Oh, this old thing. . .
So, I have secured a dinner "date" (is it a date?) with Scotty the Hottie. Oh yeah, he can NEVER EVER EVER have this link. For tomorrow. After pumping all my girlfriends for foolproof recipes to win a man's heart (thanks to Meg for the Chicken Parmigiana), I am now down to the finishing touches of my meal planning. . .dessert. Now, herein lies the problem. You're already making dinner, making salad, getting wine, getting candles, cleaning your house, your dog, and making sure everything smells good (all explicit instructions from ME and Meg). . .and you think, "Gosh is it going to be just a bit over the top to make some crazy fancy dessert too?!" So, the dilemma is. . .make something that is phenomenally good yet seems effortless and simple. . .whether it is or not. . .it's what I call the "oh, this old thing" principle.
How many of us have spent hours, nay, days thinking of the perfect outfit to wear to a party or a night out on the town where you know you're going to see HIM. Now, it's not a "date," you can't bust out a cocktail dress. You don't want to go with jeans. . .or do you? You have to achieve that perfect level of this is adorably cute and you can't stand not to look at me, yet, it looks like I just threw it on and hardly bothered with myself to the untrained eye, while in fact, this disheveled, slightly casual, look really took very deliberate and devoted effort and could not be achieved in fewer than 76.5 minutes. We've all done it. I'm trying to look cute, but not like I tried to look cute. "Oh, this old thing" would have been what our mothers would have said. I am trying to apply same principle to dessert now. Oh, this old thing. . .I just whipped it up. Oh no, really, it was no trouble at all. You'd be embarrassed how easy it was (again, whether this is true or not). I want to impress him, but not like I tried too hard to impress him. I want him to think Wow, without thinking uncomfortable, obsessive, she spent the last 3 days preparing for this wow. . .I want, in short, to look like the effortless domestic/sex goddess that I am, no matter how much effort it actually takes me!! I'm breezy, I'm casual. . .I want to take trouble, without it seeming like I took trouble, but still have the man be so helpless in my domestic realm that regardless of how little trouble he thinks I took, he is still amazed and in wonderment because he could not possibly achieve the same result and hence, therefore, and ergo. . .he needs me in his life. Voila.
Ok, off to the grocery.