Why Valentine's Day is Special to Me

So Valentine's Day is today. I wrote this same story last year. I figured what the heck, why not re-run it again. 

Up until three years ago I always thought that this day was invented by Hallmark in a scheme to make money but that all changed on February 14, 2009.

It was late January in 2009 when my friends and I thought it would be funny to attend a speed-dating event at my school, Marquette University. Also, it was a way to support my best friend’s fraternity who was hosting the event.

At the beginning of the event we all got puzzle pieces and if your puzzle piece matched someone else's then you were meant to go on a date together. As the event went on I showed slight interest to each guy who came to talk to me during the event. Then Yaphet Morales came and it just clicked, and no, our puzzle pieces did not match.

Over the next couple of weeks we would chat on Facebook and randomly run into each other at parties and events. Was it a coincidence or intentional? Who knows?

I finally decided to ask him out. Yes, the girl asked the boy out. I texted him, “Lets go out on Saturday.” At the time I did not realize that Saturday was Valentine's Day. Oops.

 The deal was that since I asked him he was supposed to find a place for us to go.

He picked me up and immediately said that he could not find any place that took reservations. Before I left my roommate suggested Water Buffalo in the Third Ward. We went there.

Before being seated we waited at the bar. I ordered a Long Isalnd. Then I thought,  “Wait, what if he thinks I’m an alchi?” Oh well, too late.

We finally are seated and he ordered chicken and I ordered a salad. I ate a big meal with some friends a couple of hours prior and I wasn’t that hungry.

A few weeks later he confessed that he thought I was a vegetarian because my friends were and I had ordered a salad for dinner. No, no, no. I like my meat.

Let me just say that the food was horrible. His chicken was dry and how do you mess up a salad. Jeez. Throughout the night we talked, a lot.

At the end of the night he gave me a rose and chocolates for Valentines. I thought, “This guy is weird. He barely knows me and is giving me presents.”

A few months later I confessed to him that I didn’t like chocolate (yes, I’m weird like that) and that my roommates ate the majority of them and used the rest to throw at each other during a food fight.

Now it’s three years later and Valentine's is special to me, not because it’s a holiday, but because it was our first date. Even though the food was bad at Water Buffalo, we went back the last two prior years and plan to do so tonight.