Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day. Well, ecclesiastically speaking tommorow is St. Cyril’s Day but apparently the fine folks at Hallmark don’t think that celebrating the man who gave us the Cyrillic alphabet (See? I am totally learned n’ stuff) would push nearly enough sparkly cards with stupid emoting bears on them, so instead we celebrate St. Valentine, who is the patron saint mandatory half-hearted sex.
This week Francesca and Plumcake give you a two-pronged Big Question.
What was your BEST Valentine’s Day?
What was your WORST Valentine’s Day?
As for me, I’ll be attending Warm Heart International’s annual “Heart to Heart” Gala to raise money for humanitarian projects in Southern Malawi. My gift to my gentleman caller? He doesn’t have to go.
I don’t have a worst v-day memory, as if I’m not celebrating it, it’s just another day. I don’t get involved in it at all. This year my fabulously single self is making cookies, going to a party to drink sparkly pink punch, and donating the money I would have spent on gifts to a hospital in Haiti.
I do have a cute story from my college beau, though. He and a friend quite ostentatiously walked to the grocery store at approximately 2am on Feb 13th. So I was not really surprised to wake up to find a 99 cent card, a tiny box of cheap chocolates, and a wilted single rose on my bed in the morning. I sighed, completely resigned to the fact that the gentleman in question had many good qualities, but was also not much of a romantic nor good at planning ahead(nor am I.)
And then I got up and got dressed, and my roommate gave me another rose. And I went to class, and my friend gave me another rose. And I went to my second class, and a rose was sitting on my desk. And I came home, and another friend gave me a rose. Con’t, all day, til I had 10 roses. And he made me a fancy dinner with strawberries en flambe, wrote me a letter, and gave me the last one (discounting the one he’d trusted with a flakey friend who left it in a hot car all day, oops.) It was by far the cutest valentine’s day ever.
Comment by Tk — February 13, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
My worst Valentine’s Day, when my ex sent me a Valentine’s Day love letter… it was beautiful until i read the end of it and realized that he meant to send this to another woman.
My best Valentine’s Day… last year when I counted my blessings and came to the conclusion that being single is better than being with someone that doesn’t accept me “as is”. I had finally come to the point that I didn’t have to have a Valentine in order to feel loved, I loved myself. I made myself a delicious dinner, indulged myself with chocolate and spent a wonderful evening at home.
This V-Day… I’m having drinks with the girls!! Cheers!
Comment by Miss J — February 13, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
Valentine’s Day ’06 I was in Paris. I was not there with a significant other, I did not have a whirlwind romance, but Paris IS my Valentine, my one true love, my heart’s delight, so… pretty perfect.
Comment by Style Spy — February 13, 2008 @ 4:57 pm
My best and worst were the same one.
The scene: college
I got dumped several days before by the man who would single-handedly continue to emotionally toy with me (and I allowed him to!) for the next three years. The “love of my life” then proceeded to get drunk and make out with chicks all over Princeton’s eating clubs. Valentine’s day rolled around, and I was utterly alone and in the throes of a horrible eating disorder.
The solution? Thy name is sketchy friend who always made inappropriate gestures.
That valentine’s day, I went on a date with said sketchball to the local indian restaurant, drank a lot of wine and ate deliciously spicy food. Another male friend bought me a pair of orange and black socks (everyone at Princeton wears halloween all the time) upon realizing I was newly single on v-day and he wanted to get me something to show me he was thinking about me. Ridiculous gift? Definitely. Charmingly thoughtful? Absolutely. My best friend – also a guy – wrote me the sweeteset, most sincere note about how much I meant to him as a friend. I learned a lot about who my friends really were :-)
Comment by Blondie — February 13, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
Worst: I had just been dumped by the guy I’d crushed on the entire fall semester — and he dumped me over IM. I was doing OK with it but when V-day rolled around I couldn’t help feeling wretched all over again. I even harbored a tiny hope that he’d see all of the hearts and flowers around, realize the error of his ways and ask me to give him another chance. Needless to say this did not happen (and thank god it didn’t, I probably would have been dumb enough to say yes).
Best: My first Valentine’s day with my current boyfriend; we’d been dating for less than two months at that point. I was living in the grad dorms, but was planning to bake brownies at his place that night. I saw Haagen-Daazs ice cream on sale when I was shopping and gleefully bought a pint — only remembering once I got home that I didn’t have a freezer. Stupid dorm mini-fridge. We ended up eating brownies and melted ice cream for dessert! We joke about it all the time now — “remember our first Valentine’s day when we had ice cream soup?” I love it because it became one of our first funny memories together.
Comment by Melissa B. — February 13, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
Best V-Day ever has to be Valentines, 1977, when my then-boyfriend surprised me with the “get down on his knees and ask me to marry him” bit and a very nice man-made sapphire (hey, we were students and he basically ate what food his folks UPS’d to him for two months to save enough money) ring. I’m not going to go into my worst one because it involves my mom, her heart attack and dementia, a depressive Trifecta if ever there was one.
I wish everyone out there a very happy and healthy Valentines Day – my plan is to make crockpot Beef Burgundy, a salad with walnuts, followed by a lemon tart and hopefully a very nice bottle of wine (DH, if you are out there…I hope you are picking up the vibes). I’m coming home from work and dressing up in my superfabulous black knit dress and my brand new red pumps. A definite recipe for a happy Valentine’s Day.
Comment by Toby Wollin — February 13, 2008 @ 10:13 pm
Worst: last year. February second, I’d recieved my letter of acceptance to RIT. February third, I paid the acceptance fee. February fourth, I filed a housing contract and paid the housing deposit. February fifth, I told my parents I was leaving Nebraska for New York (they were less than pleased). February sixth through eighth, I crashed alternately at my best friend’s or my then-girlfriend’s. February ninth, I told them I was leaving for New York in August. February tenth, my then-girlfriend dumped me and has been trying to make me feel guilty since.
Best: Hopefully this year! I’m single, but have some fabulous friends here, and tonight I’m going to see The Vagina Monologues for the first time. :)
Comment by Kitty — February 14, 2008 @ 6:41 am
Bests – the last 15 – with my hubby.
One in particular is really lovely. He tried to take me to dinner somewhere romantic – but they didn’t take reservations, of course there was an hour plus wait. We went down to the diner where we loved to eat. The place was empty! We had a lovely Valentine’s special dinner, played our fave songs on the jukebox…Dessert was a chocolate brownie with ice cream. The wait staff was so taken with us, they set the brownie and ice cream down in front of us – they had drawn a chocolate syrup heart on top of the whipped cream wtih our initials in it. We left a bit tip. Out of all the wonderful things my husband has done for me, the simplest things are the best.
Comment by Linda — February 14, 2008 @ 11:43 am
No worst. Here’s the best:
One year in college, a guy friend came into town for the weekend. He’d graduated a few years before and was doing very well for himself. He thought he’d do something nice for some of his favorite girls. Somehow, he wrangled reservations for all of us at the Driskill downtown. It’s a very old, very posh hotel whose restaurant is in the top 3 in Austin and treated us to a multi-course dinner that involved caviar and lobster and Cristal.
It was so incredibly sweet and generous of him. And he did it because he thought we were all beautiful and wonderful and deserving of that sort of indulgence. We got the funniest looks all night–one guy with a cluster of girls on this most romantic and couple-centric nights.
Comment by Sara — February 14, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
(I usually lurk, but I had to delurk for this one)
My worst Valentine’s Day was probably some time in high school when I (a very shy teen) thought no one would ever fall in love with me.
There are two bests – the first (when my teen self was proved wrong) was when my husband and I got married on Valentine’s Day. The second came eleven years later when my daughter was born on our anniversary. All of the Annivalentibirthday’s have been wonderful since then.
Comment by M Light — February 17, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
Its all about efficiency and this method is good but not the most efficient …..
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Comment by Enrique Ibanez — December 3, 2008 @ 5:03 pm