Dating in Marriage

If you are married, and have the flexibility of either no children or very small children who can easily be packed up and forced to go with you wherever you go, then may I propose one of the many gifts of marriage: The Impromptu Date Night.  

Many a weekday night, Hubs and I will find ourselves, done with dinner, and alert enough to carry on plenty of conversation, only to be sitting in front of the television.  "Boo!" I'll think to myself, "don't waste your lives away with another two hour block of shows!  Just don't do it!"  But, it usually takes the initiation of Hubs (who is great at initiating things) to get us off that couch, away from yet another CBS sitcom (which are pretty good these days), and out of the house.  

What?  A weeknight date?  You may be asking yourself right now.  I have to assume I'm not the only one who poses questions to herself on a regular basis.  But doesn't date night take planning and purpose?  Like, 'oh, we haven't had a date in two months, guess we better do that.'  NO!  It doesn't.  Take back the date night, married people!  Get off the couch!  Finish dinner at home and there are worlds of fun, free things waiting for you out there.  This is one of the reasons to get married after all, isn't it?  Constant contact with one another.  Availability to live together, by which I mean much, much more than just co-habitation.  

Last night we took a long meandering walk through our neighborhood.  Trekked down streets we've driven past day after day but have never actually seen.  It was hot, so we were sweaty, and I had opened at the coffee shop that morning so some of my conversation was a little loopy, but we were together, doing an intentional activity, outside of the house.  Date!  

(This type of date is also an excellent opportunity to compose songs about one another's most outstanding features.   Take that however you may...)

Or, one for beating this summer heat, cart yourselves over to the 'ol Barnes and Noble or Borders or even the public library, as long as it's cool and there's plenty of reading material, oh, and a comfy place to sit.  Free Date!  Plus, this usually gives us lots of new and interesting thing to say to one another.  Our last bookstore date resulted in Hubs' new passion for local produce.  

Long ago, before Hubs even asked me to be wifey, he said something very sweet to me.  It went something like this: "I'm excited to be with you, as a married couple, one day.  We'll get to do stuff like buy nuts at Trader Joe's because we just feel like it."  This was in the context of a conversation about the joys of having your love with you, at home, available almost all the time. 

Fellow Hubs and wifeys!  Get together and make the Impromptu Date Night happen.  It makes marriages happy.  

~the wifey