How I did it: I'm going to call this goal done, but there are some caveats. The first is I don't even have a spouse. Since I started this goal, I've divorced my husband and been in a wonderful new relationship already for 5 years! The second is that I'm not exactly having "date nights". Let me explain.

I've become somewhat of a hermit and don't like leaving my house plus I hate spending money on ephemeral things. This makes it difficult to take me out. However, my partner and I both work at home. We have our desks in our living room and we spent almost all of our time together. Across many evenings of the week, we spent several hours "together" in our living room playing World of Warcraft. The catch is: we're usually in parties with 8 to 23 other people. Yes, there's nothing more romantic than a date night with your beloved and 8 other people.  (-:  OK, so it may not be "romantic" or "traditional", but we're doing something we love. We're alone together in our house but we're also interacting with other people. We co-lead an alliance of social guilds and provide the glue that enables other people to have fun, so we're doing something worthwhile too.

It may not be traditional, but we're happy, and we still have joint activities in the game sometimes and we play board and card games alone at other times. It's all good.

Lessons & tips: I said, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." This is a bit deceptive. I was already a World of Warcraft player when I met my partner in World of Warcraft. We were already co-leading stuff and had been for years before we fell in love. The "beat 'em" is more about my own shortcomings with being able to leave my house, spend money, etc. I had to accept my limitations—join 'em. Perhaps you do too? Good luck!

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Jan 07, 04:39AM PST | 4 comments | 2 cheers