My New Favorite Holiday

I've never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day. It's always seemed to be too contrived and forced, and as I've mentioned before in my posts, I'm not a huge fan of dead flowers, cheap chocolate, or even expensive diamonds. I'm kinda like a Valentine's scrooge.

But I think my relatively new boyfriend, S, may be responsible for the fact that it's only the day after the holiday, and I'm already looking forward to February 14th of next year.

I wasn't privy to all the planning for the evening. I pried the restaurant name out of S so that I could dress appropriately and then "modeled" five outfits for my mom and B. We decided on a crushed velvet, Goodwill special (very vintage and much more expensive than what I actually paid for it). All I knew beyond dinner was that I'd be going back to S's house for the night and my mom would be staying over with B. We did have a 9am curfew on Sunday morning so I knew that our evening couldn't get too out of hand.

We had a lovely dinner at Cafe Vinotecca which I highly recommend, then headed for the downtown area. S pulled into a parking garage across from Mason's and The Park Ultra Lounge and I assumed we were going for after dinner cocktails. I didn't notice the big Marriott sign above the parking garage so I was quite surprised when S pulled his own overnight bag out of the trunk.

Turns out, he'd been downtown earlier in the day to bring in champagne and gifts. We had a great room, complimented by a bottle of way-too-good bubbly and three big pink boxes. Since my parents read this blog, the "secret" of what was inside the boxes which just have to stay with Vicky, me, and S. Suffice to say, the contents were nothing short of fabulous.

Because of the hotel's well-situated location, we were able to walk to one of my favorite midtown bars, Lounge on 20 for more bubbly and food and this morning, with no children bounding out of bed at 6am, we could enjoy coffee and breakfast, and several ibuprofen for me.

It was definitely a holiday to remember and now, one to even look forward to. And I have a full year to negotiate a longer curfew!

Thanks, S, for being such a wonderful Valentine!!