Going on a first date is nerve-wracking. We've all been there.
Establishing interest in another person on dating apps is easy, and not being fully aware of a potential love interest's nuances and idiosyncratic behavior can be mysteriously sexy.
But when two people into each other are ready for the next step by meeting in person, nerves can make you do and say awkward things that can ruin the person's perception of you.
To take the edge off a little, meeting at a bar or restaurant and starting the romantic evening off with a glass of wine is an ideal option for a first date.But not everyone has the luxury, or option, of being able to leisurely imbibe alcohol any time they want to.
"What’s a good first date that doesn’t involve alcohol?"
Being entertained is a great way to experience something together without having to worry about initial small talk.
Catch A Flick
"Movie I think is fine, but if it's around 7 or 8PM and you get out with some time left in the night. I say that because it gives you a shared experience and something to connect and talk about which can be a good icebreaker. Not ideal first date but in a pinch it can work."
– Jennyferr0412
Don't Blow Your Cover
"Not a comedy club - if they find out you're on a first date you will get roasted without mercy."
"Source: Been there, done that."
– ConsultantForLife
Get Roasted, Not Toasted
"Great first date if your date is already a friend and you know their taste in comedy and tolerance for the obligatory hazing."
– ThrownAway3764
Getting Down With Marine Life
"Aquarium. Make sure to hold hands."
– AiharaSisters
Some prefer engaging in an activity, where being anti-social is not an option.
Friendly Competition
"Find a place with board games and go there."
– decendingvoid
Scaling New Heights
"My SO and I had our first date at a climbing gym."
– Shantor
Get Cheesy
"My husband took me to a cheese factory on our first date."
"There were free samples. A tour of the new factory, and a heritage tour of the original wooden building and dairy."
"That was a good first date."
– FormalMango
Raising The Bar
"It wasn't our first date, but the first time I brought my girlfriend(now wife) to my hometown I took her on a tour at Saranac in Utica NY. She loved it."
"Downside though, some of the dates after that were kinda boring because that one went so well. It was hard to follow up"
– I_AM_DEATH-INCARNATE
Putting Around
"Mini golf is the best first date ever."
– woolsocksandsandals
Knock Down Pins
"bowling is really good as long as she's into it. There's a slight friendly competition to see who wins, and you can get food/drinks and talk a ton. great time to not be uptight and just be a lil goofy and friendly."
– LuxerIsCool
Can You Work Together?
"Hear me out. An escape room. You’ll never know if you can actually love that person until you’re both trapped in a room."
–Thaanos_
Excursions are a great option, but it would be wise to consider the following:
Not Recommended
"As a woman who loves hiking: absolutely do not go on a hike as a first date, or if you really want to then make it a double date. Unless she already knows you (and even then...) she will be on edge/scared the entire time, more likely than not turn the whole thing down."
– DiscussionPale3216
Stay In The Public Eye
"Try walking at a beach or some other place where you always be in sight of many other people. I live near a very busy rail trail, but that does NOT meet the standard of ALWAYS visible."
"I live near an upscale strip mall, and my first few dates with my wife we got froyo and walked the mall. Window shopping can help provide interesting items to keep the conversation flowing."
– NCBGLC1912
Window Shopping
"Something that I've done with first dates off of dating sites/apps is go to a food court in a mall. This accomplishes a few things: 1) You are meeting for the first time in a public place. 2) There's a wide variety of food to choose from, with the added bonus that you can get a clue of where to take her on a second date. 3) After eating you two can walk around the mall, do some window shopping, maybe blow a few bucks at the arcade. etc."
– II_Confused
Outdoor Seating Preferred
"Picnic is a great idea. If you go to a crowded park in your area so they’re not on edge that way you can control what you’re eating and drinking."
– whitehat_creamer
Getting Icy
"I’m a skater and went skating on a first date with a non skater. I thought it’d be fun, I could wear a cute outfit, and maybe showcase a skill to show myself in a good light. What I didn’t anticipate was that he was so uncoordinated that I lost all interest in him."
– EmmeryAnn
I went to a Six Flags park as a first date once, and that was a lot of fun.
It's a good mix of gradually getting to know the other person while waiting in line to get on one of the rides and experiencing the thrill of a roller coaster together.
When the adrenaline is pumping and your heart is throbbing, it's a great ice-breaker that could culminate in the greatest thrill of all at the end of the day–That first kiss.
Reddit user BabySuperfreak asked:
"What's your fantasy 'rich person hobby'?"
Reddit is absolutely right there with you, folks.
Carpentry
Season 4 Wow GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"Woodworking, which I already enjoy. But I'd have a huge workshop with all of the expensive tools."
- AMeatPopsicleIAm
"It's fun to figure out how you could spend increasingly large amounts of money on a hobby."
"$10k? Sweet garage shop."
"$100k? Build a huge shop and tweak it out. Loan it out to people who don't have access to shops."
"$1M? I have no idea. Train under the best woodworkers in the world? Visit exotic locales to see how materials/supplies are produced?"
- RedSpikeyThing
"I just want my own bandsaw and I'll be happy, but yeah it's my dream to have my own little shop in a quaint little building in my backyard. It would be the cutest girliest little grandma-core workshop out of a fairytale picture book."
"I'd have little organized stations for everything and it would be so satisfying!"
- BetterRemember
"I've built a pretty decent 'shop' through marketplace and estate sales. Taken a while but I have most of the major tools I need. Affording wood is another story"
- allf8ed
Want To Grab Lunch?
"I want to be a 'lady who lunches'."
- suzy7517
"You could even step up your game and do 'Brunch' on Sunday! They would say 'wow she is so rich'.”
- Ok-Suggestion-7965
"Word. Except I think I would hate those people and just lunch w people who are self-employed artists and/or homeless."
- MidLifeHalfHouse
"Those are the only two groups you'd eat lunch with?"
- wandering_ones
Miniatures
Startup Miniatures GIF by Mighty OakGiphy"I love building miniatures. I helped my dad build a few models as a kid. Then I stumbled onto those miniature rooms you can buy on Amazon. Surprisingly cheap for the decent quality. I've done about 10 of them and have another 20 on my wishlist."
"I went to a hobby store the other day in search of a material for a custom mini, and my friend brought to me a giant box of a model of the Enterprise. For $1200. 3 months' rent."
"I know my first stop after winning the lottery"
- samtheflamingo
"As a gamesworkshop fan I feel you. I’ve got a wishlist too."
- LordHamu
"Being rich, you could build 1:1 scale miniatures."
- d!ck_schidt
Sailing
Sewing Bee Hello GIF by The Great British Sewing BeeGiphy"Sailing sounds fun as hell"
- WorkingContext
"Sailing is fun as hell. I’ve been crewing now for about 7 years."
"Sailing is cheap. It is owning a boat that’s expensive. I pay $350 a year for access to my local club’s boats if I do want to go take a boat out myself."
"Boat owners frequently spend $350 on parts for a single event, and people always need dependable and reliable crew."
"I’ve even gotten flown out to tropical places and had my accommodations paid for at bigger events! I don’t even own a boat, just pull lines!"
"If you live near a racing community, you can get into sailing at the cost of maybe some sandwiches for the team, or occasionally replacing sunglasses you drop in the drink, you just need the right attitude."
- lifeinexile42069
"I agree, but only during the day as the ocean according to videos seems pretty terrifying looking at night"
- 2020-RedditUser
"Sailing is it for me too, particularly cruising. I'd like a nice, 45 ft catamaran that I could cruise around on with the family."
"I have more immediate ambitions to get a little beach cat (Hobie cat, etc) or a dinghy and improve my sailing skills."
"My local 'yacht club' has a learn to sail class that's pretty affordable for a two day introductory class and going out sailing twice (~$100). I did it last year, but I'm considering doing it again as I didn't exactly consolidate my skillet with practice in between."
- TryingSquirrel
Traveling
"Traveling. I know it isn’t much of a hobby, but traveling can be very expensive, and I’ve always wanted to travel the world."
- Im_a_noodle_101
"Beside the cost, getting time off from your full time job can be very hard. I want to spend the summer traveling in XYZ, not fly in, have a couple of days looking around then fly back to work. There's no time to really relax and enjoy the experience"
- PecanSama
"Be one of those people perpetually on vacation."
- wazzle13
"I'm with you on that. I see all the wonderful places to travel and will never be able to go to them. At least many are on streaming channels now."
- Laura9624
"Traveling without budget or ANY money worries. I'd like that. No more sh*tty third-grade hotels and public transportation *joys* and just enjoying the trip."
- Khalae
"I'd travel the world till I physically can't lol that sounds fun"
- Several-Orchid9640
Esthetic Farming
calfs GIFGiphy"Owning a hobby farm/garden with *small breeds of farm animals (mini cheviot sheep, serama chickens, bantam call ducks, miniature jersey cows) *lush vegetation (english garden/new cottage style landscaping) *an orchard with a huge range of different kinds of each fruit and climate controlled greenhouses for plants that wouldn't grow in my region"
- RK_Killer
"Would they be miniature fruit trees? I want the small animals walking amongst the small trees with small fruit."
- phobosmarsdeimos
"I would love it to have ducks, cats, dogs, rabbits anything to be honest and just watch them enjoy their time and play around. A small pond for the animals to cool down, big trees for nice cool shadows and also some fruits that drop for them etc."
- Bfnti
Prehistoric Collection
"I'd like to have a large collection of really cool fossils. The really neat ones are expensive."
- revtim
"Oooh, good thought. You know there's a tech billionaire somewhere (I'm blanking on which one) that got really into collecting gemstones after he got swindled into buying some fakes."
"He found the geology of them fascinating and now he has the biggest jewel collection outside of a royal family and was in a documentary talking about them."
"I think pure geekery unfettered by financial restraints may my favorite use of a large fortune."
- gonegonegoneaway211
"Like a complete T-Rex skeleton and a complete Triceratops skeleton and make them fight like action figures... I'm not going to judge."
- phobosmarsdeimos
Preservation Of Wildlife
Happy Feel Good GIFGiphy"I'd really like to hire a ton of experts to help me find and preserve a wildlife habitat with all native species."
"Get rid of all the invasive plants and whatnot and make it how it was before we got here. I'd be the anti gardener."
- AmericanGoose23
"Same goals club! I’ve got a good 100 acres chugging away just woods. Have had several offers to buy it but they’re gonna have to wait til I’m dead."
"Last guy asked me why I wouldn’t sell. 'Because somebody already lives there sir.' Him-' but your house is way up there.' Me- 'yea but the birds and bugs live here.' Also learned that old people get pissed off when young people own land and don’t develop it into housing editions. 'People could live here!' People could live somewhere else too."
- Abrahamlinkenssphere
"Mine is similar: I want to make a huge bee sanctuary filled with all sorts of wildflowers and plants, with an absolute ton of pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths."
"Also all sorts of other interesting plants like oak trees and wild grass."
- -Reddit_Account-
"Yours is my favorite I think :)"
- gonegonegoneaway211
'Paying' It Forward
Talking Season 3 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"Anonymously paying debts or giving things to people in need."
- DarkleCCMan
"Robin Hood, that you?"
- Numerous-Rough-827
"I'd help with that if I could!"
- Several-Orchid9640
"I think it would feel pretty amazing to sit in a bankruptcy court and pay off a defendant’s judgment. Idk how it works, though, like whether you can make a payment anonymously on someone else’s behalf."
- LevelPerception4
"I wouldn’t pay off debts (other than to immediate family members), but I like the idea of randomly paying for groceries or gas for strangers."
"Especially at the last week or so of each month. Have some type of set up so I could have an arrangement with a store’s manager to call down to the cashier to just tell the customer after they scan everything, 'It’s your lucky day! You don’t have to pay!'."
- OhiobornCAraised
Community Spaces
"Operating a maker space that enriches the community and enables everyone to have access to tools and space to create anything they need / want."
- Ximidar
"oh yeah my husband and I have talked about doing this"
- seven_seacat
"I'd love to have this for music. Like a rehearsal complex for certain younger artists I see potential in."
"Also have a recording studio nearby as well. Just try to develop some sort of niche community of musicians that focus on certain aspects of music"
"Have all the stuff like drumkits, guitar amps, all that in each room already (kind of like a normal rehearsal space you pay for). Maybe even some cheaper guitars so that even if you don't have money you can use them"
"Maybe do some community events with all the people, and who knows. Maybe some amazing bands or groups could come from it."
- appleparkfive
Alright bougie broke friends, it's your turn at the mic.
We know what Reddit would do for hobbies if they got rich, but what about you?
Anybody suddenly feel like funding a documentary into Tevin Campbell's life, music, and how homophobia robbed him of a bigger career and the community of a cornerstone personality?
No? Just me and my love for Mr. Campbell acting up again?
Redditor MissMona_69 wanted to talk about all the people we can longer be face to face with. They asked:
"What types of people have you no respect for?"
I can't stand hypocrites. I lose all respect there.
WTF?!?!
"People who fake mental illnesses for attention."
Booklovercoffee2019
"SO TRUE. In middle school, I had a friend who faked mental illnesses (not 100% sure but at least 99.9% of the things they said were self-inconsistent). Screwed up my perspective on mental illness and I'm still trying to change that."'
the31stsemiprime
Definitives
"People who don’t understand the difference between opinion & fact and assume that their opinion is a fact."
BurghPuppies
"For some reason I see a crap ton of this in a horror movie group I'm in. Horror is such a subjective genre with many various subgenres and the amount of people that just absolutely crap on movies and state their opinions as fact is annoying as hell. Of course the music groups I'm in do the same thing too."
PeeB4uGoToBed
Thanks Ma
"People who can't admit they are in the wrong and sidestep by blaming you for something that happened years ago."
SwerdlowM
"My mom does it to me too. If she screws up, she blames me, and once proven wrong, she immediately brings up how I screwed something up from like 14 years ago, and somehow uses that to make me feel like it is my fault."
Beastie730
Liars
"People who take advantage of old, senile people. What caliber of piece of crap must you be. Fucking cowards, I spit on you."
Bugger_my_puppet
"I used to work in supportive housing for folks with various disabilities, one day a client came to be crying because he didn’t have rent for the month. The reason?"
"He was scammed by someone pretending to be from social security. They called him to say that he had to pay back money from a (fabricated) overpayment or he would go to jail. It was extremely sad. Also saw lots of lonely elderly folks get scammed by internet 'girlfriends,' F**k scammers."
livehorribly
Be Clean
"Litterers."
ihopeurpillowiswarm
"YES! Here is where the true rage comes in! I live in a beautiful city and the amount of litter is revolting. It makes me so angry. I never chuck anything on the damn floor as there will undoubtedly be a bin nearby. It’s just laziness and carelessness."
UglyFilthyDog
Why do people litter? It's so gross. Save the world.
The Real Truth
"People who speak 'truth' without trying to understand perspectives outside their own."
SkulldersIre
"Along those lines, people who describe themselves as 'brutally honest.' Nah, chances are you're just an a**hole."
caesar____augustus
Order Up
"People who are rude to wait staff and people who leave their shopping carts around the parking lot."
tokenlesbian21
"I have always believed there are two types of people, those who return the cart to the corral and those who don’t. And this simple action tells me more about a person than a 2 hour long conversation."
acableperson
Look In
"People who have no introspection and always play the victim."
Memesthecat
"So I see you have met my brother. In the process of being sentenced for armed robbery but he still blames his pregnant dope head gf with some bs about how it was to support them and regularly busts out the alligator tears to get our mom to put money on his books."
No_Quantity4955
Wages
"People who crap on retail workers or lowest wages just to feel better than them with no reason, screw them all."
Ismaelum
"I had a coworker like this, dude was brainwashed into believing the franchise license and stock when the giant corporation had very negative company health and it reflected... Most popular chains in retail encourage low wage and try to establish an odd seniority hierarchy."
Mundane-Candidate101
Big Puffs
"People who smoke around children, especially in the same car."
monkey-food
"I 100000% agree with you and I’m a smoker. I don’t care if it’s cold, raining, windy, hot I’m going to stand my a** outside and have a smoke. I don’t smoke inside my house and I never have."
Fine-Bet
"I think you’d like to meet my neighbor that lives downstairs. She smokes all day long with an infant strapped to her chest."
Eyfordsucks
Well this is a long list of nonsense people. Steer clear.
One Redditor wanted to discuss aspects of the animal kingdom.
"Which animal gets undeserving hate?"
Tigers and lions. Have you seen the videos of the tigers and lions who have bonded with their human? It's possible.
Bless You
bat flying GIF by eve_agramGiphy"Bats. They eat billions of insects. You should be thanking them."
Flying Goths
"Vultures, eating dead bodies might seem ugly to some but other animals do the same thing but also murder them so how is just finding something that’s already dead and eating that worse, also eating a carcass removes deadly diseases like botulism from the environment."
Anuniqueusername20
"I always show my appreciation to the local goth turkeys."
iamquiteunhappy
The Yeeted
"Blob Fish... they just get yeeted out of the water and the massive pressure difference makes them look 'strange.' Kinda rude I guess. Like if we get yeeted into space and Aliens would laugh at our disfigured forms and print T-Shirts of it."
tinylittletoe
"I think I read somewhere that the pressure change causes their cells to explode and that’s why they look so horrific after being pulled out of the water. Dunno how factual that is."
0utlandish_323
Not the Villain
"Hyenas, partially because a whole generation grew up watching them help kill Mufasa lol."
Natural-School5690
"They’re awesome. They have a unique matriarchal society and they’re pretty smart, as well as tougher than hell. Wouldn’t want to smell their breath though."
Ermaquill
"I've seen people arguing this before but people hate hated hyenas years before the lion king came out. They were constantly used in folklore as villains and opportunist and were often considered unlucky in most african cultures."Eaglekingoftheskies
earth skunk GIF by Lil DickySkunks? Um... from afar, they're cute. But stay away...
Genius
homer simpson crow GIFGiphy"Crows. Yes, I understand the caws can be annoying, but they're far more intelligent than a lot of people give them credit for."
anotherrroom
Loners
"Possums! They eat pests and won't typically bother you unless rabid or provoked."
DrChefAstronaut
"Quick reminder then you need to specify which kind of possum, because not everyone here is from America. There a lots of possums here in Australia but they are completely different from the American kind in temperament! Only annoyance with possums here is if they get into your roof. Meanwhile in New Zealand, possums are ALWAYS a pest."
theexteriorposterior
Bad Movie Vibes
"Sharks!"
TurbulentWeek897
"The guy who wrote Jaws ended up writing another book explaining how misunderstood sharks are. Because the movie Jaws scared everyone, and fishermen began to hunt sharks, making them endangered."
ChronoLegion2
"I was gonna say this! They're not bad guys they are just doing shark stuff! It's the freakin' dolphin types you gotta watch out for. Orcas will kill for fun. A shark is just trying to eat and don't see that well."
Genderneutralbro
Powerful Babies
"Black Cats.They aren't evil and they don't bring bad luck."
SuvenPan
"It's a frequent mistake, but black cats actually bring good luck and blessings from The Void!
"Be sure to tell all your friends. If we work together to insist that black cats are good luck, we can help turn over the discrimination. Also, I have proof that they are good luck - whenever I see a black cat I become happy. Coincidence? I think not!!"
theexteriorposterior
Heroes
frog michigan GIFGiphy"Frogs. They eat the mosquitoes and other bugs you don’t like."
dragonborne123
So many animals need some PR help.
Which ones would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.