Happy Valentines Day

I want to wish everyone a happy valentines day today...Even if you don't have someone to share it with...Even if you're special "sweetie" is miles and miles away. Valentines day is still cool because it is the one year we dedicate to caring about someone else.

I've always received a gift for Valentines. My parents really like the holiday, and my dad always gets my sister and I something special, just from him. Other than family gifts, and little elementary school cards there have been three Valentineses when I've received a gift from someone special.

The first was 3 years ago from Derek. We hadn't begun dating yet, so I was shocked to find a Krispy Kreme box on my front door step Junior year. At that time I was really going through a doughnut phase and was thrilled. As I bent over to pick it up, I had a feeling there was foul play going on. Instead of the drippingly sweet odor that should have been emanating from the rectangular, green stripped confection box there was a pungent STANK.

I opened the box and saw it was full of garbage. I was a little confused until I remembered telling Derek about a prank I had pulled the year before by filling a Krispy Kreme box with rocks and leaving it for a friend to find. I immediately knew it was from him and a huge smile spread across my face.

I dumped out the trash, and found a little awkwardly cut red heart with a few simple lines written on it. It said, "Your hands are in my hair, but my heart is in your teeth." That was a line from a Jewel the song that he always had me play for him on the guitar. Under the heart there was a treasure map showing me where an actual box of doughnuts was. I ran out and found the real box, sat in the grass in my front yard and devoured three on the spot.

My second "real" Valentines was last year. With Eric.

He had to work until midnight on the actual Valentines, so we decided to celebrate the night before. All of our friends had gone on a camping trip down to Durango, so we were the only two left in town.

He had my roommate open the house and he left a beautiful bouquet of stargazer lilies and roses in my bedroom. When I came home I was floored and called him right away. He came over to pick me up for our date and gave me a gift. It was a white leather Nixon watch that I still wear daily. We went out to dinner and came home. The next morning we went to IHOP and he ate a million of the bottomless pancakes. After IHOP we were walking across the parking lot to Costco (I was going to buy my roommates flowers). As we were walking I leaned in close to him and, completely without thinking, I muttered, "you smell just like Derek."

Talk about the WRONG thing to tell your new boyfriend that is an INSANELY jealous person. I ruined that Valentines day.

This is my third Valentines day and I am so thrilled to be sharing it with the ear doctor. Friday night he took me to the symphony and out to a fancy dinner at the Denver chop house. Today he had my favorite flowers delivered to me at work. It means SO much to me that he does things that he knows I love. He's the best.