Dear World,
It's the eve of Valentine's Day. I can't sleep. I'm not sure why. I mean, I have a Skype date tomorrow but I don't really have jitters about it or anything. I've been dating my fiance (fiancee? they both work with spellcheck! But the word spellcheck doesn't!) since almost seven years ago.
I guess between all the Valentine's Day hoopla and wedding planning, I have romance on the brain. Love is my major religion to begin with (loosely followed by Catholicism), but I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I used to get stuff like
love letters.
I don't know if kids even do that anymore. I moved on to college before I ever got the privilege of text messages, so for all I know, writing love letters could be a lost art form. I got some doozies in my day, though.
So. Let's take a walk through time.
Case 1: The box of hatred turned friendly-
I dated one guy for about seven months, but eventually broke up with him because my parents hated him. They gave me a really hard time about it, and my 16 year old self was about tired of hearing it. Anyway, after I broke up with this guy, he evidently left a box in my front yard with all sorts of hateful crap written in a letter inside. It also contained a picture frame of us that had been destroyed. Mom totally intercepted it and I had no clue about it. Meanwhile, we resolved our differences and became good friends later on. He told me about the box a few years later when I was leaving for college, so I decided to give him a box of my own. I found clippings of comics like Peanuts that were full of fond good-byes. I pasted them on the outside of this box and gave it to him as a parting gift. At some point, he also sent me an email. I don't still have it, but it was something to the effect of his warm wishes towards me. He assured me that no matter what happens, we would always be friends. He is no longer my friend. C'est la vie.
Case 2: The misspelled print job-
I never dated this kid, but you gotta give him credit for enthusiasm. I'm pretty sure he spelled my name wrong in this epic love letter, but it was full of LOVE. I still have it around somewhere I think. I'll post it if I can find it, because it's very entertaining. And flattering.
*UPDATE: I FOUND IT:
As a parting gift for this friend, I put together a collage-scrapbook of explodingdog.com pictures with clippings from notes we've hand written back and forth in school. I don't have time for stuff like that anymore, but I used to be a very thoughtful/creative gal.
Case 3: The cliche from hell-
One time, this guy who I dated for like, two months, wrote me a two or three page long (that's super long for high school, y'all) love letter. It began by describing stuff he was doing at the time of the writing, which updated throughout as he continued the letter. Heaven forbid we write all of this at once. I think there was even mention of watching a symphony of some sort with his mama. Anyway, it was very sappy and full of "you're my sweetheart," blah blah blah. We mutually broke up a few weeks afterwards. I actually broke up with his answering machine because he avoided my calls. Whatever.
The point is, even though I got some great love letters that I still think of from time to time, I think that love letters may be a lost art. Not that I'm complaining or anything, I still get plenty of text messages and phone calls that are perfectly satisfactory. :) And the occasional cute email.
I will close with this: Fellas, if you're reading this, never underestimate the power of written words. They can imprint a lady's mind for quite a long time! (Which can be good or bad, depending on the case!)
I will now close with a favorite text of mine:
Snugglin > strugglin
And a Happy Valentine's Day to all.
Love,
Stephanie
