The ABCs of Frolicking

My wife, Jeannene, and I have been together nearly 15 1/2 years and married almost that long, although legally, only 2 1/2 years. About 8 years ago, we realized we were in a smidge of a rut with dates, tending to go out to dinner and, occasionally, dinner and a movie. I decided to try alphabet dating, wherein we split up the alphabet & each choose 13 dates. Jeannene quickly agreed. We try to keep things secret until the last possible moment, just to add a bit more playfulness.

Since I came up with it, I went first. We were living in Cleveland at the time. I'd been wanting to try an Ethiopian restaurant called Empress Taytu, so I decided our first alphabet date would be A is for African Food. We had a delicious meal, my wife's first time to have Ethiopian food. Afterward, we sprung for the coffee ritual. We were taken to another table, where one of the staff members talked to us about the tradition of the coffee ceremony in her culture, explaining each element as she went. She educated us about the coffee as she roasted and hand-ground it. It was so cool.

Jeannene was up next with our B date, which she planned to be Bus and Baseball. We caught the bus into downtown Cleveland's Tower City for an Indians game. The date turned out to be Bus, Baseball, and Bobbleheads, as they were giving out Asdrubal Cabrera bobble heads when we arrived.

On we went, through all kinds of fun adventures, culminating in Zoo. It was such a delight that we started all over and have alphabet dated on and off over the years. We've done D is for Decoupage & Daiquiris, F is for Fall Getaway Weekend at Oglebay in WV, B is for Bowling, L is for Lord of the Rings Marathon, V is for Victorian Tea (Jeannene prepared a beautiful table full of nibbles, complete with lace, china, and 3 different kinds of tea). We always meant to blog about it---or at least keep track! This time around, we're finally doing it! We'd love to invite you to follow our frolics and hope you get inspiration---or at least enjoy reading about our adventures.