How Our Date Night Turned Into a Big Oscars Win Night. By Mike Northridge

My wife Sara had actually won tickets to the event at a charity fundraiser a few weeks earlier. She was excited when she won 'cuz she & I always love to watch the Oscar telecast together and, with our busy schedules, we rarely get to have "date nights." In our 'younger days', we used to hurry each year as the telecast approached in order to see as many of the Best Picture nominees as we could before the awards show aired. I think there were two or three years when we managed to see all of the Best Picture nominees (and that was when there were only five!). But that must have been before the kids came along, LOL!

We checked the tix for the location of the event and which organizations were sponsoring it, and saw that it was Silver Spring Town Center (which was good karma 'cuz we used to live a block away from there back when we first got married and we hadn't been back to downtown Silver Spring much over the years) and the National Center for Children and Families. We've long admired NCCF's work and value their causes, e.g., helping the homeless (I volunteer with SOME downtown in cooking breakfast for the homeless) and with foster care and adoption services.

As Oscar night approached, we saw the website's suggestion to consider dressing as a movie character. Well, as it happens, last fall I had gone shopping for a Hawaiian shirt and the salesman told me that the shirt I was eyeing was the same print as the one that George Clooney wore in a movie called The Descendants that was opening the next day. So I bought it (and Sara & I later went to see the film, which we absolutely loved). Anyway, after seeing the website's suggestion to consider dressing as a movie character, it was a no-brainer that I should wear my "George Clooney" shirt.

Finally, Oscar night arrived. As we arrived in our old Silver Spring neighborhood, we were impressed with all the changes and busy nightlife downtown. We didn't know anyone else at the party, but everyone was friendly, and we had a great time. We were thrilled when our raffle ticket proved to be the winner of the grand prize. We have great memories of our newlywed days living in downtown Silver Spring, and now, many years later, we're really looking forward to returning and enjoying a romantic weekend there.

I admit I'm no George Clooney, but maybe my wife won't mind so long as I wear his Hawaiian shirt, LOL.