Our Valentine's Day History: Part 1

Let me start this out by saying that I believe in Valentine's Day, commercialism and all. There's nothing wrong with recognizing someone on one particular day of the year, as long as you remember to do it the rest of the year, as well. I don't expect grand gestures on the day, but we acknowledge it and celebrate it. Or we try to, but Mr. B and I have had a history of Valentine's day failures, beginning with:

Mr. B and I officially started dating in early February. You can read the three part saga of the relationship that almost wasn't here here and here. But with ten days between our official dating anniversary and Valentine's day (let alone that boy's birthday), I wasn't sure what to do. And I was fretting, because I wasn't 100% sure yet that I was ready to be in a relationship on Facebook but was enjoying how things were going and didn't want to do nothing.

I called my older brother on February 10th.

Me: "Paul, pretend for a minute that you had just started dating someone, and your birthday AND Valentine's day were ten days later. What would you expect from this girl?"

Paul: "Who the hell are you dating and why haven't I met him?"

Me: "It's really not a big deal, it's just this guy named B____ and he lives next door to me, but back to the problem at hand."

Paul: "B____? No, Emily, you're not allowed to date him. Run, do not walk, to the nearest exit."

Me: "Haha, funny."

Paul: "No seriously, he went to my high school, my little sister is not allowed to date him".

My advice wielding older brother in his popped collar stage of life.

Anyway, after clarifying that there were two B____s, a year apart, both from Boulder but who went to separate high schools, and that I was dating the one my brother did not know, he suggested, "I don't know Em, just get him some candy and a Best Buy gift card or something. And I still need to meet him."

So the week went by and I was feeling sick. Downright awful, as a matter of fact. On the Friday before his birthday and Valentine's day, I stayed in. The next morning, I got up to go to the bathroom at about 7am and fainted in the hall of my sorority. And sorority girls aren't up at 7am unless they're still up, and then you don't want them helping you anyway.

So, I regained consciousness, crawled back to my room and called my roommate to come home and take care of me. She called my mom, and my mom and dad drove up to Boulder to bring home their fainting daughter. I remember sending B a text message along the lines of "I'm still sick and just fainted, my parents are here to take me to Denver. I know it's your birthday tomorrow, I'll try to be back". I felt like such a drama queen.

I laid on my mom and dad's couch all weekend, missing B's birthday celebration in Boulder. At about 8pm on Valentine's day, my mom stopped telling me to "Buck up", looked in my throat to see why I was being such a whiner, and took me to the Emergency Room. Good old mono.

Not Valentine's or Mono related...but a picture from our early days because pictureless posts are boring.

So when I finally got back to Boulder, I stopped on my way to pick up some candy and a Best Buy gift card. Lamest gift ever, it turns out. And that was our first Valentine's day together - apart.