Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and I unabashedly adore this holiday. Even if it IS made up by Hallmark, which I hear from Valentines haters every year upon their realization of my said adoration. I revel in the making of heart slathered cards and pink frosted cookies, heart-shaped ice cubes, pizzas and cakes, soft warm blankets in shades of pink and red, expecting and knowing my husband will spoil me because he loves me and knows I love this day!
I fully expect roses to be delivered by him in red, white or pink, a cheesy lovey-dovey card pouring praise on me in his messy left-hand writing, and to top it off, a hot date with him on my arm the night of. Why do I know all of this? Because almost 9 years ago, when our green-rooted friendship was quickly altering into full-blown love, our first official date was on Valentine's day night. I will never forget it because it began completely imperfectly. He picked me up in Los Olivos where I lived in a 3-story Victorian style house that I had lived in since I was 7 and a half, and drove me to a little beach town 45 minutes North called Pismo. We went to the wharf and fully expected to be able to get into this semi-fancy seafood restaurant there, only to find reservations had been made months ahead of time if you wanted to get in. I looked at him, 'was he the type of guy who had gone to that kind of trouble, at least yesterday?' The expression on his face told me no. So we turned around and strolled away, a little miffed, but not much, after all, fresh love fueled our steps, it was an adventure we were on! FIVE more restaurant rejections later, we were miffed. "Soooo.....want to go to Splash Cafe and get a chowder bowl and take it somewhere?" He asked, feeling deflated. "Sure!" So, we went and got our chowder bowls to go, took it to Lake Lopez, and sat on a bench eating them and then singing by the stillness of the lake.(Back then Chris brought his guitar EVERYWHERE with us, it was his default, and I loved it!) The moon was perfectly reflected on the softly ebbing water like a mirror, and the clouds were majestically spelling out our fate. It sounds weird, but the clouds were in the shape of a dove. We were taken aback by this, it was so peaceful and we knew the night was mapped out for us by something higher than our own messy plans. It was the night I fell deeper in love with my husband to be, and the night I decided I really knew this guy was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. And that, friends, is my Valentine's Day love story. What's yours?
