Love Models

I'm in uncharted territory. I'm celebrating Valentine's Day with the same Valentine I had last year AND the year before. In years one and two, we tried new restaurants. There were flowers. We dressed up. Jesus shaved and I washed my hair--if nothing else, Valentine's Day has encouraged us to keep up our personal hygiene. We finished our nights with binge chocolate-eating (mostly me) and decidedly non-romantic movies (Fight Club and Mama). We congratulated ourselves on being in like and in love.

And for year three? I don't know what the plan is. Jesus and I got as far as "We should eat dinner..." before we ran out of ideas. I have a little something planned, gift-wise. I'm wearing a heart shirt and two pairs of heart socks (out of necessity for their warmth, not because I'm that into Valentine's Day). I bought a bag of red and white M&M's that I had for dessert last night and pre-breakfast this morning. The festivity is out of control.

What I'm really reflecting on this year isn't the flowers or the chocolate or making lovey dovey eyes over the dinner table. I'm thinking about how I learned what love is, and who taught me: my parents. Already this morning, my dad was the first to text me with Valentine's Day greetings. They are spending the day with my brother--not off on a date by themselves. In the past they've spent their anniversary with me. Spring Break? They're hanging out with my sister. Especially now, with all of us kids out of the house, my parents like to celebrate their love by being with their kids.

I don't know what kind of relationship I'd be in if I didn't have my parents as role models, but it certainly wouldn't be the same. My parents' relationship taught me about gender equality, selflessness, communication, and truly enjoying someone else's company. Because of them, I rarely pined for a boyfriend growing up. As lame as this sounds (and there were times I did pine--I was still a teenager), I had Mom and Dad as Valentines. Besides, I wanted what they had, not something slapped together out of desperation for connection.

Now that I have something real (after a few missteps and wrong turns, of course), I'm even more grateful I have their relationship to reference. And not only theirs--both sets of my grandparents celebrate 60 years of marriage this year. Wow! I'm grateful to have so many caring men and strong women to look up to.

Because I know they'll be the first to read this--Happy Valentine's Day, Mom and Dad! I love you both.

Happy Valentine's Day to you, too, Jesus...I know you'll read this after I remind you I posted. :) And can we watch this tonight?

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Same Love

Do you guys have Valentine's Day plans? Dad told me he and Mom are "making leftovers like always." I'm curious as to what the original meal was if they have leftovers all the time. I'm currently [besides blogging] cleaning up the apartment and browsing Pandora's Love Songs stations. Pandora really has a station for everything--even if you are single and hating it today, Pandora has Love Sucks Radio.

I'm feeling in a festive mood: I have two sets of Valentine's Day socks on (it's cold at work) and I have Valentine's Day cookies at my side. Other feel-good things include the Illinois Senate voting to approve gay marriage today. The House still needs to vote and Governor Quinn has to sign it into law (he said he will if it gets to him), but Illinois is on its way to marriage equality!

This song seems to be in order:



[Also to note: I'm trying to learn this song on my keyboard. It's coming along! Come over for a concert. Just not tonight. I have a date. That I need to get ready for.]

Happy Valentine's Day!

Romanticismo a Roma

Felice San Valentino!

The girls of Via Pascarella 12 had a good Valentine's Day. We're in the city that gives romance its name, how could we not? Marina, Shannon and I shared chocolate chip banana pancakes with powdered sugar and honey for breakfast this morning and Marina made me espresso. Then, being the only ones left in the apartment, Marina and I ventured out.

Our first stop was the pyramid so Marina could see it. Then we walked up to La Piazza della Bocca della Verita to see La Bocca della Verita (The Mouth of Truth). We stuck our hands in and took the touristy picture, like everyone in the line. The tradition is if you tell a lie with your hand in the carving's mouth, it will bite your hand off. While we waited in line, newlyweds pulled up to visit the carving and the church where it is located, Santa Maria in Cosmedin.

Then we walked up the Aventino to peek through the most famous keyhole in Rome. In Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, there is a door with two guards and a line of people waiting to peer through the keyhole. Why you ask? Because the view from the keyhole is like magic. You see a row of trees and then an opening which perfectly frames the dome of St. Peter's. It takes your breath away, and the thing is, not many people know about this keyhole. Marina's mom has been to Rome before and told her about it.

Once we got back to the apartment and Ro and Shannon got back we were getting hungry again. Luckily we went grocery shopping this morning so we started making the meal we planned: beef stroganoff and salad. It was so good, even if not traditionally Italian. We did eat our salad last, like they do here. And for dessert we had gelato sundaes with bananas, almonds, and homemade chocolate sauce.

The day didn't stop there, though. Next, Ro, Marina and I decided to go see a romantic movie called Questo Piccolo Grande Amore. The literal translation is "This Small Big Love" but according to Ro, there's not really a way to explain what the title means in English. The film was inspired by a song of the same name by Claudio Baglioni and loosely follows the storyline in the song. Even though it was in Italian, I understood it. I guess I would compare it to Across the Universe, because it was set in the 70s and had a lot of music, etc. It was good, and they even had popcorn there!

And guess what (who, actually) else was there? The one and only Anahel Cimei! We talked on the phone when I got here and have wanted to get together (she's offered to pick me up on her motorino sometime) but haven't been able to see each other because she working on her finals at school. And then tonight at the movie theater we gave our tickets to the girl who I instantly recognized as Miss Anahel. We were so surprised and it was completely random--I had no idea she worked at the movie theater! We couldn't talk long since she was working, but we got to do a little catching up and share the traditional two kisses on the cheeks.

One last thing about the movie: halfway through the screen went black and then the word "intervale" flashed on. The lights came up and a guy came in selling concessions. Yes, Italians have intermissions during their movies! It was just long enough for the guy to sell a few more drinks, and for the Italians to smoke a cigarette, then the movie continued. It was weird, but at the same time I'm really not surprised. Of course they would have an intermission in a movie.

And that was our Valentine's Day. St. Valentine is apparently from Rome, but they don't really pull out all the stops like America does. We saw a few balloons and flowers around town, but other than that they keep it low key, as did we.