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 ![]() Ah, love—it's sappy, sweet, sickening…and superb. Romance is everywhere right now (as well as pink balloons, Hallmark cards and heart-shaped chocolate boxes), and what better way to celebrate it than with some romantic tales of our favorite emotion.
First, new love. Maryanne had been dating her boyfriend, Craig, for two months, and the urge to spill the words "I love you" were twitching on her tongue. "At that point I was torn because I knew I loved him and wanted so much to tell him," Maryanne explained, "but we had only been dating for 2 months…So one night, we were sitting on the couch, cuddling and talking and being generally wretchedly sweet and I thought, I have to tell him... it feels right... and if I don't say it, I think I'll burst. I turned to him and said, 'Craig, I don't want to freak you out or anything, but I have to tell you something.' Without hesitating or asking me what I wanted to say, Craig said, 'I love you, too'."
That moment when you fall in love is intoxicating, but how about the moment when you realize the person in front of you is the one?
As Heather said about her now-husband, Dave, "We were camping out at Ichthus, the Christian music festival, and it was literally freezing cold that April. I was shivering in my tent when he called for me to come out because he had a surprise for me. I unzipped the flap and came out, and he led me to his tent, where he had prepared a romantic Coleman lantern-lit feast of Pop Tarts and Sunny D. While I ate, he serenaded me on his mandolin with a song called "Ice Cream" by Sarah McLachlan. It ended up being the song we danced to at our wedding, two years afterward."
Of course, realizing you want to marry someone is different for everyone. For Kevin and his wife, Laura, it was ten years of an "on again, off again" relationship. Then, after breaking up and not seeing Laura for a year, Kevin realized she was the one. And, he wasn't one for subtley.
"I moved to Lexington and finally started to move on," Kevin explained. "But the more I moved on, the more my heart was telling me that I left something very special behind. So even though we hadn't spoken for about a year, I bought a wedding ring, showed up unexpected, played Unchained Melody on a [boombox], and asked Laura to marry me."
As Laura spotted Kevin, her reaction was an immediate, "No!"
"I eventually changed her mind," Kevin said. Today, they have been married 17 years, and have two sons.
If you haven't found love, have no fear! A few "hot spots" to meet new people are social gatherings, clubs, gym, work, churches, and online. The internet has paid sites like match.com and eharmony.com, but there are free ones like plentyoffish.com and okcupid.com. Also, meetup.com—a non-dating website designed for gather people with common interests—is a great way to meet new people and, at least, make friends.
Yes, love can be sappy, but we all fall for its toxin. Enjoy your loved ones—spouse, family and friends—this Valentine's Day, and sniff the pink and red roses.
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