Valentine's Day

 
I should start this by explaining that every relationship I've had since high school has started before his birthday and ended before mine. My high school boyfriend was with me over Valentine's day, and the poor guy was so confused by all the things my girlfriends were telling him to get for me that he went to Barnes and Noble and got me a book. Smart guy. Since him though, I've bought very thoughtful (and expensive) gifts for my boyfriends for their birthdays only to break up with them before my birthday rolls around (which means no Christmas either, since I'm an autumn birthday).

This made my relationship with Brad immediately stand apart from any other, since we started dating after his birthday and had to get through my birthday and Christmas before his came around again. We also made it to Valentine's Day, so for the first time in over a decade, I had to adjust my attitude about the most famous and celebrated of the Hallmark holidays (and not spend the day watching the Wedding Singer and gladly joining every chorus of "Love Stinks!").

I suppose that because I was never with anyone when the day rolled around, it just sort of became unimportant. I have no quarrel with the idea of setting aside a day to celebrate love, but let's be honest, there is a lot of societal and media pressure surrounding Valentine's Day; the expectation of gifts and candy and flowers and jewelry, the push for engagements, the guilt of not living up to the fantasy drummed into us by countless advertisements and sappy movies... It's for the birds. I much prefer random flowers, random engagements, and no guilt at all (no sappy movies either).

Brad was excited for Valentine's Day, so I decided to ride the wave and let him be excited. He arrived at my house with a bouquet of orange roses (my favorite!), and we were off to a good start.

We (my parents, Brad, and myself) were supposed to go to Toledo on Saturday to see my dad's side of the family for lunch, but that fell through at the last minute, so we relaxed at my parents house for a while before dressing up and heading out for dinner (and it was cold and I was afterwards extremely thankful that I had decided not to wear a dress).

The boyfriend got us a reservation at La Scala in Dublin for Valentine's Day (full review on Yelp! http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-scala-dublin-2?hrid=kxBcWvbeQE32RXjArtjjtQ), and I really enjoyed the dinner. The Eggplant Parmesan was very tasty and the vanilla cheesecake was delicious!

For the gift exchange portion of the holiday, I got him a very cool bottle of mead from the B. Nektar Meadery in Michigan, and I got it specifically because the art on the label was a Star Wars themed. He got me a book. An amazing book. An Easton Press limited edition signed by the artist copy of my favorite book of all time, Dracula. I did the things I do when I get an incredible book in my hands; I stared at it, I turned it every direction to stare at it some more, I stroked it, I hugged it while grinning like an idiot, I sniffed it... It's fortunate for me that he understands my relationship with books.

In spite of the disappointment of not getting to see my family in Toledo, and in spite of the really unpleasant temperatures (in which I had to shoot scenes for a film on Sunday), we had a really nice weekend and a very Happy Valentine's Day.