A Taste of Freedom

The weirdest thing happens when you are the parent of a toddler and faced with a moment of unexpected freedom - sometimes you don't know what to do with it. 

There's been a horrible hacking cough being passed around the house. Not surprising, since Em won't sleep in her bed. She basically tosses and turns, spreading germs equally between her parents. It's led to several of those awful days when you stay home from the office but are legitimately too sick to enjoy it. Even catching up on Grey's Anatomy brings you no joy. But Friday was Parent's Night Out - daycare would be staying open till 9pm to give parents a glorious three extra hours to do whatever they wanted. Even sick I knew I was going to take advantage of it. 

I've been dreaming of eating at a restaurant with no booster seats. One that would scorn the sight of my daughter. It's LA, so it's not too hard to find. A place with no reservations but also no tables - just counter space where one jostles elbows down the line yet every entree is still over $20. I wondered if eating dinner at 5pm at a place that didn't cater to families or the elderly would feel insanely early, but we were hardly the first to arrive. 

Don't let the Thai restaurant sign fool you. Beyond the door of Trois Mec is a lovely little piece of Paris (that actually feels quite NY to me). And at 5pm on a Friday is was packed. I slathered French butter onto warm yummy bread and soaked up its fatty goodness along with as much adult ambiance as I could.

But the problem with eating at a place that doesn't even have tables is you can be in and out in 45 minutes, even when you eat two baskets of bread and three beers. Two hours left of freedom and we had no idea what to do with ourselves. I hadn't thought that far ahead. Not enough time to see a movie. But there was no way I was calling it a night!

In the end we followed our French fare with a German Expressionist film exhibit at LACMA and hand drip coffee served in mason jars. We shut that coffee shop down! And as much as we swore we wouldn't, we couldn't help but look at pictures of Em as we took our last sips. We walked hand in hand down the street back to the car - then realized it was eight minutes to 9pm and ran the rest of the way. We were the last parent to arrive, but I don't feel guilty about that. I enjoyed the freedom...as well as the next two hours  - Em, hopped up on pizza and Umizoomi videos, jumping on the couch and refusing to go to bed.