Valentine's Day and its Prequel

Erin has already re-capped both of these days, but I'll give it a shot too! Maybe our versions will be wildly divergent and sort of like a date version of Rashamon. I doubt it, but you never know!

Erin had given me specific instructions to come next door to her house at 7:19 AM on Valentine's Day, which was a convinient and meaningful time because she had to be at work by eight, and our anniversary is July 19. I kept waking up early, though. I was excited!
And my excitment was justified when I got over there and found her making waffles for me! We ate them with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, the parted ways until dinner time, when she cooked for me again!
I was expecting something fancy and weird, since she'd been planning the meal for about a week, some sort of exotic salad or pasta or something, but instead she'd orchestrated a meal of avant-gard comfort foods -- an open-faced cheese, turkey and bacon sandwich (with a much cooler name) and sweet potato french fries! She actually cut the potatos herself! For some reason that impressed me. I thought you could just buy them in the freezer section or something!
We spent the rest of the evening hanging out, playing card games and chatting. We watched "Down with Love," which was good, but a bit too self-aware. I know that romantic comedies are contrived and silly, and I usually would prefer those sorts of movies when they accept that fact and try and run with it. But it sort of ruins the movie when the filmmakers go completely out of their way to remind you that that movie is contrived and silly. Both the audience and the film deserve better.
Erin also made me pie.
Those of you who know me will realize that this is a huge deal. I think pies are the world's most perfect food (besides maybe sandwiches), and sometimes spend extended periods of time just thinking about how awesome pies are.
So Erin made me a pie, homemade crust and everything. It was peaches and cream, and I have been eatting the leftovers for breakfast. It was very good.

The day before Valentine's Day I took Erin to Balboa Park in San Diego. I planned out the entire day, which may have been a first for me, since when I schedule things, it usually looks like this:
1. show up.
2. see what happens!
3. eat pie!
4. see what else is happening!
5. hooray!
6. go to bed.
7. remember homework/other important things.
8. oh well.
9. go to sleep anyway.
10. repeat! or just see what happens!

Most of the time, it's a pretty good system, but I wanted to pack as much into V-Day as possible. So we drove down to beautiful seaside San Diego and headed to the nation's largest urban park (yes, bigger than Central Park in NYC). There was a lot of construction going on, and there were a few major streets running right though it, which interrupted the natural, if landscaped serenity I had been expecting, but there were also some cool early 20th Century buildings in a bit of a baroque-deco style (is that possible?), and I found it more comprable to a public theme park than a peaceful sanctuary. That said, it was still a lot of fun. We heard a giant organ concert, took a tour with a park ranger, visited a huge tree, and stopped by the Natural History Museum, where they had an exhibit on chocolate, including free samples of thick, drinkable chocolate and exotic chocolate on sale for relatively cheap. We also saw a cool movie about the underwater world by Baja, California which had cool footage of whales, crazy fish and giant sting rays. It talked about the whales and rays greeting humans who visit the reef, and welcoming whale-watching boats, which is pretty amazing considering how we had hunted them and destroyed their homes. To me it was a powerful example of reconcilation, and I was reminded of God's love for us all, no matter how many crappy, destructive things we've done, he'll gladly welcome us back when we're ready. That was cool.
We also went out to eat at a fancy Indian resturant and ate our fill of crazy, flavorful food. A waitresses came by put one of those little forehead decorations on Erin's brow before we got our food. We were almost finished before a woman in a sari came by and pointed out that she'd put it on upside down. She fixed it. We ate an awesome desert.
After that, we went back to Balboa where they were having cha-cha lessons and practice. Erin and I may have been the youngest people there, and I think I made her foot bleed (she was wearing sandles!), but we had a good time, and ended up just making up our own dances since we weren't exactly sure how to do it "properly."
Hoorah!
I also got a package from my parents with cookies and candy when I got home from school on Monday. So I'm happy for this holiday.
Hoorah again!