A Valentine first

as i put on my makeup earlier this evening, it hit me: for the first time in my life, i have a date on valentines' day. i love that this first is a first i'm having with marlon. my husband! yes, i was (and still am kilig).

i was actually a little nonchalant about valentines' day, mentally shrugging to myself and inwardly dubbing our plans "simple": juno at cathay cineleisure on orchard road, where we typically watch movies, a light dinner somewhere on boat quay, and a nightcap at harry's, where we like to go for live jazz (for that old married couple feeling). nothing elaborate, since both he and i don't buy the commercial hype.

then i realized we had never gone out on valentines' day. that i had never gone out on valentines' day. suddenly it no longer mattered what we were going out to do. just that we were going to finally go out.

this occasion deserves a zigzag part!

i loved dressing up and looking forward to the end of the workday. ganun pala ang feeling. sarap!

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grabe rumaket ang mga tao dito pag valentines' day. i found out how decent/date restaurants do it when i tried to make reservations for an italian dinner. they ban regular a la carte dining for one night and thrust overpriced set meals in your face. a hundred and eighty bucks for a three-course dinner? noooo thank you.

then marlon found out how florists cash in on v-day when he tried to buy me flowers.

marlon joins the queue of procastinating boyfriends and husbands

i said if he was going to get me something, then i wouldn't mind something a little offbeat like a big sunflower, which he got me a couple of years back. but apparently florists don't let you buy single blooms -- your flower of choice must be grouped with a whole bunch of other flowers, and wrapped with purple or white paper. which is how all the girls end up with identical flowers.. and i mean all, i saw dozens of them today.

lookit! they all have the same paper wrapping! *shudders*

our ninangs had lilac cabbage roses for the wedding.
why would you want to give them to your girlfriend?

finally marlon saw a student hawking flowers on boat quay who only had single blooms left to sell. we seized the lone pink gerbera left in the nearly empty basket.

it didn't quite work behind the ear, so i stuck it in my purse.

it occurred to me that my single flower might have seemed kind of sad to the girls who were walking around with giant teddy bears and factory-issue flowers. only marlon and i knew that i was happy to have exactly what i wanted.