Happy Singles Awareness Day! (Plus five great dates!)

Happy Valentine's Day peeps! Tonight, A.P. is taking me out to dinner at LM Restaurant in Lincoln Square. Guess I didn't give him the memo on my perfect Valentine's in time...he made the reservation weeks ago! After dinner, I have some surprises up my sleeve for him when we get back home because I've been planning for a wee while, too. ; ) Because I'm an equal opportunity Valentine's Day celebrator, here are five great date ideas for you and your significant other OR for you and your friends. Because Valentine's Day is about love...for anybody. <3

1. Dinner and a movie

The classic is never boring if you're with the right people! If you're with someone romantic, head to The Vow. Cheesy or not, it's this year's The Notebook. Minus Ryan Gosling...and the hot sex scene at his country house. If you're single, see The Vow. You'll enjoy it more with your girlfriends anyway. They won't groan in disbelief at the cheese factor. : ) Then head to dinner at your favorite spot. So many restaurants offer prix fixe menus on Valentine's Day, you can get a 3 course meal for a steal! If you're in Chicago and haven't yet made a reservation, try one of these secret spots we always seem to have good luck with ...

El Nandu in Logan Square, Hearty Boys in Lakeview (their drinks are awesome!), and this is on my list of places to check out. It doesn't take reservations, so you figure you have the same shot of getting a table as anyone else: Davonti Enoteca in University Village.

2. The MCA (or any art museum) and drinks

Good art is good art, no matter who you're with. And lucky for you, Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday, which is The MCA's free day. Can I get a woot, woot? If you're not in Chicago or if your local art museum is closed, try an art gallery. Taking in art makes you feel smart. After all, as one of my favorite pins says, "The earth without art is just eh." Then, head to your favorite fancy hotel for drinks. After that kind of night, dinner on the couch won't feel so lame. If you're going to the MCA, you could drink nearby beforehand to make modern art interpretation even more interesting! Nothing says downtown chic to me than drinks at a fancy hotel or restaurant.

Try: The Signature Room at the 95th (they don't call it Signature for nothing!), The Bar at The Peninsula...fancy and intimate, or check out The Roof at The Wit. It's their Roof Live night, which means you also get to enjoy live music. Sweet!

3. A night at a hotel

With your girlfriends, it's a fun adult sleepover. With your significant other, it's a fun adult sleepover. Win-win. Seriously, though, with your gal pals, you could make fancy cocktails, rent movies, and order room service. With your significant other, you could get in room massages and drink champagne. Go to work in the morning and return home the next night. You'll feel like you took a little trip out of town!

4. Ice skating and hot chocolate

Listen, folks. You might question why I'd put such a cold date idea on the list, but winter is almost over and before you know it, you'll be complaining about the heat. Why not take advantage of the fact that it's not freezing cold out and enjoy ice skating. If you're in Chicago, Millenium Park is fun and The Rink at Wrigley is a novel idea, too. Hot chocolate is up to you, but of course my favorite place in Chicago is still the aptly named Hot Chocolate in Wicker Park. Homemade in front of a fireplace is always nice, too. Just so long as it has marshmallows. : )

5. Stay In, Eat Great Food, Make Fancy Drinks, and Watch Episodes of Your Favorite TV Show

This is for you if you're feeling lazy, tired, or don't want to make a big fuss. Because at the end of the day, Valentine's Day is about hanging out with the people that you love, whether you do something fun, romantic, or simple. Make it a little different from every other night, though, by going above and beyond with the dinner and drinks. Martha Stewart has several menus up and French martinis are always a good pick for today. Pop in a DVD of your favorite TV show and watch some episodes. You won't feel bad if you miss a few moments discussing your day. My picks would be Friends, Freaks and Geeks, or Mad About You.

What are you doing tonight? Anything special? Will you be hanging out with a significant other or girlfriends? Whatever you end up doing, Happy Valentine's Day!!

(Heart Socks via PetraO; Drive in Movie photo via Free People Blog; Ice Skaters via Art of Manliness; Lazy Sunday photo by David Urbanke via Flickr)

Alone Again, (Un)Naturally

A.P. is out of town until Friday night. (He's on business in Las Vegas. I get Kansas, he gets Las Vegas. Ah, well, whatdya gonna do?) He left early this morning. I was so, so sad to see him go. I pick on him a lot. I demand a lot from him. I know I'm not a piece of cake, but I love him. It's times like these I know for sure. He woke me up to say good-bye, and I actually got up on my knees and gave him a big, tight hug and kissed him good-bye. I don't do those things every day. I'm not a touchy feely person. He hasn't been gone that long and I already miss him a lot. It's weird to miss someone you see every day.

I had planned on coming home early tonight, my only early working night this week, and uploading my birthday weekend pictures to share with you guys. I discovered A.P. took his camera with him, so I'm left with nothing to do really in an apartment that suddenly feels larger. I'm also left with a ton more responsibility.

For the rest of this week, I have to take care of our dog, too. Usually, I take care of the cat and the guinea pig, and A.P. takes care of our dog. Now, I get all three. Walking that dog is becoming the bane of my existence since I'm working late the rest of this week. That means I'm scrambling around trying to take care of three pets and work all these crazy hours. I actually thought about coming home tonight and cleaning. Ha! I still got home mega late from work, and have done nothing but work, talk on the phone with family, or figure out what to put in my belly.

Which brings me to my next thought: remember how I said I was getting sick of dealing with dinner all the time? Yeah, that's still a problem. Working late has only made it worse. Last night I went to go cook dinner only to discover half of the ingredients I'd bought had gone bad. It seemed like I'd only bought them a few days before, but it turned out to have been over a week ago! So when I came home tonight, I decided I was going to just make my life easier and grab some fast food. I know it's not healthy, but I figure I'd get over it, and free up some of my time. Why did I decide upon fast food, you ask? After all, we have a car now; I could have gone to the grocery store and bought something there. I didn't want to carry groceries up three flights of stairs. A.P. wasn't here to help me carry them, and I hate doing that by myself. It's such a pain in the ass.

On my way to the fast food joint, I was paranoid about walking by myself late at night. It occurred to me that I don't really do this anymore...walk by myself at night. I don't live in an unsafe neighborhood, really, but there are a lot of drunken vagrants around this one intersection that I would have had to go past to get to the fast food joint. I wasn't scared, but I thought that one might hassle me, which they sometimes do. I missed A.P. because not only does he handle situations like that well, but he is fun to walk with. I like our talks on walks like that. Going to grab some dinner from a neighborhood joint, be it fast food or a restaurant. Or just walking to the convenience store. We talk about silly things, or work, or just make jokes. It's nice when we're not glued to the TV or our laptops or whatever, and we're just walking and talking.

Then it hit me: How did I ever survive without A.P.? Do I not sound like one of those spoiled girls whose man does everything for her? I promise I'm not, it's just that (and I almost hate to say this) I'm used to having someone around. It feels a bit strange to be alone. I thought it'd be fun, but there's nothing on cable, getting food was a pain and no fun, and now it's the end of the night and I'm going to bed alone. I used to revel in A.P. being away. Now I'm bummed and lonely. When did I get to be so lame?

What about you guys? Are you like this? Or do you still love when your boo is away on business? (That's right. I said boo. You love it. It's okay.)

Why I Heart Being Married

Being married, is in so many ways, a giant security blanket. And I don't mean financially, or anything at all like that. I'm talking about the smaller things. Like this:

I have hyperhidrosis. It doesn't act up all the time, but it is kind of gross, and it does mean that I sometimes have sweaty palms and feet. I have weird ways of controlling it (thick white socks are a must...warm, dry feet = warm, dry hands, underarms, etc.), but occasionally there are social situations where it acts up. Like any time I have to wear pantyhose or trouser type socks. Anytime I wear a skirt, my hands sweat and sweat and sweat, and then swell up from all the sweating. They're also clammy. (You're really learning strange things about me today, huh?)

So what does me having hyperhidrosis have to do with being married? Well, today I got home from work, and I'm wearing trouser type socks, so my hands are nice and sweaty. Normally I would go in the other room and just switch socks, but I'm being particularly lazy while I watch Law & Order and de-stress. I wanted to snack on these Twizzlers I bought (a recent obsession...I could eat them all day, every day), and I went to go open the bag, and my stupid sweaty, swollen hands made it hard. A.P. isn't home from work yet, so I had to dick around with the package for a while. And it made me think.

If A.P. were home, I wouldn't even have to ask, I would hand him the package and he would just open it. I wouldn't have to explain that my hands are clammy and swollen, and I wouldn't have to justify opening and digging in to a big ol' bag of candy. Why? Because I'm married. Not really, but kind of. I would argue that any loving, lasting relationship could provide this same sense of routine and security, but marriage adds an extra layer of warmth (yes, I'm sticking to my security blanket metaphor...deal with it).

I love knowing that A.P. loves me so much that sweaty palms don't bother him (even though he thinks it's totally weird). I love that he accepts that I have a sweet tooth and sometimes candy eating is the norm. I love knowing that what I sometimes can't do (open a bag of candy, open a jar, figure out insurance policies), he's a whiz at. And I love knowing that no matter what I do, all he sees are my awesome qualities. All of those things come from the loving, lasting nature of our relationship. But us being married means that we're not going anywhere, and I get to enjoy this sense of having a PIC (partner in crime, for those not in the know) forever after.

A Woman's Right to Shoes

I heart A.P. so, so much. Here's why:

As I've mentioned before, I have a strong addiction to shopping these days. I've been trying to stop, but it seems that now that I have money, it wants to be spent. That being said, I've been trying to update my wardrobe, including winter shoes, of which I have very, very few. Last year, A.P. got me a beautiful pair of Uggs for Christmas, which I adore and wear all the time. More recently, I purchased a pair of Hunter rain boots, something I'd been talking about buying for two years! Then last night, out of boredom, I was searching Zappos for a pair of leather boots. I'd found the perfect pair. I liked them so much, I even thought about them today a bunch of times.

After my stressful day of work, I went to Michael's and bought a bunch of art supplies for an upcoming project. I was exhausted. I got ONE hour of sleep last night because I worked through the night. Then I was in meetings all day today, and ended up staying two hours late at work. Needless to say, I was stressed, exhausted and running on empty. So imagine my surprise when I got up the stairs to our apartment, and saw these bad boys waiting outside the door:


Turns out, after I found them, he sat right next to me on the couch and ordered them without me knowing! He rushed the delivery and there they were, waiting for me by the door. How can you not love a man who buys you beautiful, wonderful shoes??

(Picture via Zappos)