Our Valentine's Day...

was yesterday, Februrary 5th. When we first started dating back in '02, Patrick was in his last year of PT school and was supposed to go up to VA for a 6-week clinical during the majority of Feb and March. He was scheduled to be up there for his first day around the 11th, which meant that he would be gone on Valentine's Day. I was bummed, since it would have been my first V-day with a boyfriend. We decided to celebrate on the 5th instead, since it worked into both of our schedules.

Patrick arrived at my apartment with a dozen long-stemmed red roses, which was the first time I had received roses, too. I was just SOOO excited! I had made dinner for him - Ritz Cracker Casserole - and this meal is still one of his favorites today! I had also made a few other things for him...a picture frame with red-hot hearts glued all around it and a "thought box". The "thought box" was a heart-shaped box that had a pen inside and a stack of little papers that had "My Thought..." and "Date" written on them. I told Patrick that whenever he thought about me, I wanted him to write it down and put it in the box. He could either keep the thought or give it to me at a later time. I had made myself a box, too, and I had the same rules. I wondered if he this idea would make me seem too obsessive, but he really liked it. Over the course of the next several months, we traded thoughts with each other. I especially liked the ones he gave me that were from weeks or months prior. I have all the thoughts he's given me in the past, though they're now packed away in a box for safe keeping. You know, we should probably start that up again...it was so much fun to receive a thought!

Anyway, after dinner, I pulled out a stack of "Conversation Cards" that had a mixture of funny, serious, deep, and even shallow questions on them, which we enjoyed reading through and talking about. Before Patrick left for the night, we danced to a few love songs that I had put together in honor of our first Valentine's Day. It was very romantic.

So, we agreed that if we were still together down the road, that we would continue celebrating Valentine's Day on the 5th of Feb instead of the 14th. And now, 5 years later, we still continue on in the celebration. Last night we had our good friends, Josh and Rosanna, sit with Mallory while we had a nice dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Alta Cucina. It was very romantic and we REALLY needed some time to ourselves. I had pulled out a few "conversation cards" and talked about things other than life's challenges. It was fun to hear what he would name an island if he discovered one, what he would do if he came across a bear in the woods, if he would ever consider writing a book, if he would ever take a bullet for someone else, and his favorite subject in High School. It was fun, off-beat, relaxing, romantic, and VERY refreshing.

Happy Our Valentine's Day, Patrick!