SICK OF BORING DATES? BY ROBERT COOK

When you are in a long-term relationship, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. You do the same things over and over, go to the same places over and over, hang out with the same friends. That gets old pretty quickly. Where did the fun go?

Why not flex your creative muscles to come up with some new and interesting things to do?

Make a date out of brainstorming all the different activities either one of you thinks sounds even remotely fun. In another pile, continue with as many restaurants, categories of food, and home-cooked meals you can think of. Then add in a category for themes. You could use colors, feelings, genres, music styles - the only limit is your imagination. Randomly pick one from each pile, combine them into a date.

I once found myself on a gondola, with cinnamon rolls, enjoying the gondola driver singing KISS’s Rock and Roll All Night. A different time we ended up at the Opera after eating Cincinnati chili speaking in bad French accents.

Doesn’t that sound more interesting than dinner and a movie?