The Creeper and the First Date

So two years ago, I took a chance and agreed to meet a creeper I met online (match.com) at a local Greek restaurant. Boy am I glad I took the chance! He did turn out to be a creeper but I fell in love with him anyways.
Last Friday was the 2 year anniversary of our first date. Normally I am not one to commemorate that type of anniversary. I can be a cheese ball from time to time but not so much that I document every little "first." The big one (aka the wedding) is one to celebrate but last year on the anniversary of our first date, we went back to the same restaurant. If I remember correctly, I even ordered the same meal. Anyways, we decided to go ahead and relive that first date again...though it was a few days late because The Pilot was working on Friday.

On Friday (the actual anniversary), I got an email from The Pilot asking me if I'd go on a date with him on Monday and he knew a great little Greek restaurant we could meet at after I got off work. Of course!

As I pulled up to the location last night, the Greek restaurant wasn't there! It was a new restaurant. Oh no! The Pilot pulled up a few minutes later and gave me the same "oh no!" look through his car window. We found the Papaya Street Grill instead of Greek Corner. We walked up to the window to check out the menu. Normally when we go out to eat, we study the menu in advance to make sure there are vegetarian options and options for my somewhat picky tastes. Luckily this was a veggie (even vegan!) friendly restaurant so we decided to give it a try. It was completely remodeled inside but we still ended up sitting in approximately the same location that we did on that first date.
The food was great! I think I even enjoyed it more than the Greek restaurant. I had a rice noodle bowl with veggies and fried tofu (it was crunchy and yum!) with the house vinaigrette. It had a Chipotle-like set up where you pick each piece of your meal from the menu and order at a counter. It was nice that you could pick exactly what you wanted and they even has samples of all of the sauces available. The gentleman who took our order added that the while the tofu was fried, it was crispy and not greasy. He also let us know that the sauces come on the side so you can control how much you wanted. Love that! The Pilot got the same thing but ordered the Ginger, Garlic and Soy sauce.
We decided that we'd just go ahead and keep it a tradition to reenact our first date each year. We'll attempt to go back to the same location and just keep trying a new restaurant should it happen. Ultimately it was just fun to think about where we've come in such a short time. Two years ago we were sharing what we each did for a living, I accidentally let it slip that I was in fact a cat lady (a first date no-no!) but was relieved to find out that he too was an animal lover (though him being a vegetarian didn't come up until the 2nd or 3rd date). Two years later we were discussing purchasing a home together. And this year, I kissed him good night at the end of the date. I even let him come home with me.