An Introduction

so here's the low down. madison has all these great websites featuring nightlife guides, restaurant picks, summer festivals and the like, but what they all lack (as far as i can tell) is a date guide.

here's what i mean: jon and i started dating last august, kicking off nearly a year of long distance dating. i'd been living in chicago while jon was up in madison and so weekends together tended towards the dramatic. you know, i'd choose a restaurant in chicago i loved, then head to a pub, maybe plan a day's excursion in the indiana dunes. it was great because we'd been able to plan for each other's visit a week in advance. and still, we wished to be in the same city so we could just hang out with each other casually.

fast forward to summer 2006. i moved up to madison. that's a longer story. you can read the whole dramatic tale on my blog later. as it relates to this blog, however, jon and i found ourselves juggling his bizarre work schedule (gone for a week, here for a week, studying insanely for classes) and being together with friends at a cabin, visiting family, and generally just bumming around.

so does just bumming around with someone constitute a date? i would say no. you can ask jon for his opinion, but if at least one person in a relationship of two thinks you're not going on dates, well, you're not going on dates.

with fall approaching and jon's calendar revealing how our time together will change (i don't say that to point the finger at jon for having a busy load; really, i'd like to have a schedule, too, i just don't have a job yet. but that's another story again), we decided to pick a ...






(wow, thanks to bret who saw my need for a glittered word and found a website that does it. this post is SO much better now. thank you!!!)

anyway, so the premise is that we'll set aside one night a week that's just for us. and each week we'll take turns taking the other out. it doesn't have to be dramatic (i.e. we can't take hot air balloon rides every monday), but it shouldn't be lazy (dinner and a movie at home is great, but not every monday. we're more creative than that).

we've only had two so far, but it was the second one that inspired this blog. and yes, that's because it was my turn.

i'd expected that i'd be better at this. i don't know why, i guess just because i really like planning things. but even with a week to think about what we could do, i found myself desperately grasping at straws on monday afternoon. i even put a few calls in to friends who'd creatively dated in madison once upon a time. i stopped by my sister and brother-in-law's house to glean some information. i needed something good. and why in the world could i find nothing online?

voila madisondatenight.blogspot.com.

we'll share what we do monday nights, and hopefully you'll comment with some suggestions, too. and of course, we'll provide links to the things we did and give you a general price range for the evening.

fun fun :)

so with out further ado, we hope you enjoy these madison date night diaries ...