Last night Mark and I had a rare date night, made even rarer by the fact that it was a week night.  Being new to the area and still being new-ish parents we don’t have a long list of possible babysitters.  So, we tend to find one or two daycare teachers that M adores and ask them to come baby-sit.  Since these young women already know M, tend to have a degree in early childhood, are CPR and first aid trained and can drive we also insist on paying them quite well.  Even if we do find neighborhood kids who can baby-sit I will still pay them at least minimum wage.  By doing this it seems to assure that their schedules are always clear when we ask them to sit….amazing how that happens!

Since the sitter is a significant cost, we don’t go out too often.  However, last night we had the opportunity to screen a soon-to-be-released here indy movie for free at a local independent theater, the Cedar Lee. We both love this place because it’s close to home, it’s a small, old theater and best of all – they serve beer and wine.  We settled into the crowded theater in the front row as they were the only seats left; I guess a neck-crick is a small price for a free movie!

The movie was The Fall directed by Tarsem Singh who did R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” video. Apparently it was shot in over 20 countries including South Africa and India over the course of 4 years and the result is breathtaking.  The movie is visually amazing and the costume design is phenomenal.  The plot was well done and wove reality with fantasy, humor and dark sadness with skill.  We both really enjoyed the film and especially the little girl who plays one of the lead roles, Catinca Untaru who was incredibly natural in her role and a welcome break from saccharine-sweet norm of child actors.  The film was too violent and dark for children, which is a bit sad as it could be a wonderful fantasy movie for them.  Overall we thought the movie was fantastic but were disappointed that we couldn’t drink in the cinematography from better seats.

Afterwords, we strolled over to one of our favorite pizza joints, Dewey’s Pizza, to pick up a calzone to take home.  We ordered and waited at the bar, chatting about the movie and the stores in the area. After a few minutes the manager came up and told us the kitchen had burned our dinner to a crisp and asked us if we wanted a drink on the house while they made another.  Mark got a local brew and I passed; we were in no hurry and this was a nice gesture.  Then the manager, still apologizing, gave us a gift certificate for $15 off our next visit.  All this for a burnt $8 calzone!  We were very impressed, and as it is one of our favorite places we know we’ll be using that coupon.  We got home just in time for Top Chef and enjoyed our late-night dinner. 

A wonderful night of drinks, a movie and dinner all for about $5 (not including paying the sitter)!