Date Night, Redux

It is universally known that Friday is date night... well, at least it is in our house.

While other things occasionally interfere with our special night, we try to reserve it just for us. In the short time we have been married, I’ve discovered that this can sometimes be a problematic venture. The tricky part is two-fold: trying not to get into a rut (and when I mean “rut”, I mean rent a movie, start said movie, promptly fall asleep); the other is finding something that interests both of us.

As many of you know, we have a lot of common interests. However, we also have a lot of individual interests too! Because of this, we decided to take turns proposing and planning the activity for the week. It keeps things interesting… and at least every other week we each get to do what we want!

A few days ago, I was reading an article from the New York Times entitled, “Reinventing Date Night for Long-Married Couples”. The article focuses on middle-age couples, and though I’m not *quite* there, I think it has some great ideas for anyone who is trying to strengthen their marriage (who isn't?). As we all are in the same boat, everyone should find this blog to be entirely enriching and life-changing. If not, just humor me.

I found these lines to be particularly interesting:

Most studies of love and marriage show that the decline of romantic love over
time is inevitable. The butterflies of early romance quickly flutter away and
are replaced by familiar, predictable feelings of long-term attachment.
But several experiments show that novelty — simply doing new things together as
a couple — may help bring the butterflies back, recreating the chemical surges
of early courtship.

At the end of the study, the article delivers the real nugget of relationship wisdom. “You don’t have to swing from the chandeliers,” Dr. Fisher said. “Just go to a new part of a town, take a drive in the country or better yet, don’t make plans, and see what happens to you.”

I have to admit that seeing there was actual scientific proof that love fades was a bit disheartening. But, the solution is simple – and you don’t have to hop on a chandelier to do it! Upon finishing the article, I had a renewed sense of the importance of date night. I was energized. I was ready for something new. I was ready to be spontaneous.

And, as it was my turn to plan our date night this week, I skimmed through various sites in search of our “new thing”. After much deliberation and emails back and forth to DH, I got tickets for a local play. It may not sound exciting, but it’s something exciting, different and new for us.