Be Mine, Valentine.

I think that the whole marketing scheme for Valentines Day was the brainchild of a woman. I don’t really see women stressing over this day. Mostly it’s men, fearing for their lives if they don’t bring home at least flowers and chocolates. And women selling men what they think their wives or girlfriends will want. And lots of it. Break out the gold card, guys.

A friend asked me what she should get her boyfriend. I said to her that if you asked a guy what his girlfriend, or wife got him the next day, odds are he won’t remember to save his life. BUT if she ROCKED his world, he’d remember and rack his brain trying to figure out what he did to deserve it. So that he can get the same thing, not only next year, but tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that and so on.

Personally, I don’t really think that you need a special day like Valentines to tell her you love her. You have 364 other days to show you care. But most guys wait till the last hours to wine and dine. Valentines is a crazy day. More guys propose on this day than any other. When I was at the flower shop it was the most crowded I’d ever seen it. Thought I was at a leaf game trying to get to my seat. That’s cause I don’t normally buy flowers on Valentines but usually the one or two days before. And it was packed full of men. All buying flowers, asking for roses, one guy even asked for blue roses. Either he wanted to be original or he was in deep crap with his girlfriend for something.

Guys you don’t have to buy roses, you know. I think that they are overrated and because guys are not the most knowledgeable when it comes to flowers they gouge you for the roses. There are so many other flowers in the store. Not only cheaper but more fragrant and more colourful. So you don’t have to scour the city for those blue roses. A single rose can cost as much as a bouquet of some other flowers. You guys are NUTS. But, hey, it’s your money. If you really need to have roses, you should have bought them last week, they would have been so much cheaper.

But seriously, flowers are so inexpensive and give women so much joy as well as make the house smell nice. Buy them for her, more than once or twice a year. It’s worth it.



We had dinner together and wine (well I had the wine, Tresa can’t have wine). And she made some heart shaped croutons. She always does this for special occasions. Those little ones are little hearts, sort of like offspring of the larger hearts. Kind of symbolic eh?



I got her a teddy bear from the Gap where 100% of the proceeds go to buy coats for underprivileged kids in the winter. And some stuff from Khiel’s to pamper her and make her feel special. And of course some pink tulips. I get her flowers about once a month and I got her lilies once. You see she taught me how to choose flowers and you get the ones that are still closed. They last longer. The ones that are opened have an expiry date that’s like “best before tomorrow”. So the lilies and the tulips look really similar when they’re shut. I asked her, “hey these tulips look different from the last ones I got”, she laughed and said “that’s because they’re lilies”. I never said I was a flower-ologist, or whatever you call a flower expert. It’s the thought that counts. And that thought is often.

See you don’t have to go out and spend a wad of cash on dinner at some pretentious restaurant. At least not on Valentines, do it some other evening when it’s not so stressful and there isn’t some sort of expectation because it’s Valentines Day.

It’s the little things that add up. The big things are good too, but the little things add up and she’ll remember that, more than the flowers and dinner at a high end restaurant cliché.

So once you have your credit card paid off from this years Valentines, buy some flowers every few weeks or once or twice a month. Write her a note. Make dinner. Something. Just make an effort. Practice makes perfect. Or at least better than before. Trust me.