Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day (February 14th)!

Do you guys celebrate? Is it not something that's done in your country? Think it's just some stupid excuse for consumerism to reign once again? Share your thoughts and feelings about it here!

Jonathan and I celebrate it. We give little gifts, and we're going out to eat at this really yummy Asian restaurant near our home.

Technically, he sort of tricked me into exchanging gifts early (though he claims he's innocent and that it's my own fault, psh). I got him Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. He got me this really lovely necklace with a spherical pendant that rotates vertically to either reveal clockwork cogs or a working clock. He also got me this belt pouch with a magnifying glass/spyglass (is there a difference?) thing in it. Pictures to come, perhaps... at some point today... or in the near future... if at all... >.>;;

I love any excuse to celebrate loved ones

A magnifying glass makes print or small items larger. A spyglass makes things far away look closer.

Your gifts sound awesome! I can't wait to see pictures.

I sketched dorky little valentines for my friends and family. I meant to mail them, but being sick I failed to get to the post office...so I took pictures of them and texted them

I also brought Ysopet home a chocolate cake last night, and gave the kids Spider-Man candy boxes and valentines with pencils. One of the kids got me a scooby doo sucker.

I had a great Valentines day, got drunk, ate a kebab and got in a fight with this dude name Craig.

Fuck yeh.

Gadreille, meeee, too! Celebrating loved ones is fantastic!

Wouldn't a spyglass, in theory, be able to work like a magnifying glass? I'm pretty sure it's a spyglass, though.

I love your Valentines! They're so clever and amusing!

That was really sweet of your daycare kid to give you a Valentine's gift. =D

Keith, that is definitely one way to interpret the holiday! hahah


Okay, so I worked, and nothing special happened at the time. However, on the way home, I went to this yuppie restaurant (I love yuppie food, damnit!) and picked up a dozen chocolate covered strawberries. Then I came home, got dressed, and Jonathan took some photos.

After that we went to Mandarin Garden which is this little Asian restaurant that has some of the best food! Jonathan loves them, too. Unfortunately, their service sucks. They're not rude. They're just... slow... and derpy... We went there around 6:40pm, and we didn't get out of there until 8:30pm. Yes, it was Valentine's Day, but they weren't actually very busy. They did lose our ticket order at one point, though, so that was nice... :: shakes head :: We're going to do take-out from there whenever we have a craving for them now because the food is delicious, but again... the service blows.

Anyway, we came home and watched a bunch of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (which is an AMAZING anime) while we snuggled.

All in all, it was a really nice day.

As promised... Pictures!

Spoiler:

I'm in a long distance relationship, so I didn't get to celebrate Valentines' Day in person, but I did sent a care package up filled with lots of little things that I knew would be enjoyed. =) I was really excited because the package was delivered and picked up exactly on the 14th, and I hadn't been expecting that to actually happen.

Since I was also out of the country for Valentines Day I apparently spoiled whatever surprise they had been planning, but I've been told that our upcoming anniversary (during which we'll actually be together, since I'm visiting) is "fully booked". And the entire thing is a surprise. >.>

Long distance relationships are hard. Jonathan and I were in one for a little over half of our relationship, but they can work! Gift giving on Valentine's Day is so nice when you can't actually be together to snuggle up to one another.

Where were you during Valentine's Day?

Yeah, I can definitely say that long distance relationships have their difficulties. We've been together a year and (almost) five months, and all but six months have been long distance. But we're doing our best, and taking it one day at a time is working for now. I find that having mini countdowns to the next event for us makes things more bearable. =)

I was in Scotland! My family pulled a bunch of random excuses together and went for a week and change.

Also, I hadn't seen the pictures before now, but I'm quite jealous of your clockwork necklace. It's gorgeous.

Oh man, how did I miss this thread?! I actually celebrated Valentine's Day for the first time ever this time around, since I was actually not single on the day for once! I'm also in a long-distance relationship, and my boyfriend came down to visit the day before and stayed through the weekend. We had a relaxing, chill day together, went on a ghost tour on Friday (I won free tickets a couple weeks prior), and went to a semi-formal swing dance that weekend. I can't even begin to describe how happy I was just to have him there with me. We can't really plan visits out that far ahead of time, since our schedules are very volatile, so we cherish any time we see each other. Distance sucks sometimes, but we're determined to make it work

Lara, I did very similar things! Looking forward to the major events like holidays and visits made the long distance relationship thing bearable. Also, we Skyped a lot, talked on MSN and/or on the phone almost every day. We also still had our own lives which was nice because we still don't dedicate every waking moment to each other, and a long distance relationship enabled us to see the value of time apart. =D

Scotland! Did you get lots of pictures? Is it as pretty as Ireland?

Weirdly, Jonathan has like... the best taste when it comes to clothing and jewelry for me. I don't know where he gets it because I hardly have enough for myself let alone anyone else. XD He chose a great piece of jewelry. Normally, I don't like bigger jewelry, but as far as that necklace goes, I don't mind the statement it makes. =D


Silvan, really? I've been celebrating this holiday my whole life. First in elementary school when teachers would set up those cubbies or whatever to be filled with those bulk Valentines you can buy at the store (enough for each classmate), then after that with family when we'd all exchange gifts and candy as a family and not necessarily just because we do/don't have a romantic partner.

I'm sorry you've been missing out on the joyful platonic/familial aspects of Valentine's Day because those are just as good, in my opinion. Like... Holy crap. Gadreille pretty much gave the best Valentine I've ever seen to her brother. hahahah

However, if that had to be your first Valentine celebration, I consider that a good one! A ghost tour? Is that like a haunted house, or is it a tour of haunted places? That sounds so awesome, regardless!

Is your boyfriend a swing dancer, too? Is that how you met him?

Hard work and determination are the only things that really can make a long distance relationship work. Kudos to you for doin' it right!

Oh, when I mention celebrating Valentine's Day, I was talking about celebrating it with a significant other. I've received/given Valentines for fun with girl friends, and Dad would take me and Mom out for dinner when I still lived at home. Other than that, I mainly groused about all the pink in the grocery stores and looked forward to all the chocolate going on sale the day after

Ghost tours are a pretty big deal tourist-wise in Charleston, where I live. We're considered the third most haunted city in the country. Basically, a tour guide takes us around to various haunted places in the city and tells us the stories behind them. We visited a cemetery, an alley where duels used to take place, a dungeon where they used to imprison pirates, a park where a hanging took place, and even a building where I've been for dinner before! Some of the stories were kind of creepy, but it was cool hearing all the history behind places I see all the time.

I actually met my boyfriend the summer before I left for grad school. We worked together as intern naturalists. It just took us two years of being great friends and realizing we loved each other before finally deciding to give long-distance a try. I've introduced him to swing dancing when he visits, and he's a quick study! He's starting to enjoy it a lot more now that he knows more than just the basic step. His sister is getting married this summer, so he wants to be able to hold his own on the dance floor with me

Haha

Yeah, I celebrated Vday even without my husband at first. He came home from work feeling really bad that he had done nothing. I had dressed up for no reason (just felt like looking nice), so when he came home, he offered to take me out. Since I wasn't feeling well, I didn't really want to go to dinner...So instead, he offered to take me to the bookstore. I asked if we could go to Jamba Juice on the way, and so we each enjoyed an Aloha Pineapple smoothie while perusing the bookstore. In the end, he got a fancy hardback of A Game of Thrones, and I got the latest Walking Dead volume

Edit: How sweet, Silvan

Awww...Ysopet gets awesome points for being all sweet like that And yeah, my boyfriend felt bad that he couldn't afford to do anything (dinner, gift, etc) other than just come down to visit, since he's still job hunting. I assured him that he has the rest of his life to spoil me with gifts and that all I wanted was just to spend time with him in the same physical location

That's always nice. It's something we get to take for granted. Since we've been together, the longest we've been away from each other was three weeks. It's just...something I can't do, being apart from my love. Kudos to those who can.

I've been very ill, so life has been dreary and celebrating seemed...I don't know, our hearts weren't in it at first. But sometimes when life is that way is when celebrating is most important.

That's why, when I die, I fully expect there to be a party. I'm writing it into my will.

Kathryn, yes I got pictures. tons of them! I'll see about posting some somewhere. Maybe you can tell me if it's as pretty as Ireland because I've never been there...but it was gorgeous. I didn't want to leave.

I think swing dancing would be really fun! I like any kind of dancing like that. (I just got to experience traditional Scottish dancing and let me tell you, it was a blast.)

I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my flight. I'm so excited for this weekend, and to see my surprise tomorrow.

Oooooooh Scottish dancing sounds so fun! There's a Scottish festival just north of Charleston every year, and I have a few friends who go and have a blast. Lara, I hope you have a ton of fun with your surprises!

I figure since I wasn't posting during V-Day that I should share my experience now. A good friend of mine (a girl I had a lot of classes with) and I decided that if we didn't have a date for the 14th that we would do something together. So the 14th gets here and sure enough she didn't have a different date lined up so I took her out. As a fellow history enthusiast she had a real interest in guns but had never actually shot one before. Me being the type to be a bit nontraditional took her to an indoor shooting range. Which she really enjoyed. Afterwards I took her to a Chinese restaurant. It was a really good first date (she post on Facebook saying it was the best first date ever). And we have been dating since then.

That is the best valentine story ever!

Thanks!

That's so awesome, Sunwolf! Way to impress a lady! Nontraditional dates are the best, and they show openness and creativity that isn't really experienced as much as adults. =D

Awwwww that story makes me so happy, Sunwolf! Way to think outside the box with a shooting range! I went to one with my boyfriend about a year ago when we were just unofficially visiting back and forth, and it was a lot of fun! But then, we're both from the south and have grown up around guns most of our lives