S-C-R-A-B-B-L-E

Our first date of 2012!

Here was what we pulled out of the "Date Idea" Jar:

"Go to a local cafe and play Scrabble. Choose a character that you want to act out and be in character while you play."

So we hit up Starbucks. The deal was that as soon as we walked through those doors, we were new people. I chose to be Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation. That's easy enough: just be super happy and perky and make things awkward sometimes. Talk about parks and voting a lot. At first, Dave pretended to be deaf, but then admitted later "Ok, so I'm not deaf, I just don't like people." Hello Ron Swanson.

As it turns out, we are both TERRIBLE at

Scrabble. I think during the entire game, we only had 2 words that were longer than four letters. At one point, Dave's letters made up the words "TO OBAMA", but I wouldn't let him use that because it was a name. I also have to admit that towards the end of the game we got a little tired of being in character, so we quit the Leslie and Ron act. We instead decided to act as a cute married couple playing Scrabble on their date.

It may sound simple, but this was actually a great date! It's true, this is something we could have just done at home on any old night. But sometimes with dating, all you really want is to get out of the freaking house. Going to Starbucks, away from dishes and kids and bills, added an element to playing normal games that made it a terrific date. And no, we did not purchase anything at Starbucks, so it was 100% free!