Routine Order

For times when the romance has gone out of your life, it is time to think in cliches. Or, better still, not think at all, and spark off the romance once again, by just doing romantic things. After a few years of knowing that someone special, doing anything romantic seems to be something that is contrived. You might think, “Oh, but that is so cliched - I have done that before,” and so on. So stop thinking, and pick up a list of romantic ideas and start ticking things off at regular periods.

Honestly, how long has it been since you wrote (or read) a love letter? Get started with some of these free love letters. Then improvize to come up with your own ideas. Since ideas are free, here’s one - call up your S.O. at the office and leave a message. It is better if a person takes down the message, as opposed to an answering machine. Make it go something like… “this is a message for my only true love,… yes, , .” Romance, like everything else in life, needs gentle care. The more romantic you get, the more romance you will receive, too. Trust me on that. I just survived to tell the tale of how a post-it note on the bathroom mirror got me an absolutely fabulous Saturday in exchange.

Cupid had been kind to me, but the kindness was conditional. My “date” has left me high and dry after the first two dates, leaving me at the mercy of online dating services. I picked a couple based on their online dating reviews and much hilarity ensued Read on for details…

I had written about cheap date ideas in this connection before. That date went well, we went to a mall and window shopped, had ice cream, saw a movie and it actually turned out to be not so cheap, but what the heck, it was fun, nevertheless.

So its been two weeks since I went out with someone, in spite of giving online dating services a shot. You won’t believe the kind of stuff that happens online. I thought I had a date, and ended up with what can mildly be described as an “Escort” service - if you see what I am talking about. My first mistake was that I let on too much information about myself. Including my phone number. Big mistake. I also let the online wooing drag on too long. She was nice and polite and we were chatting and stuff. It was when it came to setting up a face-to-face meeting that she was kind of reserved. Then she told me we could meet at her place. You NEVER do that - you always want to meet someone in a public place. These are just a few of the tips for online dating that I found handy. Then she called me - well, only thing is, it was she who called me, but someone who knew her - promising to set up that first meeting “at my convenience” at my place. I ran, like hell. I got a couple more calls from the same number but I knew better than to pick them up, of course.

I will save myself the trouble of writing about the disadvantages of online dating since someone else already has. The first one - trading off honesty for attractiveness is the one you really have to account for. I try not to embellish my profile with half-truths and lies, but it is a difficult thing to do - everyone else seems to be the coolest person you ever would meet! Anyways, “True” and “Engage”, both of which are free signups from the reviews site seem promising. I got a couple of responses, but you know how it is - once bitten, twice shy. I just have to take it easy, and be on guard.

One of the privileges of blogging anonymously, like I do, is that you can blog about cheap date just before you head out on one over the weekend

So yeah, Cupid has been kind and I have the opportunity to take a lady out this Saturday. So what does a geek do when he’s short of ideas? Search online, of course!

First off, there’s a list of ideas for fun dates here - including going to an arcade, bowling, a casino (now that is something I wouldn’t have thought of myself), museums, the zoo, and playing frisbee. But not all of these are cheap, except maybe the last one.

So here’s a free ideas for dates in general that I find, hmm, interesting:

1. Go to a mall or a good place for people watching and sit and enjoy a coffee/beer
2. Build and/or fly a kite
3. Find a coffee shop with a poetry reading/open-mic free live music and get a coffee or a beer (yes, I love coffee)
4. Rent/Borrow a video at home and watch it with chips n salsa
5. Go window shopping under the pretense of looking for some hard-to-find brand of jeans/shoes - now though no girl will likely turn this down, shopping of any kind exhausts me
6. A hike/bike ride through a scenic trail close to you - there’s only the cost of getting there and back

Ok, that’s it - I am out of ideas now, so God help me! I probably will end up trying #3, #6 or #5 in that order. There’s a blog for the compulsive date-goers the same place I found the list of fun date ideas, but their isn’t too much advice by way of cheap dates available online. Boy, writing a blog regularly, only about dating, must need some resolve and patience!