by

 

Does your date book resemble a casino bingo card - a lot of empty numbered squares with the potential for a big score? Journal notes, grocery lists, and random to do lists scrawled across the blank white spaces. It's time to return the calendar to its original function: a book for date keeping!

1. Cancel your Netflix subscription. Or anything else that keeps you addicted to in-home entertainment gratification. If you start salivating when those little envelopes show up at your door or you only cross your home's threshold for work, it's time for some flesh and blood interaction.
2. Dare to share. Register with Meetup.com. The site matches people nearby who share interests. Join the SF Wine Lovers or the Tri-Valley Singles Free Concerts group. The site has close to several hundred thousand members in the Bay Area who "meet up" for educational pursuits, social activism, and recreational pleasures. Turn acquaintances, friends, and colleagues into great dates by bonding over mutual passions!
3. Let the arts entertain you. Follow the crowds to the latest museum or art gallery exhibit or stroll happy hour art gallery openings around Union Square. As you wander through the collections, casually engage other patrons of the arts in conversation. "I couldn't help admiring you admiring that painting," you might say to the foxy brunette gazing at a watercolor landscape. Then suggest an evening of artistic expression at the local paint your own pottery store.
4. Ban takeout from your refrigerator for a month. Have dinner with eight. Start an eating club with workmates and friends. Surprise diners with specialty fare from your neighborhood Trader Joe's or your local gourmet market. Alternate having each person invite a new friend to the gathering and turn it into a "date my friend" dinner party.

Click below to get off the couch ... .

Can't afford a social secretary, sign up for the weekly events updates from SocialDomain.com.

To find out the latest games people are playing in your town, don't miss PlayDate.