lovers in japan

here is the story of my worst valentine's day ever.

my freshman year (of college) boyfriend handed me a dead (yes, dead) rose at 11:58 on valentine's day 2000 and said, "sorry, i forgot. happy valentine's day. i guess."

i wish i could tell you that i broke up with him right then and there but i didn't. lessons learned, my babies, lessons learned.

here are some stories of my favorite valentine's days.

one year robin and jane and shaunna and i watched the epically long BBC version of "pride and prejudice." we swooned.

one year sarita bonita and i made the world's largest batch of cinnamon rolls and watched olympic figure skating.

one year a bunch of us drove down to provo to watch the banff mountain film festival at UVSC and spent the whole night making eyes at all the adorable provo hipsters. i can't remember this part for sure, but we might have stopped at the wendy's drive-thru on our way home.

this year i came downstairs yesterday morning to find AWD sitting at my table with a bunch of tulips and a beautiful breakfast all laid out.

then i came home from work to find my room filled with daisies and other adorable-ness.





then we had the most delicious dinner at founding farmers, where i have wanted to go for-ever. i had lobster mac n' cheese. you should go to founding farmers and have it some time, too.

then we went back to AWD's, where he was surprised with a homemade (and marbled!) angel food cake (his favorite!) and a valentine's day mix CD, which i realize makes me seem like i am 12 and makes you want to throw up, but i did it anyway.

i won't tell you what we did for the rest of the night because then you'll really want to barf. plus my parents read this blog.

to sum up, it was all better than a dead rose. and all of our breaking-and-entering and surprise planting went off without a hitch, thanks to the guidance and intervention of our various roommates and upstairs neighbors. i think we owe them ice cream sundaes.

EH and i also did some valentine's celebrating over the weekend with a girls-only brunch (yes, those are heart-shaped homemade donuts you see, plus frozen hot chocolate) and a screening of "sabrina" at the AFI theater in silver spring.

and now the only thing left is to eat the pounds of candy and dozens of cupcakes around our house and to tell you, my babies, that i love you truly. truly, i do.