Date.

On Friday evening, I went on my first date in a very long time. Her name is Misty and we belong to the same prayer group led by Joyce Rupp. I finally found the courage to ask her out. If you remember, Misty joined Nora and I last Friday at the Soweto Gospel concert.

We went out for dinner at Bistro Montage, one of my favorite Des Moines Restaurants. It's probably the closest French restaurant DM has. Every time I've been there, I've never been disappointed. Since it was a Friday of Lent, we could not have meat but we managed to do fine. The dinner was very good and Misty was impressed with the restaurant.

After dinner, we walked around Gray's Lake. The last time I walked/biked around the lake was probably in the summer. The weather was a little cloudy but nice enough to be walking outside. It gave the both of us time to get to know one another better. Needless to say, we talked the entire time.

When we were done with walking, I had gotten tickets to the IMax theater. They were showing the movie "Hurricane on the Bayou" which was kind of a pre and post Katrina effect on New Orleans. Utter devastation would be a word to describe the effect Katrina had. However, the people are still hopeful that New Orleans will once again rise up from the ashes. Looking and the sheer grit and determination of the people, one can't help but to agree that in a number of years, New Orleans would be the city it once was if not better. That's kind of how the date went. We'll be talking on the phone to see where we're headed. I had a lot of fun with Misty and I hope we'll be able to pursue this.

I called up dad and mom on Saturday morning and it was nice chatting with them. Mom's officially retired now so I wanted to see how that was coming along. She has somewhat planned out what she'll be doing in her free time and it'll be interesting to see how she sticks with it. Actually, mom's not fully retired because the company wants her to come back three times a month for a year, but in many respects that's retirement in my books. I'm excited to see how dad and mom will cope with each other's company now that they're both spending time together.

Work wise things were a little crazy this past week through no fault of mine, so it was really nice to be able to go out for a nice meal, have a great company and conversation with Misty. I told her that too. This coming week things will be much more manageable. It's also Holy Week and definitely my most favorite season in the church's calendar. The RCIA group will be brought fully into the Church come Easter Vigil so that will be thoroughly exciting.

I should have quite a lot to write next week.