Boo! It's your date: Good date/bad date
Do your homework: check opening hours, special events, directions, and entrance fees (hint: most of that info is online--same place you found your date). If possible, check out the place by yourself first.
FOR MOST
Animal Attraction. Visit a zoo together. You may share an interest in zoology, or you may just want to see monkeys having sex. Try a weekday, if possible, and check the calendar for special tours or events.
Flowers in Bloom/Tip Toe Through the Tulips. Make like rabbits: enjoy nature. Botanical gardens are a great green getaway from the great gray city. Some flowers and trees only bloom once a year--most gardens make an event of it (cherry blossoms, chrysanthemums).
Get Artsy. Expose yourselves... to art. Museums are a great place to start up conversation and learn more about each other's tastes. Many have swanky evening events sure to impress a date.
Pack A Basket. Your own tavern on the green: pack a picnic basket and a bottle of wine and find the nearest grassy knoll. To really feel like a kid again, bring a kite.
Into the Sunset. See the cheapest show around: watch the sunset. Pick a scenic location, bring a thermos of tea and a bag of cookies, and take the best seats in the house.
Top of the World. Ride the elevator together to the top of the tallest building in town and gaze down upon your domain. Try to resist the temptation to spit.
Baked Goods. What's better than being a kid in a candy store? Being an adult in a bakery! Sample as many goodies as your waistband and wallet will allow.
Caffeinate. There's nothing like sugar and caffeine to rev up conversation. Fuel up with plenty of leaded java at every coffee house in town. Take in the funky surroundings and chat, chat, chat. (Generic chain coffee shops are a cop-out.)
Native Tourism. Take the road well-traveled: be a tourist in your own town. Who is that guy on the horse statue? Why is that tower leaning? And are there really ghosts at 362 Maple Street?
Stuff Your Face. If you must make it a dinner-date, make it interesting: funky decor, unusual world delicacies, kitschy theme, or a Zagat's rating will all appeal to different dates. If at eight o'clock every weekday, the uniformly-clad waiters break into a heartfelt rendition of "I Will Survive," so much the better. As long as it's off the beaten path, unique, and conducive to conversation (you must be able to hear you date's voice over the din of silverware), you may still have a chance of making this one stand out.
FOR SOME
Cheap Thrills. Thrift store hopping: pick out bizzarre items to comment on
Into The Woods/Take a hike. Most towns have picturesque trails just waiting to be explored, of varying degrees of difficulty (from a meandering path along a lake to "I'm not going up that!"). It'll be just you and your date, alone in the woods. Er... we don't recommend this for your first date.
FOR THE BRAVE FEW
Ommm.... Buddhist monastery/ ashram
Cheek to Cheek. Try a ballroom dance class (ask if it's open level). If ballroom isn't your style, there's always salsa, swing, bellydance, and, if you like the idea of buckets of sweat pouring off both of you to the beat of throbbing, relentless drums, African.
First Date No-Nos
Dinner. Chew chew...we don't like each other and we haven't finished the first course... who's paying for the lobster?
In spite of the fact that most bad dates happen over dinner, many of us have a lemming-like need to have first dates over dinner. Fight the urge. Why? Too much is at stake. First, there's the money. If one person pays and you both leave thanking deities that it's over, that person feels shafted. If both people pay, neither is sure it was a "real date." If you meet and immediately know the chemistry is a failed experiment, you've got an entire meal (and the issue of paying) to get through.
Finally, you have to cut out an entire evening to make dinner happen, making it hard to plan, not to mention impractical for both your schedules. Think of it as date triage: can you afford to give a whole night to someone you might never see again? What about all the time you need to make yourself more fabulous...find more dates...date more dates...get to know the dates you already like? Half our lives are already spent sleeping. There's no time to waste.
Movies. Grope-grope... "Wait, whose leg is that?"
Aside from the obvious problem above, there's the issue of two solid hours of non-interaction with your date. In this case, you have to cut out at least an hour on top of that to actually talk to your date and find out if you like them. You also need to sit in very close proximity to someone whom you may not like. Refer back to the triage issue.
Concerts. "I think you spilled beer on my shoe." "What?" "Huh?"
Four words: I can't hear you. And I can't talk to you, either, because we're at a show. Finally, consider: are you willing to spend several hours sharing personal space with someone you don't know yet?
Parties. "Yes, I'd like to introduce, um, my 'Internet date.'"
Unless neither of you know anyone there (and why would you be at a party where you don't know anyone?), chances are good that you'll have to make introductions. Just what will you call this person? And do you want your friends to decide they like (or don't like) your date before you decide, yourself? Too much commitment, we say.
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