Oh, What a <i> Love-</i> ly Idea
Just eight more days until Cupid unleashes his arrows on the unsuspecting masses. That’s right, Valentine’s Day is upon us, which means it’s time for your trusty Social Climes staff to get all mushy and tell you funny, weird and vaguely romantic things.
First, let’s get down to the most important thing about Valentine’s Day: gifts. Haven’t ordered your dozen long-stemmed red roses that cost more than twice what you’d pay any other day of the year? Don’t despair, we have some suggestions that are . . . well, almost as good.
“The Book of Love, Laughter and Romance” by Barbara and Michael Jonas offers up 227 pages of warm, fuzzy ideas, from packing a picnic for a mate stuck at work to putting flowers under your love’s windshield wipers.
The chapter that really hit home for us was “So Much to Do . . . So Little Time,” which addresses finding time for romance when your Filofax runneth over. One suggestion: doing chores for one’s partner when they’re so darned busy they can’t do it themselves--running an errand, filling the gas tank, mowing the lawn, washing the car, going grocery shopping, taking the pet in for shots.
Those sound great, but it got us thinking about things we’d love someone to do for us: Find out where that funky smell in the car is coming from, make dinner every day for a year (OK, six months), read all the magazines that have been stacked up for weeks and tell us the highlights, and discover a way we can have our cake and eat it too and not gain five pounds.
In lieu of those, we’ll accept a dozen long-stemmed red roses that cost more than twice what you’d pay any other day of the year.
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Categorically Yours: We went to the card store the other day to pick out that elusive perfect Valentine’s Day card, when we were struck by the plentiful, yet odd, assortment of headings. Our hats off to the greeting-card industry, which makes sure that absolutely no one is left out of Valentine’s Day. Categories include: Friend, Best Friend (italics ours), Nice to Work With (as opposed to Nightmare to Work With?), Glow in the Dark, Mother and Stepfather (very ‘90s) and Prince Charming. (Somebody found him?)
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Splendor in the Grass: While we’re on the subject of money (well, we were, back a couple of paragraphs), we’d hate to spend Valentine’s Day in Tokyo. According to a survey in the fifth annual Harlequin Romance Report a day of romance can cost you $1,297.44--that’s the total for a card, a one-pound box of chocolates, a dozen roses, an evening of dining and dancing, a limo and a nightcap at a club with a view. Better to dash over to Sydney, where it’s a mere $298.85 for the whole shebang. Better yet, mow the lawn.
