More Post-Valentine's Day Dating Advice for Couples

Post-Valentine’s Day greetings! Keeping romantic fires burning is a challenge, so here is more Post-Valentine's Day Advice for Couples -- or more specifically, middle-aged longtime married couples/partners. For kicks, please read my tips from last year (Part 1, Part 2) and 2012.

Driving Date: Imagine riding in back of a horse-drawn carriage through Central Park (but not behind Rusty, Kramer's sick horse on Seinfeld) or zooming through the countryside in a convertible! The Olney version would be being chauffeured by a newly licensed (but safe) teenage driver through Route 108 or Georgia Avenue traffic.

Foodie Dining Date: Try a new type of restaurant cuisine. Enjoy the atmosphere of low romantic lighting ... but bring a flashlight so you can read the menu and see what you're eating. 

Pre-meal Exercise Date: If you have to wait for a table at the restaurant, take a brisk walk around the block to chat while burning off calories before tucking into your gourmet meal.

Or eat in with home-cooked meal. First buy ingredients on a Foodie Shopping Date: find gourmet food at Roots or try less expensive fare at one of Olney's grocery stores: Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter and Shopper's. For the cheapest food in bulk, try Costco or Sam's Club. You two will have plenty of time to chat while waiting in the checkout line.

Fashion Date: Inspired by Richy Slyons' post "I can see clearly now, whoa", I thought a fun and creative date could be a trip to the optical store to try on different styles of reading glasses. 

Faux Jetsetter Date: Renew expired passports at local (i.e., Ashton, Brookeville, Derwood, Aspen Hill) post offices that accept and process passport applications.

Nesting Date: Visit friends at Leisure World and gawk at the amenities. Count the number of years until the kids move out of the house and you two are old enough to move there.

May the flames of romance continue to burn throughout 2017! 

Post-Valentine's Day Dating Advice for Married Couples

I admire couples who manage to hold a regular Date Night. My husband and I do not have a Date Night but found a pale substitute: the Spontaneous Date. This idea hatched one cool evening last fall, after the heat and humidity subsided. "Hey, why don't we go for a walk?" I cheerfully asked my husband. He scoffed at my suggestion, mumbling that he had to take out the garbage. I followed him out into the garage. As he rolled the garbage can down the driveway, I walked beside him. He looked up quizzically me. "Look, we're on a date!" I exclaimed.

I have found multiple Spontaneous Date opportunities in everyday Olney life. Whenever we find ourselves sans kids (perhaps after dropping them off at piano lessons or parties), I exclaim, "We're on a date!" Once when we had to notarize documents at the UPS Store, it was just the notary, my husband and me in the store. "We're on a date," I declared. Another time my husband and I went grocery shopping at Giant and walked down the frozen food aisle together -- voila, Spontaneous Date! I think I might have even been wearing white at the time, so it was a Spontaneous Faux Wedding Date!

Speaking of Giant, when we rack up more than 300 Gas Rewards Points, we embark on another Spontaneous Date (at least that is what I call it -- my husband is not completely on board with my enthusiasm) to the Shell station on Georgia Avenue. Leaving the kids at home, we each drive a car to the station so we can fill not one, but two tanks of gas and save at least 30 cents off per gallon. Spontaneous Cheap Date!

So I say to all couples who have not carved out a Date Night: let's extend Valentine's Day romance throughout the year with all kinds of Spontaneous Dates!