Date Night Etiquette

Have you been slacking off in the date night department? If your idea of romance includes any type of foldable chair and/or canned beverages, the answer is yes. Don’t worry, I’m here to hook you up with a primer on dating etiquette. What would you do without me?

Check out Chasing Date Night Goes Back to School in this month’s Peekaboo – or follow the link!

Would You Sell Your Sex Life for $20?

 

The following classified recently ran in my local paper:

Needed for research
University of Arkansas – Psych. Dep. seeks romantic couples to participate in interviews on relationship and sexual satisfaction. Couples will get $20 gift cards. 

Whoa, now. Twenty bucks? How romantic do you suppose a couple would have to be to consider this a date night activity? And where do you think the gift card is redeemable? Harp’s? One can only hope it’s a pre-paid Visa.

I wonder if the couples will have make up sex after the fight over how to spend the $20.

Sounds like a follow up interview.

Compliment Insurance

Last Sunday we’re all sitting around eating dinner – my husband, the kids, and me.

What do you have going on this week, my husband wants to know.

Oh – you know, the usual: writing, going to the pool, a new client meeting – oh, and I’m getting my hair cut on Tuesday.

He turns to me and says, Great. Just in case I don’t mention it later, let me take this opportunity to tell you that your hair — it looks great.

Again with the romance. It’s really heating up this summer.

Passing the Clipboard

Last week my kids started musical theatre camp. Maybe you don’t like showtunes, maybe you do – not my business – but my kids do. And once you’ve seen your nine-year-old daughter belting out the Sally Bowles numbers from Cabaret, you’ll do just about anything to get some new songs into that head of hers.

So there we are, the kids, my husband and I, at the mandatory parent meeting (oh yeah, mandatory – these theatre people are serious) and they started passing the clipboards around. Personally, I never really met a clipboard I didn’t like so I had to check out where to put my name.

Costumes? No, didn’t want to prick my finger. Set design? Please – the curtains I took down in February so that my husband could repair the baseboard, which he did – in March? Still down. So I was pretty happy to see the Back Stage Parent list going around. Here was a way to stay plugged into the process and get some serious face time with the kids. And all I had to do was show up every single day the second week of camp and come early and stay late for both performances. Piece of cupcake!

You’re not doing that, said the Man.

Why not?

Did you see here where it says you won’t be able to watch the show?

I’ll buy the DVD.

You need to sit with me.

Awwwww. But they really need people. You’ll be okay.

It’s for both nights. Did you see that?

Yeah, so? You won’t have to come both nights.

So who’s going to sit with me at the bar?

We high-fived and I passed the clipboard. That’s romance.

Valentine’s Day for the Romantically Challenged

In honor of Valentine’s Day I was going to give you some great romance resources, but the truth is everything I found was, well, dumb. Romance is individual and you really can’t tell anyone else how to do it. So instead….. here are some Valentiney links.

• Chasing Date Night. Did you know I write another column for Peekaboo in addition to After the Bubbly? It’s where I give advice for NWA married dating. My favorite is Top 10 Stupid Date Night Ideas.
• Valentine’s Jokes for Kids. All clean, all corny.
• How to Write a Love Letter to Your Child. What better Valentine’s gift to a child than your undying love – in writing!
• Want to be wooed? Send your lover here for help with a custom romantic gesture. I’d really like your thoughts on this one!

Call me unromantic, but that’s all I got.

Image Credit: ldCross, Flickr

Ah… Romance, and a New Poll