Painting a Perfect Picture: The Art of Dating

It seems dating is a lost art.  Once upon a time, a man had to woo and court a woman to get her allegiance.  Men took pride in going all out to win the heart of a woman.  Nowadays, dates have been reduced to movie night at each other’s house.  Or if you are lucky, you will get dinner at Cheddar’s or some other generic low-end restaurant chain.

I personally don’t date or attract the men that think this is acceptable, but that is a post for another day.  Nevertheless, I am not sure if the problem is more of the men not knowing how it should be done or the women that are easily amused and impressed.  Either way, here are some examples of dates done right because some of you don’t have a clue.

Best date- Actually it was our very first date and he set quite the standard.  While living in Dallas, I had a habit of frequenting Houston, to get away from the boredom of Dallas’ social scene.  So when he asked if I could make it down one particular Friday, I was down.  I sneaked out of work early to beat some of the traffic, made it to Houston, and begin to get dressed.   I had no idea what the night had in store, so I decided dressy casual was the way to go. So when he picked me up (that’s right, he needs to pick you up, not you drive, and not you meet him there.  I don’t care how high gas is or how out of the way it may be,) he was very relaxed and laid back and set that set the tone for the entire night… so I thought.  The first stop was a very quaint and intimate Thai restaurant.  I asked him how he knew I loved Thai food.  He said I mentioned it once.  So I decided my entrée and told him.  When the waiter came, he ordered for us. So we began to talk and the chemistry was just crazy.  The food was superb.  We sat there for a while just enjoying each other’s conversation.   Then he asked if I was up for some live music, and I reply yes, of course.  I thought we were headed to a nice jazz spot or something along those lines, but we made our way to a bigger venue.  I immediately see signs for Jazmine Sullivan and I was like oh okay, this will be cool.   But as we make our way to our floor seats, she is already performing so I am thinking we were late, though it was no big deal because of the great conversation.   She finishes and everyone around us is getting excited about the next act, but no one is saying the name of the artist.  It was a crazy conspiracy.  Imagine my face when the music begins to play for “‘Til the Cops Come Knockin’,” Maxwell’s first single.  Yeah, he said it was priceless too.  You see, I LOVE surprises and this was just beyond amazing.  Later, after I had composed myself, I asked how he knew I loved Maxwell, and he replied I had mentioned once on a facebook status.  His attention to detail was leaps and bounds more than what I had expected for our first date.  So after the Maxwell concert, yes there is more, he took me to a little hole in a wall place that had the best root beer floats.  And we continued to talk, although honestly by this point I was flabbergasted and very short on complete thoughts. When we eventually made our way back to where I was staying, and he got out of the car and walked me to my entrance.   We exchanged a sweet and simple kiss and he went home.  There was no mentioning of sex, no trying to stay, or anything to ruin the innocence of this perfect date.  He was the perfect gentleman. Yeah, I may need to go ahead and marry him.

Anyway, I know you are probably thinking it is easy to be romantic with lots of money so I will give you a quick example of the best free date I have ever had.  It was my freshman year in college when no one had any money or a car.  Despite this, the gentleman still came to my dorm to get me so we could walk to the metro (DC train and bus system) together.  We ended up near the Lincoln Memorial and we begin to walk and talk.  As we went along the way, he would give me some history about some of the landmarks.  I asked him how he knew the information and he said he looked it up the day before. I told him I had done a few of the city tours before with my family.  He said he had figured that, but asked if I had ever seen the national mall at night?  I looked around and noticed the sun was indeed setting.  We continued to talk and walk until we made it to the US Capitol building.  He was right.  It was breathtaking at night.  His thoughtfulness and that view was the perfect gift.

What were some of your best dates?  What is the greatest thing a man has done to win you?