anatomy of a perfect valentine's day

we had a fabulous valentine's day for two important reasons.

one. valentine's day marked the end of our most recent sugar fast. which sounded too depressing so we called it a sugar-free adventure. but it was actually still sort of depressing either way. the end was welcome. we marked it with a whole batch of great-grandma's ginger snaps.

two. AWD has become a master of surprise, and whisked me away for a valentine's day weekend getaway. we ensconced ourselves at the black horse inn, a charming civil war-era building turned into a bed and breakfast in the heart of virginia farm and horse country. we had breakfast made for us every morning, and our room had a jacuzzi and a fireplace.

i'll leave it at that.

we explored the little town of warrenton (old houses and the old jail museum, plus loads of delicious food), and spent a day at the dulles extension of the air and space museum learning all about the discovery space shuttle and other wonders.

the only bad thing was that it ended.

i believe the term for this is zam-zowie.

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.

reunion sweet

some time last week i got an e-mail from ABK that said, "a proposal: dinner. my house. 11/15. special guests will be in attendance. you won't want to miss it."

i e-mailed back and asked if i should wear a prom dress. he said casual dress was fine.

then that night i had a dream that when i showed up at ABK's house on the appointed day, the cast of "glee" was there to serenade us while we dined. it was delightful.

i e-mailed ABK about my dream and asked if i was on the right track. he said i should have gone into intelligence.

and then the appointed day arrived and the surprise was so much better than anything i could ever have imagined. because there at dinner were kathryn and matt, two friends from the fellowship ABK and i did together who i had not seen in seven years. seven years! and wouldn't you know but they both live here in d.c. as well. and so we were reunited over catfish with pecan muniere and oyster baked stuffing and i loved every minute.

the longer i live my life the more amazed i become at the fact that there are so few things that are ever just over and done never to be seen or heard from again. i used to think that each chapter of our life had a firm beginning and a definitive end and then that was over and on we went to the next adventure. which is true in some sense, i suppose, but i feel like my life and my experiences and my relationships keep overlapping each other in a way that is so comforting and familiar and makes me want to be a good and kind person all the time, because most things don't just get tied off and forgotten.

and thank goodness for that.

grocery god(dess)(es)

we bid farewell to one ms. sarahlolson last night with a grocery store adventure activity and it turned out to be a night full of magic.

for starters, emily h. and i were tasked with finding the most delicious food or drink in aisle 12, which, at the giant on glebe, is the chip and condiment aisle. horse radish, anyone? but then, just as we were about to settle for cheese puffs, we found a bag of discarded ghiardelli chocolate chips! right there on aisle 12. we took it as a sign and picked them up.

divine intervention was confirmed a few minutes later when we came across these, while browing for african-american hair care products.





i think it is safe to say, someone upstairs is watching.

male order

there are very few things that come in a box like this:



luckily, one of them is this:






there are very few friends who would ship a brooding, life-sized cut-out of edward cullen across the country.

luckily, one of them is steve.

there are very few ways to pay back such a delightful and well-timed surprise. (seriously, i was about to launch myself out of the 22nd floor window of my office today.)

luckily, i am determined to think of something.