Is it wrong to be a 30-something mother & fancypants businessperson & have the occasional 2 a.m. burrito? Probably not. Still, this time, I felt a little silly.
Let’s start from the beginning: date night.
We were sophisticated Wicker Parkians at the start. Babysitter Beth arrived at 7:30 and just in time to put London to sleep. We walked through the park to stop at the bank for cash and then went to Tavern for a cocktail followed by dinner at Café Absinthe. To make a stance on the city’s ban of foie gras – and our love of a nice fatty piece of liver – we ordered the foie gras appetizer. Barry ordered filet & I had scallops. Between the two of us, we drank martinis, bubbly, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Port and Scotch. Bottom line: we ate like kings, drank the best & enjoyed every minute.
And this is where it all went wrong.
Beth had brought over her laundry. By the time we finished dinner, she was probably only into her second load. So, to be nice, we decided to go out for an after dinner drink. This is when we dropped off our super chic Wicker Parkness and headed for Ola’s, a Polish bar in Ukrainian Village.
There we sat drinking really strong Polish beer, scratching instant lottery tickets and talking to Frank & all of the other really sweet “mature” Polish guys. Well, talking isn’t the best verb because most of these guys haven’t mastered more than a few words of English and at that point, neither were we.
We strolled home from our date, hand in hand, and stopped at Picante – the local open-till-four burrito joint – to finish the night off by splitting a burrito and guacamole.
How does a 2 a.m. burrito feel so right before you become a mom? When we walked through the door, I actually thought, “Wait. I’m a mom. This is so wrong.” Of course it wasn’t the burrito that was “wrong,” but staying out until 2 a.m., eating a little too much and drinking a little too much that I was feeling guilty about. Everything in moderation, right? It may be years before I see another 2 a.m. burrito.