in the middle of feeding the machines tokens, I was struck with the stark realization that this is the first V-day that I have been truly happy without needing a relationship to make it so. For the first time it stopped being "Single Awareness Day" and became a symbol that my newfound contentment is very much still alive and kicking. It waxes and wanes from time to time, but at the end of the day I feel like I've faced my "final test" and another fear and come out ok. From this point forward, I think I want to make all V-day's about my kids. I truly enjoyed taking them somewhere fun, and I think we got a little closer to each other this weekend. We made Valentines for people in the family, I got them some gifts, and we had a blast at a place where you can let your guard down and just be a kid. A-plus.

In other news, on the way home I made a little detour, found a Staples, and bought myself a new laptop with the extra money I made from working overtime. My old laptop was on it's last leg (and it wasn't even 3 years old yet), lagging and just being a bitch. So I decided to upgrade (rather than take it to be serviced). It was a cheap Walmart laptop I bought thinking that the only thing I would be using it for would be to write. Little did I know that when my ex-wife sold our computer (the one that I let her borrow--BORROW), it quickly became my primary computer. It worked well enough for a while, but in the past couple of months it got out of hand. I did a complete wipe of the hard drive and rebooted everything and it still didn't get any better.

My new computer doesn't have as big a screen as my old one, but it zips and has WAY less bullshit on it. I'm happy as a lark with what I've got.

It's been a long, exhausting weekend, but I had fun and so did my kids. So I consider it to be a success.