We all know that date nights can help you feel closer to your partner and remind you that you are a team. But at a time where you are forced to STAY HOME, causing you to be SUPER CLOSE together a gazillion hours a day, the idea of spending MORE TIME together may not be so appealing. I get it, really, I do. No matter how much you may love your significant other, it’s easy to get on each other’s nerves when you are stuck together during a pandemic quarantine! Add other people being trapped with you to the mix … and the ideal date may now seem like both of you being in different rooms and an hour of uninterrupted silence.
But then, I started thinking about the real purpose of me and my husband’s regular, once-a-month date night out. For us, it is more about stopping what we are doing and checking in with the other person. It’s about reconnecting, destressing, making time to just laugh and have fun. When I thought about it that way, suddenly the idea of a date with this hairy beast that looks a lot like my hubby used to seemed a lot more appealing. But we knew that we needed to keep things and expectations real.
We started off by just taking walks together. It was nice to be out of the house, and it gave us time to talk about fears or anxieties without having to worry about our kids listening in. Hubby is a first responder and still working, so I was able to express to him how I was really feeling about that and what I needed him to do when he came back home so I would feel safe. It was a serious conversation, but having it while we were walking helped keep it light. So did him doing his usual antics to make me laugh, like posing among the wildflowers that I mentioned were so pretty. Sorry, ladies, that goofball is all mine!
While walks have become our TALKING Time, we knew we needed to do something together that was just pure fun. And that is how we became reality TV junkies. 90 Day Fiancé has become our go-to show. There is just something about watching these people who believe they’ve found their soulmate online and are traveling to a different country to meet them that makes you forget about your real life. Add wine and witty banter to the mix, and you have a night of pure entertainment. It’s not that we are being mean and making fun of these folks; we certainly do not mean to be. It is more like watching a trainwreck – you know you should do something to stop it, but you can’t. No matter how hard you try to look away, you won’t! But unlike a real trainwreck, this show has been made for entertainment and for us TO WATCH IT! So watch it we do. We watch 55-year-old Big Ed (who not so ironically is only four feet tall), who met 20-something Rosemary online three months ago, pack the ring he will use to propose when he gets to the Philippines to meet her for the first time. We watch her disgusted look that she tries to hide when she sees him for the first time, and his disgusted look that he tries to hide when he sees her hairy legs a few hours later in the fancy hotel room. We watch Big Ed meet Rosemary’s father who, by the way, is younger than Big Ed. We watch Big Ed as he lays on the floor of Rosemary’s house that has no windows, doors, or even floors, and he starts to wonder if perhaps Rosemary doesn’t really love him and is only using him for a ticket to the U.S. and a green card. Both my husband and I yell at the TV, “YOU THINK!” Then, we lovingly look at one another. See, we are still in sync!
We thought this special time together could not get any better … but then, it did.
The other night, we had the ultimate quarantine date! The online neighborhood 90 Day Fiancé Enthusiasts Facebook group we belong to (DON’T JUDGE … in times of a crisis, you do what you have to do to survive) had a Zoom Watch Party where two of the cast members actually joined us! While Big Ed was a no-show, Baby Girl Lisa and Geoffrey were there to answer all our questions and feed our quarantine reality TV appetites. It was a night of unexpected fun that, honestly, would never have happened if we weren’t in quarantine all stuck at home, trying our best to make the most out of a bad situation. Which really is the point of this article. Dating during a quarantine is not as hard as you think. You just need to figure out what you can do together to make the most out of a bad situation. And if you happen to see Big Ed while doing that, tell him our next Zoom Watch Party is in two weeks, and he is invited.
Stay safe, EVERYONE!
