I went on a date night with my husband a bit ago and I learned something new. Not about him, of course. Although, there are still moments when I do and those are pieces of information I savor. No, I learned about a new species.

I went on a date night and discovered a new species!

How and when does that ever happen?

Perhaps my great to the trillionth grandfather was Christopher Columbus. Or perhaps I need to get out more. Or read more. Or…

Let’s just skip the possibilities, they are too endless.

We’ll get to what I discovered, but first and much more importantly, what did I wear?

I wore jeans. I wanted to get dressed up, but I didn’t have it in me that night. So, I just wore what I had worn all day. The dress is the Free People Mamounia Dress. I purchased mine from Nordstrom Rack for $50 (the link goes to a different store). I broke my rule for one piece of jewelry by piling on a bunch of bracelets and necklaces. I was exhausted on this day and nothing keeps one awake quite like the jingling of jewelry on one’s wrists.

Or gives one quite as big of a headache.

I ate a granola bar before we left. ‘Cause I was starving. I knew I would turn into a beast if I did not eat something before we left.

The Jenni Beast was not the new species I discovered. Besides, she was discovered long ago. You can tame her with food. Compliments. And clothes. This is important information to have if you ever see her in the wild. She is quite destructive.

We went to my favorite restaurant. It is outdoors and has beautiful views. The price is right (we split a bottle of wine, an appetizer, a pizza and two desserts for $63 before tip). There was live music playing in the restaurant. The food is fabulous. My favorite in town.

We ordered our beloved fries for an appetizer. They take the chef three days to make in a secret recipe.

We sat in the garden. On the beautiful landscaped slope next to me, a poppy plant was being tugged on by its roots. It scared me at first, but then it was comical as we realized it was probably a gopher having dinner. It must have been a rebel gopher, because it is illegal here in California to hurt the state flower. We can’t pick it. I assume you probably can’t eat it either. But could the gopher have gotten high from the roots? Would it be like opium? These were the questions we asked each other over dinner.

Okay, those are the questions I asked my husband. To which he replied, “No.”

Darn. I had imagined a happy, plump little gopher in his hole kicking back and deciphering the patterns of the dirt in his tunnel.

He took pictures of me happy after wine.

And contemplating a gopher high on drugs.

I did not take a picture of our barbecue chicken pizza, but it was yummy. My husband and I had a handshake over our deal when we both discovered we hate red onions on our pizza. So we shook on never ordering them on it again.

And it was heavenly.

But we did get pictures of our two pretty desserts we ordered.

Here is where I introduce a new species. You thought it was a Druggie Gopher, didn’t you?

Nope. It was indeed a Hummingbird Moth!

A Hummingbird Moth!

Now, when I took these pictures, I assumed this was a baby hummingbird. At first I thought it was some kind of bee, but it moved too fast and was not shaped like one. We determined it was the smallest hummingbird we had ever seen. Even the masculine guy at the table next to me locked eyes with me and made a pinching motion with his two fingers to indicate how tiny and adorable the cute little hummingbird was.

Or he wanted to crush my head with his fingertips. One can never be sure.

Our side of the restaurant was enthralled with the little guy. He zipped by my head and hovered in front of me for the briefest second.

As we were leaving, we saw a colony of what we thought were miniature hummingbirds flitting in and out of the flowers. They were adorable. I even got a picture of one.

It turns out hummingbirds do not like to gather nectar together. Hummingbird Moths do. I discovered these little facts here and here after I searched for “Tiny Hummingbird” on the internet. It turns out if you think you see the tiniest hummingbird you have ever seen or even a baby hummingbird (baby hummingbirds cannot fly), you are actually observing a Hummingbird Moth. There are twelve hundred varieties of the Hummingbird Moth and they live all over the world! The one in the Western half of the United States (and the one I saw) is the Snowberry Clearwing (isn’t that a lovely name?) and the Eastern side of the United Stares typically hosts the Hummingbird Clearwing. The Hummingbird Moth is also less skittish than the hummingbird and will let you get close to it.

What a cool, fascinating little creature.

I never knew these existed. Did you?

Also, I am curious. Where did you go on your last date night? Do you dress up? Or do you wear jeans?

Outfit Source List: Free People Mamounia Dress, Anthropologie Pilcro Flares (old), Bracelets from H & M (old, similar here), Anthropologie layering necklaces (old, similar here), and Lucky Brand Emmie Silver Flats.