The Writer’s Coin

I’ve done them both and this year I’m aiming for something in between as M and I celebrate our third V-day together.

V-Day #1: Is it the good one or the bad one?
It was our first one together and we had sort of decided that we weren’t going to do a big to do for it—I had class that night and so she was going to come over to my place and we would have champagne and cheese (which I provided) and just kind of hang out. So I got home, lit a candle, and had everything ready when it hit me: this is kind of crappy and no matter what we said, I knew girls want more than just that. I wanted to write her something romantic, so I went into MacGyver mode.

I found a piece of paper, wrote something on it, and put it in an envelope as fast as I could. Then I put this purple teddy bear I had hanging around (don’t ask) as if it was holding the envelope on the bed. This was seconds before she walked in. I surveyed the scene and figured I had done pretty good for myself.

Then she walked in. She seemed OK until she opened up the envelope: I guess I had written out my “romantic” note on the back of her business card (I missed that) and the message was very short and involved the teddy bear more than it did her. We had our cheese and champagne but obviously she felt short changed. At the time, I thought, “OK, didn’t do great, but it could’ve been worse.”

That was then. I still hear about it now whenever people start talking about bad V-Days. According to her, it was “terrible.”

There’s another V-Day she won’t forget either though.

V-Day #2: An instant classic
This was going to be our anniversary (of the day we met)/V-day celebration so I knew I had to do something special (especially after all the crap I got the year before). So I was brainstorming ideas a week or so before the date when I happened to come into some money. My budgeting had been especially good that week and I saw this money as extra upon extra—so I decided it was time to do something super nice.

Here is how the day went: I told M to make a bag for the weekend so she could stay at my place and we could spend the whole time together (I called it “us time,” I can’t remember if she groaned when I told her). On Friday I went to her office after work and told her we should get a drink together, so we went to a nice hotel’s bar. As we walked into the lobby I told her we should just pretend we were guests and go into the elevator. We did and she was not sort of catching on. Then we went into a suite with her suitcase sitting on the bed—I had brought it up during my lunch hour. It was huge and she was impressed: a living room, bar, king-sized bed, incredible view, two TVs, all the works.

Then I told her we were going to a play, which was pretty good (Norm from Cheers was in it). After that we came back and enjoyed our hotel room. For breakfast we ordered room service and as we were eating our croissants and drinking our coffee in bed I told her, “Today we need to go shopping for you because you need something to wear for tonight.”

The rest of the day we spend finding her a new dress (I got a shirt), new shoes, some make-up, and we also got a few books she wanted (me too). That took up most of the day, though we squeezed lunch in there somewhere. This is all in downtown Chicago and that made it a lot of fun (except for the shoes, which are always a nightmare). So that night we got into a cab (both of us looking superb, if I may say) and went east. Finally we got to Navy Pier and walked a little to the the Odyssey, a really fancy boat that does dinner cruises. It was a special Valentines dinner and there was a live band, dancing, and a free bar because frozen ice wouldn’t allow us to actually cruise (the only bummer, though they gave us a free brunch too to make up for it).

It was awesome, even when the guy behind me proposed and I thought to myself, “Uhh, I hope she isn’t expecting that.” I mean, the buildup was pretty huge.

After dinner and dancing we went back to the hotel and went to bed. Next day we had breakfast again, went for a walk around the city, and had lunch at a place M really likes. We packed up our bags and went back to our apartments, capping an incredible weekend.

Which she still talks about to this day (as do I, as you can tell). Was it expensive? Sure thing, but it was one of those weekends we’ll remember forever. The memories and the times we had on those three days were incredible and I wouldn’t trade it for all the compound interest in the world. In fact, we have the picture of us in our dinner attire getting on the cruise in our living room.

Money can’t buy you happiness, but if you manage it right and save it, it can give you access to some pretty incredible experiences.

As for this year? I got M a card and wrote something heartfelt inside. We will make dinner together tonight—she’s bringing the dessert and I’m bringing the wine. And we’re just going to spend our night together.

Before I forget: If there’s one thing I learned about that incredible weekend in terms of giving presents its that the greatest gift you can give (no matter how big or small it is) is the gift of surprising someone. That weekend was a smorgasborg of surprises and that really made the day special. Even if it’s something small, surprising someone (which is harder and harder this day in age) is the neatest gift there is.

Tags: odyseey, valentine's day