By Elijah O’Donnell
Keeping things fresh with your significant other is challenging in these times. Either you have been spending every day walled up together, or it’s been longer than usual since you’ve been together. If you are facing a stale relationship, virus born or not, we’ve got some date night ideas to keep things interesting during quarantine.
Fresh ingredients make fresh relationships
If you and your other have been living together for the past few weeks or longer, chances are things in the kitchen are going a little stale. Why not try mixing things up?
All puns aside, cooking can be a great way to connect with your partner. So far, my partner and I have made pizza, pasta, chicken nuggets and more, all from scratch. If you both have absolutely no idea where to start you can sign up for an online cooking class or just look up some tutorials on YouTube. Not only are you both creating memories and learning great real-world skills, but you get to share a kickass meal together too once it’s all done. Orders up!
Every tree needs a friend
Try your hand at painting! Just like cooking, painting has tons of online resources to get you started. You and your partner can try anything! Always wanted to try following a Bob Ross episode? Now’s the time! Think detail is difficult and abstract is more your speed? Grab the oils and an online prompt generator and see who can paint the better piece!
Maybe you don’t reckon yourself a painter? Pose for your partner! To make things even more fun: do like the real French painters do and get some wine involved! Wine makes everything better. The Renaissance only happened after the Bubonic Plague; maybe now’s a good time to get into art…
“And if you’ll take a look at my next slide…”
This one takes a bit of research and preparation, but it’s well worth it. If you two can’t be together right now, try putting together a PowerPoint for each other! Now I know what it sounds like. I wasn’t so fond of PowerPoints in school either, but it’s a lot more fun when you don’t have to make your presentation school friendly! You each pick a topic of your choice and take a day or two to create a presentation about it.
It could be the best local beers, how much you care about your partner, the extended lore of your favourite TV show, or whatever! The more niche, the better. If throwing together a whole PowerPoint seems like a lot, consider just playing “podcast” and subjecting your helpless S/O to half an hour of your ramblings about which cheeses you think are best at whichever time of year.
Show and tell day
Ever wondered what the story behind that framed picture of a T-Rex on the desk is? Or where those “very cool” leopard print joggers came from? Now’s your chance.
Get your significant other to take you on a tour of their apartment, using their phone camera to show off every weird little knick knack and whatnot about the place, telling their stories along the way, then you do the same for them. You could also turn it into a fashion show of sorts, each showing off your favourite niche pieces from your closets. The oldest piece, the flashiest, most expensive, the one you never wear out, all of it!
Couples that game together, stay together
Try picking up a game you two can play together. This one can be done over the internet or in person. The best games for date night is something you could play together! I recommend something like Overcooked 1 or 2, where you each play a chef trying to work together to get your orders out on time.
Maybe try out the new Animal Crossing New Horizons and visit each other in-game. Maybe you or your partner aren’t particularly good at games.
My partner and I have been loving Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, where one person has a bomb in front of them with wires and codes and big red buttons to push, and the other has a manual with instructions on how to defuse the bomb safely. The trick? Neither person can see each other’s screen!
Slowly but surely you two will become a bomb-defusing power couple. Try taking a drink for every strike you get, two if it’s your fault. Makes for an explosive date night!
