So the Little One is spending the night at the grandparents' and The Wife and I are going on a date. Only we don't have any good ideas for a date because we're lame. Here's what we came up with:1. Dinner and a movie
2. Dinner and bowling
3. Dinner and putt-putt golfing
So we're having dinner for sure.
We'd rather not do a movie because that's what we always do and we watched one last night. (Little Miss Sunshine, btw, and it was good. Loved the grandpa.)
Bowling looks doubtful because it's Friday night and I'm pretty sure Friday night plus bowling equals a certain element of society whose midst I would like to avoid. (Not that I'm opposed to their lifestyle. If it weren't for beer swilling, overweight, chain smoking bowlers, conservatives would never get elected. Still, respecting their lifestyle and immersing myself in their secondhand smoke are two different things.)
Putt-putt's out because it's going to be too late, dark probably.
So because I'm a total loser, I actually googled "Date Ideas." I figured that the reason I couldn't think of a good idea was because I lack a certain level of creativity/romanticism. Turns out the Internet's ideas may actually be worse. I found a site called Coolest Dates. I clicked on "Inexpensive Dates" because I'm cheap and "Last Minute Dates" because it is. Here are my favorite suggestions: (And by favorite, I mean ones we will definitely not be doing. My commentary is in italics.)
- Go to a sports memorabilia exposition or trade show. If I suggested this, The Wife might suggest divorce.
- Make movies or take pictures together. Imagined conversation: Me: We could make movies together. The Wife: [Raised eyebrow. Withering glare.] Me: We could take pictures of each other. The Wife: [Exits stage left.]
- Do genealogy together. Sounds exciting. Nothing like looking up information on deceased relatives to kindle the romantic flame.
- Find a wild berry patch and enjoy picking and eating berries. Otherwise known as foraging. What did you guys do last night on your date? We foraged. Like primates. Wink, wink.
- Spend an afternoon cleaning out your garage attic. This is the worst idea I've ever heard. Dates are meant to be enjoyable. I wouldn't wish this on men who wear denim jackets over purple Eeyore T-shirts.
- Spend an evening looking through your date's photo albums and high school yearbooks. So you can see how dorky you both looked and tell yourselves it's a good thing you found each other because who else in their right mind could have ever loved such a total loser? Actually, that one's not that bad.
Unless I suggest the movie and picture thing. Then maybe not.
17 comments:
We enjoy trips to home improvement stores and rock yards. Also, we just like to stay home and talk.
Together create a list of 10 remarkable date ideas... and then wad it up and throw it in the trash, because the Eiffel Tower is 5,000 miles away and good gelato is only served in Italy.
Or drive around and look at houses you wished you lived in. Never know, you may end up parking somewhere. wink, wink.
Why do all guys want to take pictures and make movies of their women? OK, don't answer that. I vote for cleaning out the garage. Just kidding. How about dinner, then something chocolate (if you want any hope of getting lucky later), and a nice, long walk. Then you could get really crazy and break out the old photo albums (yes, the G-rated ones, as if any others exist.) What me and my honey do is dinner, chocolate, foraging for books at Borders, and Starbucks. I know, we're wild, untamed, out of control beasts. But, hey, at least it beats cleaning the garage.
We go hiking. If we're really crazy, we go up to our local mall, hit the Old Country Buffet and get mags (she gets foreign Cosmo, I get a mass market of the sci fi with the best title as the only criteria).
Our most recent date night (and the first in probably two years) involved a sneak peek of the new Harry Potter movie. At which I was dressed as Tonks. Of the bubble gum pink hair. And fingerless gloves.
Did I happen to mention no one else dressed up except for the people we went with? And they just took off their robes when they realized how crazy we looked? So I just took off my hair. Oh wait, no I didn't.
Dear Husband thought he could work the dress up thing into other activities.
He was wrong.
Haha. Well, the husband and I don't go out too often, but when we do it usually involves a) baseball game, b) art museum, or c) movie. Not too creative, but always fun. :-)
Here's what we did:
1. Dinner--we were able to find a restaurant with an open table outside, so that was nice.
2. Bookstore--The wife bought two books, I bought none, but it was fun to look.
3. Went to a bar, drank beer, watched Tiger baseball, ate spinach and artichoke dip.
I found you through Rachel Gardner's blog.
My husband and I have about two date nights a year and run into the same problem you do. (Although I never in a million years thought to google date ideas. Very clever)
Our last date we chose all the things we can't do with our nine year old. Ate at a Japanese restaurant, rented an R-rated movie, then sat at the laptop for hours reading crabbyoldfart.com's blog, who rants about teenagers.
P.S.
I have a purple Eeyeore shirt but never thought to wear it with a denim jacket.
Thank you for all the useful tips
We did this awhile back on our anniversary and thought it felt like the spontaneous pre-children dating life. First, we stopped and had a drink somewhere (happened to be the pre-wedding rehearsal bar everybody stopped at), then we went to dinner at our place of choice (we picked someplace new to be different), then we went to the Melting Pot for dessert (yummy fondue and romantic at the same time).
We had fun. It was different. So now I'm a big fan of the un-planned progressive. ;)
SIL
Here are a couple of what sound boring but were actually fun things we've done... (involves a movie but a little different) We took our favorite fast food, dvd player and watched a movie in the back of our Tahoe overlooking the city lights somewhat up in the mountains (any remote place will do). Since we like to play games, we went to a game store, found one 2 people could play and went to a coffee shop to play. Then there's always getting the best ice cream in town and going for a walk downtown, because ice cream makes anytime a great time.
your date sounds very nice, PMM. not extremely creative, but nice
Too many type-o's in that last comment. It's early and I didn't review before submitting, sorry. I'll try again:
we've done dinner and:
laser tag (surprisingly fun w/ a group of friends)
laser show at the planetarium (U2, it was fantastic)
laser hair removal -- just kidding, couldn't resist keeping w/ the laser theme ;)
indoor rock climbing (we have a great place about 20 minutes away - no experience required and tons of fun..you should check the listings for one)
all fun things...though I am sure your wife just liked being out together without kids. that's the best part :)
We only go out once a year (because we're lame and cheap and I'm a homebody) to our neighborhood Christmas crawl. We drink and eat at four different houses, getting progressively, um, happy. It's a great night, but not something you could do spontaneously. Well, you could but the four home owners might be surprised and you'd probably get salami sandwiches and Miller lite instead of salmon puffs and fine Scotch.
I would actually prefer the sandwiches and beer.
Just being out with hubby without the children is rare and nice so it doesn't matter what you do. But ours is usually just dinner or dinner and movie. The last time we were out together without the kids, it was for a funeral.
We're crazy like that.
Things I like to do:
Sit across from each other and draw each other, no matter how dumb it looks it is fun to stare at each other in detail.
Sit across from each other and write a list of 100 things you love about the other person, then share.
Make funny movies. Tom Green style. :)
Random road trip. Each light you get to you randomly choose which way to go and see where you end up. Complete with soundtracks of each others lives.
A train ride.
And my favorite. Playing tag in the rain and kissing under street lights.
I could go on all day. I'll spare you.
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