Valentine's Special

My Valentine
Collin and I had a good Valentine's Day yesterday! Even though I had to work (Collin has off Sundays and Mondays) we still got to spend some good quality time together. I was able to go home on my lunch where we spent some time together and then after work we went to dinner and watched a movie back at home. We didn't exchange gifts this year since we're on a very limited budget, however, I left Collin little sticky love notes around the house to find throughout the day and then wrote him a love letter. And he wrote/improvised a song on guitar and sang to me when I got home from work and he had handmade the card above. You can kinda see the heart he drew in chalk. It was very sweet and the song had me giggling. He's so silly but I LOVE it!

We decided that we would go to Applebees for dinner since we had a gift card and that was really the only way we could afford to have eaten out last night. However, we both really like Applebees so it worked out well. We went early, at 5:00, to hopefully beat all the other couples going out for dinner last night. And it's a good thing we did go early! It was already pretty crowded but we got seated right away! We placed our order and got buffalo wings for an appetizer and I ordered a small steak and Collin got riblets. Our appetizers came and we enjoyed every bit of those things! And then our meal came a bit later. However, when I cut into my steak it was well done and not at all medium like I had ordered. Our waitress apologized profusely and told me she would take care of it. However, I ended up waiting almost 45 minutes for my new steak to come out. And then when it did come out my broccoli was hard and cold, like it was barely cooked at all and I ordered it well done. My waitress told me she would take care of that too and make sure it gets brought out the way I ordered it. Fortunately this time my steak was perfect and had the BEST flavor. But then I had to wait about 15 more minutes for my broccoli to come out. I understand it was Valentine's Day and they were really busy but they could have gotten my food out to me a bit quicker. And I wasn't mad about it, I was just hungry and disappointed that I had to wait so long to get my correct meal. But our waitress and the manager were so nice. The manager came over and told me he would take care of the problem and make sure my steak got to me soon. And he kept me updated on the progress of my meal. He personally cooked and delivered my broccoli! And he even told us our meal was on the house. We didn't pay a thing! And we ordered dessert shooters that we didn't have to pay for! I figured that because my meal was so messed up the manager might offer us a free dessert or something but he paid for our meal! I was so grateful! They definitely want you to have a good experience there and overall, it was a good experience, I was just sad I had to wait so long. It will not stop me from going back though, I do love Applebees.

One thing that struck me though was that our waitress was so surprised that we were happy at the end of the meal. She said, "I'm surprised you guys are still happy after all this." But why wouldn't we be? It wasn't really that big a deal and we were enjoying each other's company. We had good food (once it was right) and we had a free meal! What's not to be happy about? I guess she deals with so many customers who get flaming mad when something isn't quite right with their meal. But what's the point in that? It's not a big deal. And it's most certainly not the server's fault when your food isn't how your ordered it! I suppose I don't let things like that get to me. It's not worth the effort to get upset over that. Life's too good to be unhappy all the time over little things.

So how did you spend your Valentine's Day? Did you go out to dinner? If so, how was it? Hopefully it wasn't like ours, but if it was, I hope you were able to still enjoy yourself!

Cindy