A few V Days That Will Go Down in Infamy...

Disclaimer - not all of my Valentine's Day memories have been infamous. I love this day of love. Sometimes I think it is good to laugh at the less loving ones and I have had my fair share of those too. But if I didn't then I wouldn't have so many good stories to tell so I will take em... Enjoy lovebirds!!!

Mr. Married Mexican Valentine

Several years ago I started dating someone about a week before Valentine's Day. This can be a little awkward because you don't want to do too much too soon but you want to do something otherwise the other person doesn't think you really like them or care. I sent my new found possible lover an eCard with a Be Mine heart or something - I thought that was enough affection to show to a guy I was recently interested in. He was more of the surprise type and called me all day on Feb 14th while I was working at a staffing trade show in Anaheim to tell me that he was SO excited for me to find my valentine's present on my desk at my office at the end of the day. I wasn't planning on going back to the office after the trade show but my curiosity was peaked by the dozens of texts and calls I got from this guy demonstrating his extreme anticipation in me finding my gift. One of the texts even read "I bet no one has ever done anything like this for you before - I can't wait for you to find it!". We were also planning dinner at El Torito after I found my "present".

I arrived back to my office to my boss Doug who was smirking in the corner. He simply said, "go check in your office" with his classic look that said "you date the weirdest guys". I walked in and on my desk were the following items - a HUGE bouquet of red roses with a card that said "To Erin", a teddy bear holding a box of chocolates, a vase from the supply closet in my office with an unidentified flower in it that had been picked from the planter in the parking lot, and a Select Sticky note loosely attached to it that read "To Erin - Be My Valentine? Love, (Mr. I love Surprises - protecting his identity:)" I was so confused. If the vase with the parking lot flower in it was from my date that night then who was the 24 red rose boquet, teddy bear and chocolate from??? I opened the card which read "Happy Valentine's Day to my beautiful girl. I love you, M?????" M????? was a temp at one of my light industrial accounts who was married to another one of our temps, didn't speak much English and signed off on the invoices every week when I brought them over. OK yes he was married, a possible illegal alien and a foot shorter than me. But it made the moment priceless when my date walked in the door and my office to pick me up for dinner. He was right no one had ever done anything like that for me before. It just wasn't from him...

Mr. My Gift Is Better Than Yours...

I was so excited about this particular Valentine's Day because I had an official one! We had been dating for awhile so I knew exactly what to give him - a homemade picture quilt with pictures of his favorite things. I bought fabric to match his room and spent hours cutting, sewing, and piecing it together. I even wrote a little love note on one of the inside squares. He was really excited to see what it was that I was being so secretive about for the several weeks before V Day. On the night of Feb 14th I got to his house early and folded the quilt inside out so he wouldn't see all the pictures. He got home from work, untied the ribbon around the quilt and LOVED it! One of my love languages is giving gifts so naturally I was excited that he liked it so much. After examining the quilt and commenting on the pictures he stepped out of the room to get my gift and asked me to close my eyes. I excitedly sat on the edge of the bed with my eyes closed and heard him say as he walked in the room "You are going to be excited - my gift is even better than yours". Before I could open my eyes I felt something hit me in my lap. He had thrown my Valentine's gift at me - a box of peanut butter cups he had picked up at Trader Joes on the way home from work. It took awhile to laugh at what had happened and you better believe I felt like cutting up that quilt into little tiny squares for the next few days... but I held myself back. And you know I ate every one of those peanut butter cups.