Eons ago my wife and I instituted the concept of the mystery date into our courtship. No, not some 1960s Milton Bradley board game with a catchy jingle on the commercial. I mean once a month one of us would plan an outing and surprise the other with the date.
There really are no guidelines. A mystery date could be anything from dinner and a movie to tickets to some event or even champagne and a fireplace if it's done up right. Mystery dates seem to have fallen out of fashion though somewhere around pregnancy and childrearing, but we resolved to make 2008 the year we reintroduce them into the relationship.
In January I decided I should ease back into mystery dating somewhat frugally. Not only does it not make sense to spend money you don't have, but I also didn't want to start off with too big of a bang only to let the art of mystery dating fizzle because I did too much too soon. So I picked a movie that I knew Elaine would like, divvied up a four-pack of single-serve wine bottles into my jacket pockets and headed for the movie theater with my one and only.
We went to go see 27 Dresses. Apparently I did a decent job picking the movie because Elaine loved every sappy minute of it. I thought it to be kitschy at best and . . . well . . . cheesy at worst, but the wine made the blasé acting and storyline a little more tolerable. Better yet, we were able to purchase the movie tickets without having to first take out an equity line on our home.
Barely.
Anyway, this month it's Elaine's turn and she chose Valentine's Day to mark our second monthly mystery date of the year. I have no idea what's in store for the evening, but really being surprised is half the fun. On the other hand, for the person doing the planning, it's the secret machinations that are the most fun. So far all I know is that my parents are coming over this evening to babysit.
That reminds me. I need to lock the liquor cabinet.
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