We hate the art museum.
No, let me rephrase that: We’ve done the art museum, and we’re no longer interested in doing it again. Not unless there’s a new exhibit that we’d like to see; even then, we’ll just go see that and leave without touring the rest of the museum again.
It’s not that we don’t think it’s a good museum. It is. But we’re just not art museum people, any more than we’re poetry slam people or wine tasting people.
If there’s not a good movie out, our default choice of date night shenanigans is usually dinner, then thrifting, and coffee after the thrift stores close.
This happens almost every time: I say, “I’ll try to find something else for us to do,” then I scour the local calendars and find a bunch of stuff we are so not into. Art shows and exhibitions. Theatre performances. Fancy dinner parties. Concerts that run way too late. And there is NO FREAKING WAY I’m going to Rocky Horror Picture Show during Halloween (or maybe ever again — I’m too old for that shit).
One month, we went on a group date night with two other couples: dinner and gaming. That was fun, and we’d like to do it again, but it’s not something we want to do every month. Other things that were different and fun were hitting garage sales at the Old West End Festival and going to see The Amazing Johnathan wrap up his final comedy tour. We’ve done furniture shopping a couple of times, too, but that only qualifies as fun because a) we don’t have to wrangle Connor, and b) new stuff!
But there’s not always a festival to attend, and the weather isn’t always nice enough for outdoor activities (I would not be opposed to a putt-putt date night).
We have time we can spend together, in the evening, away from home. Why is this so hard?
It’s hard, I’m realizing, because our time together before Connor used to be Saturday afternoons. Stores were open, yard sales were in full swing, we could go take a walk, we could drive to Ann Arbor. Or we could stay home, play games, watch TV, get frisky, maybe order out. We’d usually go out for dinner, though; after that, depending on the season and how much daylight we had left, we were usually on our way home to chill for the evening.
We’re not Saturday night partiers. I think that’s where we’re getting stuck.