One of my favorite tricks to raise my wife Jenny’s mood is to ask her to pick a favorite date from all of the dates we’ve ever been on together. Depending on her mood, the answer is often different and it’s hard not to smile once you rattle a few off.

There’s the time we went into triple overtime playing miniature golf, or “putt-putt” as she insists on calling it. And the “Shakespeare in the Park” production that turned out to actually take place in someone’s backyard next to a homeless man sleeping in a tree.

Also, the Airbnb rental where the hostess got high and forgot she was making grilled cheese until the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night.

Plus apple orchards, drinks during sunset at Calf Pasture beach, and the Connecticut Renaissance Faire where we competed shooting bows and arrows.

I also enjoy the seemingly unremarkable dates, like last Saturday when we laid around the house all day then got ice cream, went to Walmart, and spontaneously split a late-night quesadilla while watching people salsa dance.

This week marks ten years since I started dating my wife. More accurately, it marks ten years since I started dating the woman who would become my wife – she had a different last name then.

I could go on in great detail about all of the changes that have happened in our lives during the past ten years, and how we’ve both grown together. But all of that serious stuff came as we grew the relationship that became our marriage.

This week isn’t a celebration of our marriage, or even of our relationship, it’s a celebration of our dates – and frankly, we’ve done most of them.

From chain restaurants to fancy restaurants, matinees to late-night screenings, and backyard barbeques to black-tie balls.

We’ve gone a few times to watch professional wrestling, but the greatest smackdown we’ve ever witnessed together was at a Celtic Woman concert when a very enthusiastic fan took great exception to the woman talking loudly directly in front of us.

My favorite date was our wedding – or maybe the wiener dog races in Buda, Texas – it’s hard to say.

Together we’ve explored the world around us both on vacations and near our home. It’s comforting, sweet, and, ten years later, still an awful lot of fun.

I like using dates to explore new places or try new things, but sparingly, like for Valentine’s Day gift dates. Jenny and I are both creatures of habit so when we go out we generally just go to the same two or three places.

And we only diversified to two or three places after the Chili’s bartender started getting a little too familiar with us. But then he got bumped back down to waiter and stopped making eye contact with us, which suited him well.

I knew very early in our relationship that my single days were numbered when we went grocery shopping together and Jenny said she’d never before dated someone who made running errands fun.

At the time, I just rolled my eyes then slowly started veering the shopping cart to the side so Jenny almost walked into a display of avocados. But I knew she was right. Our relationship is special.

I thought about that moment last Saturday as we walked into the Walmart together and I asked her, “Out of all the Walmarts we’ve ever been to together, which one is your favorite?”

While most people would dismiss the question outright saying, “All Walmarts are the same,” I couldn’t help but smile as Jenny rattled each one off.

Looks like at least ten more years of smile-inducing dates lie ahead.

 

If you enjoy my columns, please subscribe below.

If you want to syndicate this column, you may contact me here to discuss the details.

You may notice that I’ve disabled commenting on this post. I’d love to hear your thoughts by email at [email protected].