Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be in love on this day and to have that person love me back. I never cared much about Valentine's Day until that glorious one three years ago.

Brent and I had been dating about two weeks. We were both still playing our cards close to the chest, if you know what I mean. That day Brent had tried to plan a special date for us. It was just one disaster after another and was a horribly memorable evening. But in the end it was one of the best nights ever as I read his Valentine to me. In it he translated this Italian poem:

La Vita Nuova

In that book which is my memory
On the first page -
That is the chapter when I first met you -
Appear the words
"Here begins a new life"

- Dante Alighieri

I bet all you girlies reading this are thinking "Ohhhhhhhhhh! How sweet!"

I guess you could say at that point I finally knew how he felt about me and suddenly felt rather embarrassed by the very unromantic and unsentimental book I gave him.

That moment was topped by the next when I leaned over to give him a thank you kiss, and he knocked over the flute of bubbly on the table, dumping it on my dress and shattering the glass all over the place. I screamed and jumped up, and he with chagrin said something like: "Well, at least this disastrous evening will make a good story for our grandchildren." He was just laying it all on the line, wasn't he! Thank heavens he was so open; it was such a refreshing change from all the other guys I'd dated who "just [were]n't that into [me]". (For all you single gals, check out the book "He's just not that into you" from the library. Changed my dating life.)

Well, three years later, I woke up to a pretty pink package on the dining table. Guess what it was?



Yep. He gave me the marauder's map and a set of 5 ornaments: the Hogwarts crest, and the coat of arms for each house. What a sweetie. Anyone who is interested can come over to my house and play with the map. Oh, how I wish it were real!