1st Date
Kelley Hungerford
Copy editor
The Review sent me a mission this week: discover an inexpensive yet exciting first date site in town. I could have easily enough asked around for where students go and what they do, but the article had to be a narrative. That meant a story. That meant I had to get me a date.
The first two people I asked turned me down; both were busy the day I wanted to go out on the town. Worry set in Monday when I still did not have a date and only two days to write the article. I advertised. “Who wants to date Kelley?” I wrote on the white board of my newspaper class. My Facebook status became “Kelley needs a date, stat. Any takers?” I thank all of my guy friends who offered to go out with me on Facebook…too bad you were all back home in Chicago.
Jordan Jacobo, sports editor, came to my rescue, saying his old roommate could use a date. A blind date, I thought. Why not? That is how I was introduced to Brian Richardson.
We met in Mahaffey Hall, room 313. There were stars in my eyes as he opened the door of his dorm room, mainly because I was so shocked that I had navigated the Mahaffey hallways and found his room on the first try. Thus began our rendezvous, and off we went.
I had planned our date carefully, hoping that it would indeed be inexpensive like the Review had asked. Having forgotten to call for price-checks, I was doing a lot of hoping.
Our first destination: Third Street Pizza Company and Moonlight Theater, located at 433 NE Third Street. The air was brisk and the sun was warm, giving us the perfect weather to walk in.
Already we had saved money on gas by not driving; this was going to be good. The walk from Linfield to Third Street takes about 10 minutes, so we had time to find out a little about each other. The first thing he asked me about was how I landed myself at Linfield, being all the way from Chicago. It was a good opening. Surprised he knew where I was from, but finding out it was because of Jordan’s obsession with my Chicago-ness, we talked about home, majors and school as we strolled down Davis Street.
We got to the theater just as he started to notice my midwestern accent and paid at the front register for two tickets to the 4 p.m. showing of “Wall-E.” Cost of two tickets: $8.
The theater, beyond a door near the front of the restaurant, was legit. Thinking it was going to be no more than a small room with folding chairs and a TV screen, Brian and I were surprised to see the amply-sized room complete with real-theater seating and couches lining the front row. For those of you fast types, an employee informed me that the first few rows have armsrests that fold up. Every other row has a bar-style counter with hot sauce, crushed red pepper and salt and pepper for those who want to enjoy some pizza with their movie.
We passed on the pizza, even though it is only $1 per slice on Mondays and Tuesdays. We had dinner plans for later. We sat in a middle row and waited for the movie to begin.
“Wall-E” was adorable. Neither of us had seen it before, and we left the cold but comfortable theater in good but hungry spirits. It was definitely time to for dinner.
Down the road from Third Street Pizza is Geraldi’s, The Italian Eating Place at 226 NE Third Street, right next to Cornerstone Café. Italian sounded good, and we decided to check it out. A bit confused, a worker explained to us that you order and pay for your meal at the cash register and they bring it out when it’s ready. In an act of hilarity, we ordered pretty much the same thing: the soup and sandwich combo, at $5 each. I had minestrone, he had potato. We got the same sandwich, no mayo or onions for me and no tomatoes for him. The place was tidy, cute and completely empty at 5:40 p.m. The two visible employees were pleasant and helpful, and, man alive, the food was delicious.
“If you were to turn on your iPod right now, what would be playing?” he asked me. Appreciative of the creativity of his question, I told him the embarrassing truth that I had last been listening to “Red Red Wine,” but that my favorites do not usually include bad 80s pop. Like our sandwiches, we found our musical tastes were similar and the conversation held through the rest
of dinner.
After dinner and picture-taking by the suddenly giggly waitresses, we walked back to campus, full and jovial that our blind date did not go awry. Was I late for work? Yes, I was. Was it worth it? Yes, indeed.
A classic first date: dinner and a movie. A wallet-friendly price: $18. I feel that I completed my mission successfully.
So, students, the next time you are torn between impressing that guy or girl you are crushing on and affording your business law textbook, remember that there are cheap, fun ways to achieve both. Well, I don’t know about the textbook, but definitely the date.
260th Date
Rachael Palinkas
Features editor
Despite the fact that people in long-term relationships have it easier in terms of dates, McMinnville provides more opportunities for those of us in long-term relationships than it does for those awkward first dates.
The key to cheap dates in McMinnville is being aware of student discounts and daily specials at restaurants in McMinnville. Being a student gives you access to these deals.
Seeing as how both Keegan and I had things to do the evening of our date, we decided we would go out for an early dinner, grab some dessert and watch a movie, but first we wanted to spend a little time playing computer games.
We have it worked out so that we can play computer games with each other while still in our own apartments on campus. This, of course, is free and is the sort of bonding time that is important for long-term relationships. Participating in one another’s favorite hobbies will make both people happy, and you may discover a new interest for yourself.
For dinner, we went to Golden Valley Brewery and Pub. You must be thinking, “Gosh that place is so expensive,” and I couldn’t agree with you more. However, having done this whole dating thing before, we knew that we could take advantage of their happy hour menu.
Happy Hour runs from 3 – 6 p.m. Sunday – Friday at G.V.B. and has some great deals to offer. There are a total of 10 different food items to pick from, ranging in price from $2 – $6.75. The catch with the food specials is that you have to order at least $2.50 in beverages in order to qualify for them. For us, this was no problem, seeing as how they have beer specials during this time as well. You can get a pint for $2.50 or a pitcher for $6.75. The beers on tap change daily and are all really good, so you never lose.
They also have mixed drink and wine specials.
You can get soda to cover the minimum beverage order if you are not of legal age to enjoy their delicious brews.
When Keegan and I got there at 5:15 p.m., there were not a lot of people so service was quick and the place was relatively quiet. It was nice that we could talk about things without having to hear the conversations of others.
We ordered two plates of clam strips and an order of fries to share, as well as a pint of beer each; Keegan got the Dundee Porter, and I got the Red Thistle Ale.
Also, an advantage of ordering from the happy hour menu is that you get to sit on the pub side of the restaurant; Keegan and I agreed that it is much better on that side of the restaurant because the windows provide natural lighting.
Our total after tip was $22. We thought we were doing pretty well since we decided to keep it under $30 for the evening, meaning we could splurge on dessert.
On the way back from G.V.B., we stopped at MovieTime Video to rent a movie. Since I work there, I get a rather nice discount on rentals. We rented Paranoid Park, the newest Gus Van Zant movie, and left. Our total remained at $22.
For dessert, we decided to get ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. On Wednesday’s at Cold Stone, you can get a free waffle bowl with any ice cream, so you save just by showing up. We each got a “Like-it” size with a couple mix-ins; our total came to $7.13.
The best thing about Cold Stone is that you can get basically any ice cream you want. They always do a great job of playing into the holidays. So far this fall it has Pumpkin Pie ice cream, which is amazing. I can only imagine the tastiness you would be in for if you got its “Pumpkin Pie in the Sky” creation.
We headed back to the apartment to watch the movie and eat our treats. Ice cream and a movie is about as good as it gets. However, the movie sucked, and we found we were just complaining about the five minute slow-motion scenes more than we were talking about the movie. That’s another good thing about long-term relationships: You already know each other’s taste in movies so you know if it is OK to complain or not, and boy did we complain.
At the end of the movie, we each still had time to finish our homework. Keegan got to go to bed on time, and I got to watch “America’s Next Top Model.”
Our total at the end of the night was $29.13, under budget, and we got to spend quality time together off campus, which can sometimes be difficult to do.
