love story, part 2: creativity unleashed

I looked at my list of things I wanted to purchase. I simply did not have enough money for all this. I didn't have enough money for much of anything during most of college, so this was no surprise. I already had quite a few dollars set aside for the Valentine's Day date ("love story, part 3" will cover this tomorrow). I knew I needed to wow her though. How could I possibly make all this happen on such a limited budget? Creativity. It was the only solution.

This was the situation facing me the week of Valentine's Day in 2004. Polly and I were not dating at this point (though we were by that Valentine's Day as discussed in yesterday's blog post "love story, part 1: se7en years ago"), but I wanted to make a great impression. I wanted her to know that I cared about her and that I could be romantic. But money was an issue. In fact, it's a big problem with Valentine's Day.

Let's face it, Valentine's Day is a money hog. It's one of the holidays that is driven by commercialism. The beneficiaries of this holiday are often florists, chocolate makers and greeting card companies. That being said, I'm not a proponent of doing away with Valentine's Day. I'm just tired of the status quo. The status quo is for a man to buy his significant other flowers, chocolates and a card. As long as he accomplishes this task, she will be happy. This is a warped theory for two major reasons:

1. Love is shared between two people in a relationship, it's not one-sided. If it's one-sided, the relationship will not last. Considering the fact that love is not one-sided, why should a day set apart to celebrate it be one-sided? Valentine's Day shouldn't be a day only for men to dote upon women. It should be a day of men and women doting upon each other.

2. The status quo is essentially thoughtless and thus pointless. Walmart has been running radio ads about getting cards, chocolates and roses on the cheap. Are you kidding me? So this should be about satisfying these three criteria and as cheaply as possible? Why even bother. The idea of crossing each of the three items off the checklist is boring and uses no thought or creativity. It's a robotic act. Love is not a robotic act. Love is thoughtful. So shouldn't Valentine's Day be.

I believe that people should stop succumbing to the status quo and start using a little more thought. People should stop being so predicable and start being more creative. Let's overcome the status quo!

Back to my situation from Valentine's Day 2004. I didn't only want to be romantic and creative on Valentine's Day, but I also wanted to ask Polly to be my valentine in a romantic way, using creativity. Here are the elements of my official request for Polly to be my valentine:

• The Surprise Factor - I had Polly's roommate Julie set up the room while Polly was at work. Polly was surprised when she walked into her room after work. The next three elements are the items she saw.
• Paper Rose Petals - I wanted rose petals leading from her door to the desk where "The flowers" would be and to her bed where "The box" would be. I just couldn't afford another thing. The solution, my friend Aaron and I created a rose petal shape in paint, copied it onto a Word document and printed off over a thousand of them using my friend Jake's pink and red printing paper. Each rose petal had the words "rose petal" written on it. Aaron also helped me in cutting them all out by hand. This took me hours, but it was worth it.
• The flowers - Don't get me wrong, flowers can be a nice touch if the person you're looking to dote upon enjoys them. But instead of picking up a random bouquet or the standard roses, why not find out what her favorite flowers are. I discovered that Polly loved daisies, so I had a beautiful arrangement put together in a basket. Julie set the basket on Polly's desk.
• The box - I will admit that this was incredibly cheesy, but still effective. I took a cardboard box and wrapped it with red construction paper. On it I wrote, "MY HEART." Inside was a stuffed dog. (Polly's not a huge stuffed animal girl, which I should have done more research into before hand. She didn't hate it, but it didn't add anything either. I could have saved the money.) With the stuffed dog was a poem. The title of the poem was "From the bottom of my heart." It was within the poem that I asked her to accompany me on Valentine's Day.

Polly was quite impressed with everything and accepted my invitation. I was reminiscing with Polly about this story. When I asked her if she remembered if there were daisies, she said she honestly could not remember. The item which cost the most money and fit the status quo is the one that was least significant to her. If you ask her about the paper rose petals, I know she'll remember. This is still Polly's favorite thing I've ever done for her. She still has some of the paper rose petals and her user name for some websites is "paperrosepetals."

In subsequent years, I have worked to keep the creativity juices flowing. For one Valentine's Day, I gave her a candle stand adorned with Play-Doh roses I made. (My friend Jake taught me how to make them and bake them.) For another, my friend Aaron helped me make her a Play-Doh-mation video. It was only a couple of minutes in length but took hours to make.

quo each February 14th. Not every Valentine's Day features a big extravagant plan, but each one is full of love, thoughtfulness and creativity!