Yesterday, mine and Colleen's relationship hit the two year mark. We hung out up in Waukesha for the day. We attempted to recreate our first date. It didn't work out so well at first. We could not go to Chi-Chi's for dinner (which is where we went 2 years ago) because the entire Chi-Chi's franchise is no longer. Colleen's parents recommended a place which had outdoor seating. It was called something, something Brew-haus. It wasn't opened for dinner yet when we got there, so we just looked at the menu. It was very German of a menu and included things such as "wiener schnitzel". Colleen was not impressed, so we left to find another place. By this time it was raining and our plans to take a walk down by the Fox River (another place we went on our first date) were not looking good. We found an Italian restaurant that looked good, so we stopped in and ate. Besides the horrendously cold temperature inside, it was pretty good. After dinner, the rain let up and the sun started to shine and dried up all the rain. We made it to the river after all.

There was quite a hustle and bustle of activity at the river...kids playing in the park, people playing volleyball, joggers and bikers on the trail, people fishing, people making out on a bench, etc. But right after we got out of Colleen's car and slammed the doors, she realized that she had left her keys in the car. We were now locked out. Now we had to call her mom to come up there with an extra key. Colleen's cell phone was locked in the car and my phone convieniently decided to run out of battery at that exact moment. So we asked a random person to borrow their cell phone. Colleen's mom came with the key and all was well. I have since put a spare key for Colleen's car on my key ring.

That fiasco being over, we walked through a flower garden and I took pictures of Colleen like she was a supermodel. While taking pictures, I was standing next to a garbage can in the far corner of the garden when I heard a noise from within the can. A bird had somehow flew into it and was stuck. We tried for five minutes to try and get it out, but to no avail. So we toppled the can over and the bird flew out and into a bush. It looked like it might have been injured and unable to fully fly. But it was better off sitting in a bush rather than in garbage can.

We made the loop around the river, stopping once to watch some ducks eat and once by the fountain thing. After looping all the way around, we sat at a picnic table at the edge of the river...just like we did 2 years ago. The sun was setting and I wanted to make out, but before we got a chance, we heard someone calling Colleen's name. We turned around and there was Colleen's sister Susie and Mike. They apparently knew we were down by the river, so they came and found us. We talked for a while and when it was pretty much dark out, we all left. So much for making out. Oh well.

I realized that it is hard, if not impossible, to recreate the feeling of a particular time, day or event. There are so many factors to account for...conversation, the weather, chance encounters with people or animals, strange things that make you laugh, or that perfect song that happens to play on the radio that day. And when you hear that song again in the future, you are instantly reminded of that perfect day. Yesterday was perfect, but not perfect in the way our first date was. It was perfect in it's own way, as it's own seperate memory amogst all the other good memories.