A day to remember?
Valentine’s Day is only two days away and as usual I’m racked with contradiction and confusion. Part of me, the cynical me, thinks that of course it’s pure nonsense, why should we buy our loved ones flowers or take them out for dinner on this day, when it’s common knowledge that prices are shamelessly hiked, the flowers always wilt after only a few days and the wait staff are stressed to the max, pushing to squeeze in at least two seatings, leaving you not only with a big hole in your wallet but also with a bad case of indigestion? After all, if you love your man (or woman) why wait until this day? Why not surprise them out of the blue, just because you thought of them, just because you love them? It means so much more.
Hmmm… yes that’s all very well, but then there is the other part of me, who, despite growing up in a country that didn’t celebrate Valentine’s until long after I’d emigrated, and so theoretically shouldn’t have any emotional attachment to this commercially driven day, still longs for the man to bring home a pretty box filled with hand-made champagne truffles, who wants him to have written a little poem just for me, who wants some ridiculously flimsy silk underwear to prance around in, and who wants to recline on cushions while he feeds me hand-peeled lychees.
Oh, the struggle, the struggle…
Last year on Valentine’s we watched Dennis Rodman play for the Brighton Bears, which wasn’t exactly romantic (we ate greasy hotdogs and drank gigantic buckets of some unidentified cola drink), but made up for it by being both fun and pretty unusual.
So, what to do this year? Ignore it all together? Or blow the budget on the most luxurious ingredients and prepare a fabulous dinner, complete with pink champagne and said hand-peeled lychees?
What do you think of this day? What’s the most romantic thing you have ever done for anyone, or, for that matter, what’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for you?
Photo by Trazy
Categories:
Celebrations
12 comments:
I always celebrate the day. I make my husband something red...pizza...socks...and I take sweets to people who are very nice to me in town. Like clerks in the stationery shop...the postmistress and a family on our street who give us nice oranges and lemons. There is one fella in town who is named Valentino and he lends me his name (on the 14th) because the name Sharon has no saints day. So on Feb 14th my name changes to Valentina!
Follow your heart - sometimes small remberences are the best...
Your heart is very mysterious. The most romantic thing? Hmmm....that's a tough one. I think we spread more love everyday!! Btw, thanks for the kind comments on my blog.
I like the sound of hand-peeled lychees ;) We are generally low-key...we go to the same restaurant every year (a nice Italian one, which actually doesn't jack up its prices) and this year we might also see the new Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore movie.
I'll take some of those lovely strawberries for dinner.
I am torn like you. I love any chance to celebrate love AND I don't want to feel forced into expressing it. I told my sweetie to do what he feels in the moment as will I. I like spontaneous surprises and authentic gestures... so we'll see what happens!!
I have the same conflict but celebrating it wins out! I think of it not just as a romantic day but just another day to tell my family how much I love them and while I know it makes companies like Hallmark very, very, VERY rich, I also use it as a convenient excuse to eat chocolate! And btw, you love the Moomins too? yay! What we need is a Moomin Revolution to spread joy across this grief stricken world. I adore those books! We really must be kindred souls! Glad to have discovered your bloG!
I know my sweetie would be glad just to get some action. LOL
On Christmas Eve, I ran into Marshalls to buy ramekins to bake a dessert that evening. I was shocked they were in the process of stocking Valentine's Day stuff on the shelves. Valentine's Day is so commercial. I like to celebrate but not in the red roses (boring) and drug store chocolate kind of way. Last year, my guy did an amazingly romantic job and it probably cost him about 3 dollars. He printed out 50 little strips of paper with things he loves about me, blew up red balloons, put the messages inside and hung the balloons from our living room ceiling. I made him a scrapbook of fun times we'd had the previous year. This year, we're deep in wedding planning and don't have as much time. So far, I've designed a custom crossword puzzle for him and I'll try to add some little goodies. And we might go see that Hugh Grant movie, too. He'll probably go overboard with a grand gesture even though he said he'd try not to top last year. The thing is we're nice to each other every day. It kind of makes me sad some people are so desperate to get an acknowledgment of love once or twice a year and it means gifts to them. However you choose to celebrate, I wish you a lovely Valentine's Day.
The most romantic thing happened to me...a love poem! I am ssoo excited!!!!!!!!
I'm not the hugest fan of this holiday's associated price mark-ups. And neither is The Brit. This is not to say we don't celebrate...we just celebrate in ways that may not feed the marketing frenzy. And we celebrate all year round, not just on Feb 14th. I think the sweetest thing I ever did for him is actually very similar to what rachel's boyfriend did for her...except the strips of paper, I put in tiny little heart shaped boxes and sent him on a treasure hunt for them. The sweetest gift he's ever given me was a surprise birthday party with all of my family and friends...all of which he orchestrated while being away on a very busy business trip. Some of the very best gifts don't have to cost much of anything!
I am not young. I have several of those memories. It's impossible to choose. Some involved my ex-husband, others men I knew briefly and with whom nothing very serious ever happened. The thing is, they didn't know they were being romantic. The romance comes within your reaction, or response, or even non-response at the time, but then it struck you that that thing that was maybe embarrassing at the time was actually an extraordinarily romantic thing. And then it gets engraved in your mind and years later you can recall being that girl, that woman.
Not one thing any man ever did just to impress me was romantic. It was always when they were unaware that they were heroes.
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