THE 40-DAY PROJECT

Have you ever seen that movie 40 Days, 40 Nights with Josh Hartnett, where he plays a guy that tries to stay celibate for 40 days and 40 nights because he had his heart broken by his ex girlfriend? Well, that's not what these two mo-mo's are trying to do. In fact, as the old saying goes, it takes 40 days to make a new habit. So, longtime platonic buddies, 26-year-old, Jessica Walsh and 32-year-old, Timothy Goodman, decided to experiment and see if the same apply to habits people make in relationships by dating each other for 40 days to see if they can absorb each other's good qualities. What a couple of weirdos!

The two Chelsea residents, who are designers, say that it's only one part social experiment and one part design project. They explained, "In an attempt to explore our habits and fears in relationships, we decided that 'dating' each other for 40 days could be a way to explore this. Having boundaries of a project allowed us to take on that challenge." Did I say, "A couple of weirdos?"

Walsh and Goodman, both came into the project with different histories. Walsh has been on an unsuccessful quest to find "the one" and Goodman is enjoying freedom of being single and is a self-described commitment-phobe. They couple just happened to be single at the same time and were just jaded over the New York City dating scene. Because the 40 days of dating was just an experiment, there were several controlled elements, for instance, they had to see each other every day, go on a date three times a week and see a couple's therapist once a week. Some of the other elements were not so conventional like on day 31, the couple held hands for eight hours straight and captured it all on film, even when they went to the bathroom. I said, "A couple of weirdos, right?"

Even in the controlled realm of a 40-day project, the heart is an unknown and prone to be fickle. For Goodman, it meant letting someone in, which he's never done. For Walsh, the project forced her to confront past issues head on and she feels she's a stronger person because of it. Some of the negative things they learned about each other were that Walsh does not check her text messages much and Goodman eats cheese puffs regularly. Though the dates themselves happened between March and April, the couple is releasing each day from now until August 18 on fortydaysofdating.com. Did they get physical? Kiss? Have sex? The couple says, "You'll just have to wait and find out!"

Really? Isn't this how some relationships start out anyway? Two friends have been burned too many times in relationships and they date each other only to find out that they are exactly who they have been looking for all their lives? Or was that just a movie that I just watched? Anyway, I hope these two weirdos do get that storybook ending that they were looking for. Do we really need to know about it?