Valentine’s Weekend 2011

 I have such a wonderful significant other.  I’m not quite sure why I got so lucky, but I really did.  Not only does he humor my obsession with holidays, dressing according to themes, exchanging thoughtful gifts, trying out whatever new event I’ve read about, etc.,  but he also claims he enjoys everything as much as I do – maybe that’s a lie.  Maybe he enjoys everything almost as much as I do.  This year for Valentine’s Day, we decided to celebrate for the entire weekend.  We began on Saturday by volunteering at a food pantry.  From there, our activities picked up speed.  We decided to try out a scavenger hunt in the Carmel art district I had read about in Nuvo.  Not only was it free, but it was such a blast.  The weather didn’t end up being too chilly, and the exploration was reminiscent of our semester in Europe.  There were nine stops along the scavenger hunt, and each spot had a free little something.  Most of the stops had elegant pastries and desserts; one stop had a professional photographer who allowed us to download the pictures free of charge.  Another stop had a professional artist on site who gave us instructions on how to paint a candy heart for 20 minutes; we even got to take the canvases with us!  At the end, each couple won a prize goodie bag and was eligible to put their names in for a bigger drawing.  After our two and a half hour scavenger hunt, we did a little shopping at the Castleton mall.  I think every man in Indianapolis had forgotten Valentine’s Day was coming up.  We got out of there as quickly as possible.  After our shopping escapade, we stopped by Steak’N’Shake for dinner.  It was delicious; I had forgotten how much I love chocolate, banana shakes.  We had a deep discussion in which we discussed whether or not heaven exists.  After dinner, we drove back to Butler, and I studied for my Spanish exam.  On Sunday morning, Brendan made us chocolate chip pancakes, and we ate them while playing cards.  After brunch, we exchanged gifts.  He got me a cookie cake and a voice recorder.  I thought that was such a romantic gift – I would rather have something thoughtful like that over jewelry any day.  After our gift exchange, I studied for Spanish, and we got ready to go to mass.  Mass was especially beautiful, and after, we watched the movie Fireproof and discussed it as part of the mini-retreat I had spent three weeks preparing for.  It went wonderfully, and I think all 15 people in attendance learned a lot.  After our retreat, we drove to Oishi Sushi on the east side, and Brendan tried sushi for the first time.  The restaurant was very authentic.  We had our own room that had a curtain in place of the door, and we sat on blue cushions on the floor.  As an appetizer we had yaki ika (BBQ squid with teriyaki sauce).  For our main courses, Brendan tried the Fire Dragon rolls (California roll with salmon and avocado); I tried Cali-Mango rolls (California rolls with mango on the top and mango sauce); and we shared the crab meat rolls.  For dessert we shared a fried banana.  I think that was the second best part of our meal.  The first best part was the conversation.  We talked about favorite childhood memories, books, games, and anything else that came to mind.  The weekend may not have been as memorable as our last Valentine’s Day in Paris and London, but it was certainly relaxing and renewing.