The Birthday

May 17, 2011

So it's 10 days out, and I have to make plans for my husband birthday (May 16th).  I felt bad, because he was so there for me at the hospital and the days after, and he put up with a lot of crap from me.  And now his birthday is the following week, and I have had no time, energy or means to shop.. I've only been allowed to drive for a few days. 

Fortunately while surfing on Sunday, I found Cirque du Soleil is in town (Pittsburgh).  We have been to two previous Cirques, one at Disney, and one in Vegas.  We have abolutely loved them.  So to surprise him (which is nearly impossible to do), I bought Cirque tickets online Sunday for a show on Tuesday night. 

I also wanted to plan a nice dinner out for him.  This is a real challenge right now as I've started purees a few days ago.  I looked through every restaurant's menus in the Strip District (near the Cirque tent), and found one:  Cioppinos.  I did something I really, really didn't think I could accomplish at this stage of the game.  I found a restaurant that had tuna tartar on their appetizer menu, and was mostly a nice steak restaurant.  It was a very quaint, very nice restaurant.  There was a little oddness in pushing my water to the side (I'm sure they were required to have it on the table because it was kind of a little thing they did of pouring water out of a chilled water bottle).  My husband then ordered an appetizer, a salad, a steak, and two sides.  And I ordered my Tuna Tartara, for my entree.  I think the waiter became uncomfortable.  He first brought out the bread and put it next to me... so I moved it over to my husbands side.  This part is a normal thing for me already because of my Celiac history.  The water guy kept coming around not knowing what to do with me... I have a feeling he really wanted to put my glass back by me.  We were at a 4 seat table so  I had pushed it all the way over to the other end.  Then when they did bring my food, it had a salad and crustinis on the side, so I removed the crusitinis and put them on my husband's bread plate, and pushed the salad way off to the side.  I could very much tell I frustrated the waiter.  Then we spent about an hour eating our main courses.  I think it was about 3 oz of tuna tartar, which is nearly solid protein.  It was absolutely wonderful.  I also had about one teaspoon of my husbands cheddar mash potatoes which were so good.  I nearly finished the tuna.  What was amazing is my husband slowed down to eat, for the first time in his life, and spent most of an hour eating with me. 

The show was really good. Admittedly, this was the least favorites of the Cirques we've seen. This one was Totem, a sort of Indian, primitive themed show.  We really, really enjoyed the first half.  The second half was somewhat boring, which is hard to accomplish for a Cirque.  I think it might have been because of the droning drums throughout the entire second half.  We still really enjoyed our night out, and I accomplished going out for a really nice dinner, and seeing a really nice show only 10 days out.

--Fran

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