Valentines debrief

[Walsingham]

As you were, men.

 

I assume you were men, before you ...well never mind about that.

 

 

I had a fantastic St Valentines. I thought we could share the successes and failures to work better next time.

 

I dropped the ball as follows:

 

- No flowers. My reasoning was that meeting in the evening flowers would be a pain to cart around. I got away with this, more or less.

- No card. I plain forgot about this, what with all the other stuff I was buying and arranging. Even in retrospect it seems a bit stupid to need a card. Like welding an umbrella to a battleship. But hey ho. One point down.

- Presents unwrapped. Schoolboy error here. I couldn't find any paper and lazily pretended it would be fine.

 

~~

 

Plus points:

 

- Advance booking a month ahead. Always advance book for Valentines. It doesn't cost anything so why not do it? You can always cancel or not as relevant.

- Eat early. We ate at six. It was less crowded and we had time to do other stuff in the evening.

- Buy presents. Buy lots of thoughtful presents rather than a big flash one.

- Make sure the girl eats things that will make her fart. This will give you valuable bargaining power later, to counter your own mistakes.

- Going to a live gig proved inspired. It takes a lot of pressure off your conversation, and provided the band are good it is more memorable than other activities.

 

~~~

 

BTW, the Wailin' Jennys are an absolutely awesome, and rather pretty trio of female Canadian vocalists. If you're looking for something in that way of things you can't do better.

[Darth Drabek]

Good on you!

 

I wasn't even able to spend Valentine's with my woman, as my job required me to work all afternoon and evening, and her job required her to work all morning and afternoon, and we currently live a few hours apart.

 

We both agree that it's a pretty dumb holiday anyway, and I can usually pull off the "How can I love you more this one day than any other day of the year," which doesn't work with most women.

 

So grand V-Day total this year: approx. $4.79

 

Not too shabby! Much better than the last few years (same girl), with dinner, flowers, gifts, the occasional hotel room.

[Pope]

Or, you could do all that stuff on other days of the year, so it actually comes as a surprise, and to show you just don't love her one day a year.

Edited February 15, 2006 by Pope

[astr0creep]

I am super poor so it went down like this :

 

No flowers. They fade pretty fast and I don't want that to represent our love.

No present. See the first line of this post

 

I made her a nice dinner, candlelights and a chick flick that I watched all the way through with her(that Tuscan Sun thingy with Diane Lane ).

 

And then, well, I must now spare you the best part

[Lucius]

This is an Amerikan holiday?

[Darth Drabek]

Now don't get me wrong, we'd still love to spend the day together like the last few years, but it just wasn't possible this year. We're both still less than a year into our jobs and can't exactly take off for a day. It sucks, but there's really nothing I can do about it.

 

We get to hang out on weekends, when we're both off, and that's okay for now. It was rough at first, coming from college where we'd see each other every day, but we're doing all right.

 

My point was this: Every Saturday is special, because I get to see her. I don't need Hallmark to tell me what day I should feel like I'm in love.

[Vashanti]

I didn't get "de-briefed" this Valentine's Day ... we were too busy packing for her conference in Washington, D.C. to "strip our kit off," as the British say.

 

 

Flowers, though, and some candy for her, although she was only going to have a day to enjoy them.

 

Hopefully they'll stay fresh in the refrigerator.

 

 

EDIT: Yep, it's an American holiday, but not an official, "time off work," government-mandated holiday. February 14th.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Valentine's_Day (detailed history there, here's an overview):

 

"St. Valentine's Day falls on February 14, and is the traditional day on which lovers let each other know about their love, commonly by sending Valentine's cards, which are often anonymous. The history of Valentine's day can be traced back to a Catholic Church feast day, in honor of Saint Valentine. The day's associations with romantic love arrived after the High Middle Ages, during which the concept of courtly love, which had a large impact on the modern Western conception of love, was formulated.

 

The day is now most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines". Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, the practice of hand writing notes has largely given way to the exchange of mass-produced greeting cards. The Greeting Card Association estimates that, world-wide, approximately one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association also estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines."

Edited February 15, 2006 by Vashanti

[Enoch]

Bad head cold (mine, not hers) ruined it for me.

[Walsingham]

I definitely dislike the commercialism. But then, what can you do?

 

Mine was terrifyingly expensive, in terms of man hours as well as cash. So I'm very very impressed to hear you chaps have girls who aren't impressed that way. Mind you, even I was impressed that I had managed to craft such a complex evening that came together. Indeed, none of the failsafes were used.

[Hurlshort]

I got a dozen roses on the corner for $10, made a card, and we cooked dinner together. We did buy a couch this weekend, which is really the best thing in the world. A comfortable couch is just priceless.

 

We also just bought our condo a few months ago, so money is really impaired. But honestly, it's not worth going out on Valentines Day.

[Darth Drabek]

I definitely dislike the commercialism. But then, what can you do?

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's true. As long as the expectation of gifts and cards and flowers is there, men, as a gender, have to play along.

 

At least there's a bit of history behind V-Day, as Vash detailed. As opposed to "Sweetest Day," a manufactured holiday which I hear is not even prevalent in other states in the U.S. I work with a man from Oklahoma who says he'd never heard of it before he moved to Ohio.

[Judge Hades]

I went to bed early after playing 10 hours of KotOR.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I was going to go to a dance with Lindsay, but It got snowed out...

 

Deadly_Nightshade

[thepixiesrock]

I was going to have sex, but then it got snowed-out.

 

 

And by snowed-out, I mean everyone hates me.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I was going to have sex, but then it got snowed-out.

 

 

And by snowed-out, I mean everyone hates me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I meant it literally snowed...

so the roads were blocked...

 

Deadly_Nightshade

[thepixiesrock]

Yeah, and I meant that it metaphorically snowed...

And my emotional roads were blocked...

[Walsingham]

I went to bed early after playing 10 hours of KotOR.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

:D

 

And sorry to hear it didn't work out, pix, but I DID try. I can't help it if these slugs didn't chip in with a remarkable plan. What did Llyranor get up to? Maybe he went with my plan to trap a young lady of criminal disposition.

[thepixiesrock]

No, he stayed home all alone.

[Walsingham]

Well, let us remember my observation that life can be looked at in any light. He expertly avoided acquiring any unfortunate kissing diseases.

[thepixiesrock]

No, he already has them all.

[Judge Hades]

Don't be insulting, Pixie Stick.

[thepixiesrock]

I am allowed to insult myself.

Edited February 15, 2006 by thepixiesrock

[Judge Hades]

Only in a comical manner.

[thepixiesrock]

It was.

[Rosbjerg]

sometimes I really enjoy living in Europe .. especially in Northern Europe .. we don't have any of those date rules .. you are allowed to have sex anytime anywhere (from societies point of view) .. and we don't have any romantic holidays that forces you to spend alot of money on your girl ..

 

aahh... :D