Date Day

Back near the beginning of the pandemic, or maybe it was right when restaurants started to get their takeaway plans settled, our favourite vegan restaurant brought back their “chicken” sandwich. I had been waiting for this moment for years, leaving them helpful little nudges on their Facebook wall, and the “chicken” sandwich was finally back, but my heart wasn’t ready to eat it.

Getting takeaway from there felt like too much work. It wouldn’t travel well, and we were certainly not going to crouch in the parking lot, eating fake chicken. I mean, secretly, I was totally willing to do this, but the twins convinced me that this was “sad” and “unhealthy.” So we left it as one more thing we couldn’t do due to the pandemic.

And then this week, they posted that for two days only, they were bringing back their “chicken” sandwich. It was going to be a gorgeous day, and we’re vaccinated and boosted. We could do this. So Josh and I called in our order, picked it up, and went to eat it in the car with the windows down, enjoying the breeze.

It was the best fake chicken sandwich ever.

Mostly because while things still felt abnormal, eating a really good meal in the car felt like a triumph. We had done it — we had grabbed back a moment of normal life and done it as safely as possible. It was like having our cake/chicken sandwich and eating it, too.

Afterward, we drove to a park and walked around the fake lake — it was an ersatz afternoon — and talked about everything and nothing. A date day, instead of a date night.