Quirky Date Night: reconnect with your honey, one weird date at a time

With date night options limited and stress at an all-time high, I’ll be the first to say I’m bored with our date nights. I love grabbing takeout and watching Netflix... but I am so sick of grabbing takeout and watching Netflix. So, this week, we did a little experiment: we got adventurous with our time together! If you’re looking to reconnect with your honey by rocking a quirky date night, read on for a few less-than-traditional COVID-safe ways to spend some quality time together.

Swing Dance Lessons… in the Living Room

One night, Eric came home from work and I had moved all the furniture out of the living room and rolled the rug out of the way, leaving a huge expanse of floor to work with. He looked at me, smirked, and said, “Oh, we’re dancing tonight, huh?” HECK YEAH WE ARE.

I made a tasty dinner, which we ate at the bar overlooking our kitchen (in two years, we have never ONCE eaten at the bar- lol). Then, I loaded up a youtube video for learning basic swing moves, and we spent probably an hour laughing our butts off because we stink at swing dancing. We tripped all over each other and butchered half the steps we’d learned, but we had so much fun doing it. Eric says: “It definitely seemed silly at first, but it was a lot of fun. Definitely do.”

Dessert & Speed Dating

This date is actually inspired by my Gammy and Papa, who took us to Rick's in Sacramento last time we visited for a slice of cake and a glass of milk after dinner. The four of us sat in a booth in the diner and stole bites from each other's plates until we were all so full we could pop.

To recreate that sweet memory, Ric and I headed to Linn’s Restaurant in Cambria. This place is amazing: walking in, you'll see a huge bar of individually-packaged, fresh-baked, totally unique treats. I went with a slice of Olallieberry cheesecake and Eric chose a generous helping of the Cafe Mocha Tiramisu. We've been here so many times that we can certifiably say: no matter what you choose, you can't go wrong.

We took our desserts to the beach parking lot just across the street for the second phase of this quirky date night: speed dating!! We looked up a list of questions (and came up with some of our own) to fire back and forth at each other to keep the conversation light and twisting to fit subjects we don’t usually talk about on a day-to-day basis. You can easily find lists like these on Pinterest, or you can check out the list we compiled here.

“Big Rubbins”

This is probably Eric’s favorite date night (when asked for a comment, Eric merely said: "...rubbins"). Turn the lights down low, fire up some fall-smelling candles, and break out the lotion. It’s massage time. We’ll typically set a time limit (ten minutes for “quick rubbins” or twenty minutes for “big rubbins”) and identify body parts that are achey or need some more rubbin time than usual.

Happy Hour & Horror Movies

Full disclosure: I’m a fake Kentuckian and I don’t like brown alcohol. If I’m going for a mixed drink, it’s probably going to be a Moscow Mule or something tasty and blended. Eric, however, is a huge fan of a well-done Old Fashioned. But here’s the fun part: for this date night, you’re not making your own drink- you’re making your honeys’! Look up a good how-to video and get creative with your mixed drinks!

I said horror movies… but really, anything creepy will do. We’re super into Criminal Minds and The Haunting of Bly Manor. Get creepy with it!

Game Night: learning backgammon together

Last but not least, taking it back to the basics: learn a new board game together. We are definitely a die-hard checkers and chess couple, but we didn’t realize until the last time we played that our board actually has a backgammon set-up on the back, too! Neither of us had ever played, so we looked up a how-to video and spent the whole night trying to figure it out and making up our own rules. It’s a game of little strategy and mostly chance, and we found ourselves cheering when either of us rolled double numbers or bonked the other off the board. It was an awesome night.

The key to a good quirky date is shaking it up: finding things you’ve never done and experiences you’ve never had together. COVID can be a date night roadblock, or it can be the wake-up call to pump some adventure into the time you spend with the one you love. It’s always been your choice.