BEFORE WE GET STARTED…
Up this week:
Country dancing for $6 on Monday nights
Stop overthinking embarrassing yourself
What to do at a thrift store
Getting lost together might just be your next great date idea; a corn maze is opening up this week.
Don’t forget to reply with your favorite date idea this week.
THREE DATES, TWO OF THEM UNDER TWENTY BUCKS
Country Dancing Even if its Your First Time
Dancing · $12 for two
Marnell’s Country Dance runs modern country swing nights in Provo every Monday right by VASA, 8:00PM to midnight. Its $6 a person at the door; the first half hour, 8:00 to 8:30, is a beginner lesson.
Don’t say, “oh I’ll go sometime,” but actually text and invite her. This honestly is also a good place to go and meet someone if you don’t really have someone you wanna ask right now.
Text them and say: “This is kind of random, but there’s a country swing night in Provo on Mondays and they teach you the basics at the start. I’m going, wanna come with?”
Featured Single: Get Your Own Card
We’ll feature you as a single in an upcoming issue, using your photo and a few lines about you, so other readers can reach out and ask you out, all for $5. Think a one-person profile card that goes to the whole list instead of doom scrolling on Mutual.
How it works:
(1) Venmo $5 to me, @hamiltonpr,
(2) reply to this email with a photo, your first name, age, year and major, what you are looking for, and how you want people to reach you.
You Are Wrong About Who Is Watching
Nerves · Ellen Hendriksen
In How to Be Yourself, psychologist Ellen Hendriksen walks through a 2000 Cornell study that I think is pretty interesting. Students had to wear an embarrassing T-shirt, walk into a room of strangers, and then guess how many of them had clocked it. They guessed 46 percent, when the real number was only 23. Take that straight to Country Dancing Even if its Your First Time: the room you are picturing, the one watching you dance really badly, is at most half that attentive, and most people already have their hands full with their own feelings and thoughts. The move is not to feel confident, it is to cut your estimate of who is watching in half and go anyways.
“Go anyways.”
Guest Star in our Next Edition
Send us a selfie and you could be a person in next week’s date pictures. We drop you right into the scene using AI, so you and a friend can go looking for yourselves in the photos.
Second Hand, First Date
Featuring Two of Our Readers: Grant and Becca (y’all should go on this date)
Thrifting · $20 for two
The Deseret Industries nearest campus is at 1415 North State Street in Provo, open 9am to 7pm Tuesday through Saturday, 9am to 6pm Monday, and closed Sunday. The game: ten dollars each, one hour, and you each build an outfit for the other person. Whatever you pick, they have to at least try on.
Go on a weekday evening and start around 5:30, because the store shuts at 7 either way.
Notice what this date is actually asking you to do, because it comes up everywhere else. Somebody has to pick, and most people treat picking as a risk, so they hand it back: whatever you want, I’m easy, you choose. Picking is a favor. It takes the deciding off her plate, and if she hates what you picked she gets to say so out loud, which hopefully will tell you more than “I don’t mind”.
When you see them in person, say: “I’m going to the DI Thursday to find the worst jacket in the building. Ten dollar budget. Any interest?”
Opening Night for the Corn Maze
Maze · $36 for two
Cornbelly’s at Thanksgiving Point opens for the season on Monday, September 21 and runs to Halloween, at 3003 North Thanksgiving Way in Lehi (about 25 minutes away). A weekday ticket is $19.99 and a Friday or Saturday ticket is $27.99, but the code BELLY takes $2 off each one at checkout. Admission covers the ten-acre corn maze and a bunch of other things as well.
Monday is the first night of the season, which is a real reason to go this week rather than in three. Try saying the shape of the evening while you are at it: twenty-five minutes up, an hour in the corn, home by ten.
Call and say: “The corn maze at Thanksgiving Point opens Monday and I’m driving up Wednesday night. You free?”
The dare: give somebody a five dollar gift they did not ask for. Not a grand gesture, a five dollar one, from a thrift store or a gas station or the vending machine in your building, picked because it is specifically funny or meaningful to them. It is the cheapest way there is to prove you were paying attention. Reply and tell us what you found.
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Want to put your business in front of hundreds of students in Utah Valley who are looking for somewhere to go or something to do? Reply to this email and let’s talk.
UPCOMING DATE OPPORTUNITIES
BONUS EVENTS
Hosting something in Utah Valley?
Through Sunday, Sept 20: Utah State Fair
Utah State Fairpark, 155 N 1000 W, Salt Lake City · $15.75 each at the gate, parking $10 at the remote lot on 1950 W · final weekend
Text them and say: “The fair closes Sunday and I still haven’t seen the butter cow. Driving up Saturday. Want the other seat in the car?”
Wednesdays, Sept 23 and Sept 30: Orem Farmers Market & Food Fest
Orem City Center Park, 293 E Center St · free · around 200 vendors, Utah County’s biggest weekly food truck roundup, and a free yoga class at 7
When you see them in person, say: “There’s a whole street of food trucks in Orem on Wednesdays. I’m going after class. In?”
Thursday through Saturday, Sept 24 to 26: Sundance Full Moon Lift Rides
Sundance Mountain Resort, Provo Canyon · 8:30pm to 11pm · $38 each · 30 to 45 minutes on Outlaw Express, and the Harvest Moon is the last one of the season
Call and say: “They run the chairlift at night for the full moon and this weekend is the last one until spring. I’m going Friday. Want to go?”
Friday, Sept 25: BYU women’s volleyball vs No. 20 Baylor
Smith Fieldhouse, BYU campus · 8:00pm · from $7 · first Big 12 home match of the year, against a ranked team
Text them and say: “Baylor’s in the Fieldhouse Friday at 8 and I’ve got a spare ticket sitting here. Yours if you want it.”
Saturday, Sept 26: Sundance Harvest Mini Market
The Village Lawn, Sundance Mountain Resort · 11am to 4pm · free · artisans, food, and live music from noon to 4
When you see them in person, say: “I’m driving up the canyon Saturday for the market at Sundance, mostly for the drive. Room for one more.”
Just reply to this email!
From the Editor
Thanks for making it to the bottom!!
The dance one is the card I’d actually run this week if I were you, mostly because country dancing is about as awesome as it gets. Go actually have fun on Monday.
Until next time,
— Two Tacos & a Hike