Valentine's Weekend.

This weekend, on Saturday mostly, Erik and I celebrated an early Valentine’s Day. Since he’s interning full-time and taking a few night classes, we figured it’d be easier and more enjoyable to spend an entire Saturday together instead of a few hours on Tuesday night.

To start off the day, we exchanged gifts right away because we lack self-control. I had picked up a few extra things during Christmastime for him – a shirt from Hollister and a stuffed Angry Birds doll to hang from his car window – and made this incredibly cheesy project. (You don’t know just how hard it is to come up with 52 reasons you love a person, even if you love them a lot. Just saying.) And look what I got!

This is a great gift for two reasons: 1) now I can re-read them anytime I want, and 2) Erik dislikes reading and books in general, so for him to go into a bookstore and get this for me says a lot.

Our Valentine’s Day ‘tradition’ – which is just barely that, since it’s only been for this year and last – is to cook and eat a meal together. About a week ago, however, he offered to treat me to any movie I wanted to see in addition to our dinner. So, I chose The Vow.

Let me tell you right now, if you’re planning on seeing it, be prepared to cry. I went in knowing the general plot but had no idea how heartbreaking it was going to be. But overall, I loved it. I enjoyed crying like a baby because it felt real.

After the movie, we came back to my house and started prepping for dinner. Our menu was steak, these potatoes (that I found on Pinterest!) and salad. The potatoes didn’t work out as expected, so we wrapped them in the bacon instead. They still weren’t perfect and I got a little cranky about it, but Erik asked gently if I was really going to let a few botched potatoes ruin my night, and so I got over it.

Later, we had cheesecake for dessert that I made because it’s our favorite. Throughout the evening we went through two bottles of wine… which we purchased on two separate trips to the liquor store. See, Erik decided to tell me after we checked out the first time that he thought we should’ve gone with the bigger bottle. Which meant we went back out fifteen minutes before it closed to get another bottle. We had lots of conversations because wine makes both of us a little more chatty and emotionally open, so that was really nice.

It was a wonderful Faux Valentine’s Day. We don’t usually do anything romantic on a regular basis and it was awesome to have a whole day dedicated to focusing on our relationship. Everything only reinforced how much I love him.

my valentine.

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It’s watching game shows and trying to one-up each other. It’s feeling comforted when my pillow smells like him the night after he’s slept over. It’s tackling the immense list of movies I’ve never seen, him cluing me in to which ones are the ones I need to see. It’s him always rubbing my arm, scratching my back, or running his fingers through my hair. It’s poking fun at each other, getting fake angry and trying to be stubborn, then laughing about it when one of us breaks. It’s the way he holds my face with his hand when we kiss. It’s spending a day or more together and still missing him once he leaves. It’s him singing off-key and not caring. It’s being complimented and told I’m beautiful more times in a few months than I probably have been my whole life.

I feel like this relationship has taken me by surprise, both with its arrival into my life and how well it’s been going. Things have fallen into place the entire time and sometimes, it’s hard to believe we’ve only been officially dating for just over a month and hanging out since December. To me, it feels like months have gone by.

Things have been so comfortable and effortless. I can be myself and he doesn’t think I’m weird (or, at least he doesn’t tell me I’m weird). Leading up to the actual relationship, I was so concerned that my life was too big of a mess to be involved with someone else. Turns out I was wrong about that – I just needed to realize it would be okay with the right person. I’m so lucky to have someone who’s considerate and understanding, who offers to help in whatever way possible and doesn’t mind if we spend most of our time relaxing at home.

The overall feeling I’ve had throughout this experience is that this is the way it’s supposed to be. I feel lighter than I’ve felt in quite a while, and although I can’t say it’s all due to my relationship, it plays a pretty big part. Most days I wake up and fall asleep with a smile on face because of ‘good morning’ and ‘good night’ texts. My friends have commented that I just seem a lot happier.

Though I may not know exactly where it will go from here, I know that for now, he’s one of the best things to happen to me in the past few years. I am truly a lucky girl.

--

I wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day, whether you're in a relationship or not. If you're single, take time to love those around you and yourself - it doesn't all have to be about romantic love.

good thing i've got all this chocolate.

Oh, internet. Do you know how tiring it is to be a Google Maps liaison for a traveling boyfriend who is neurotic and calls every hour to find out how much further until his six-hour trek from New Jersey to West Virginia is over? I DON'T THINK YOU DO. I feel like I'm the one who's been stuck in a car for hours. The best part (yes, it gets better!) is that tonight I get to spend a couple hours over the phone prepping him for a medical school interview, then do the whole where am I, how many more miles thing again tomorrow! Relationships are awesome.

(I kid, mostly. I'm just tired and emotionally drained because I had sympathy-anxiety for him having to drive six hours, potentially in snow.)

Good thing he left me with these over the weekend:

And if that wasn't enough Valentine's Day swag, my weekend kicked off with the arrival of a Very Special Package on Saturday morning - the one from my Be My (Blog) Valentine. I was more excited than was probably appropriate when I saw the mail truck pull up and drop it off, but dude, I totally had reason to be that excited because when I opened it? It was filled with awesome.

ZOMG!

Upon opening the package it was revealed that my secret bloggy valentine was Brittney from LaMidge, and she totally pegged me. Included in the package was a pair of adorable and fluffy pajama pants, a custom-made dance music CD, Disney Princess nail polish (!!!), a face mask, a packet of raspberry zinger tea (my favorite!), and a bunch of goodies including some delish cookies, chocolate-covered marshmallows, and chocolate-dipped fortune cookies!

I had so much fun participating in Be My (Blog) Valentine. I loved every single thing in my package (thanks Britt!!) and I also loved putting together the package for my blog valentine.

And now, it's time for a nice helping of all of my Valentine's Day treats in preparation for the stress-inducing interview prep with The Boy.

about the boy.

A while back, The Boy and I were talking about my blog and I sort of promised that one day, I would write a blog about him. Not that it's something I need to be forced to do - I have plenty to say - but I'm not good with The Mushy. In person I am, but when I have to write about my feelings, especially for another person? Blahhhvomit.

But, I guess Valentine's Day is a good a time as any to talk about him.

Let's start with some basics. He does, in fact, have a name - Mark - although I rarely call him that (usually he's just 'babe' to me). The first thing anyone would notice about him is that he is ridiculously tall and lanky. I'm 5'7" and have always been known as "the tall one" amongst my friends and dancers, and he makes me look like the short one.

See? He's a giant.

He likes basketball and kayaking, is trying fervently to get into medical school, and has two best friends who are just as tall as him and are also studying to be doctors (I find the coincidences weird, he probably doesn't). He wears glasses for things like driving and even though he hates them, I really like them. He's can be a huge nerd at times and will always make the corniest joke whenever possible.

We first met in junior year at the EMS semi-formal. Mark was a part of EMS and so was my roommate, Danielle, so my other roommate Natalie and I went as her guests. Basically, my only interaction with Mark was being introduced to him - I spent the evening hanging out with my friends. We saw each other again briefly during our school's spring carnival, but again, it wasn't anything personal - we were both with friends and I don't think we talked at all.

Weeks later, in late April, he randomly friended me on Facebook (foreshadowingggg!). I remember being suspicious because it was completely out of the blue. Later that night, Danielle came back from studying with him and his roommates and dropped the bomb on me with the following story.

After she'd left the boys' townhouse, Mark came running after her to talk to her about something. She was worried because he prefaced it with a whole bunch of "I've never done this before" and "I don't know what to say," but then proceeded to ask her if she thought I would be at all interested in hanging out with him. And that's when my jaw dropped through the floor, because seriously, how often does something so adorable ever happen, never mind to me?! Needless to say, my friends and I were giggling like maniacs the entire rest of the night.

The earliest picture I have of us, from June of 2008.

Despite all this loveliness, Mark and I had a rough start. When we first hung out, which was smack-dab in the middle of finals no less, I felt we had absolutely nothing in common. It wasn't until we saw each other over the summer that things started to click. We started officially dating on June 3rd, but hit a really rough patch right after that regarding religion. Once we resolved that issue, though, we had relatively smooth sailing.

The two of us have been through a lot together. I've watched him struggle to get into medical school for two years, he's been there with me during my troubles with IBS. We are both quick to forgive which makes all the arguments we have seem totally worthless. He treats me like a princess in that he pretty much always thinks of me first. He'll go out of his way to do things for me if he knows it's something I'd like. When I'm sick, he takes care of me. When I don't feel like going out because of my stomach, he's content to stay in and eat Chinese food for the hundredth time. When I'm sad, he does every ridiculous thing until I smile and/or laugh.

I am so lucky to have such a wonderful person as my boyfriend. My day isn't complete unless I've talked to him and most nights, we chat over Skype before going to bed. I honestly don't know where I'd be, emotionally and mentally, if it weren't for him.

I love you babe. ♥

my favorite valentine's day.

A photo essay.
Valentine's Day 2008, junior year of college.
Mysterious roses & girls night in.


Despite being sick, I wore a cute, theme-y outfit.


Decorations were put up...


...along with the obligatory tray of chocolates.


We all woke up to find roses at our door. They were a gift from a fellow accounting major who sprung to get roses for all the girls in our townhouse development. We didn't know that at the time, though, and had fun guessing.


Melissa got flowers from her boyfriend who was in England at the time. I was unnecessarily excited for her.


(They came in this absurdly huge box that we didn't know what to do with.)


Then Danielle, Melissa and I had our own personal Date Night. We watched Waitress, yelled at the TV, and cried.


Pajamas and delicious Italian take-out were involved.


So was this sparkling juice...


...that we couldn't open. See: distraught expression.


Eventually we figured it out; I don't remember how.


These chocolate-covered strawberries were also involved - a gift to Danielle from her boyfriend.

The end.