my sweet old etcetera: mixCD

So last night was very relaxing. Ricky and I stayed indoors, ordering in from Outback (seems I got my steak after all :D) and watching a film, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." Originally, I'd brought over "Pride & Prejudice" to watch, figuring it was perfect for Valentine's Day, but I'm glad we saw "Sky Captain" instead. It's a throw-back to the films of the silver-screen era, with several homages to "King Kong" and other films from that time period. A silly, little fluff-piece of a film, but tons of fun all the same.

I was so worried over whether the boyf would like my mixtape or not, but he did, he did! :-) Oh, happy day. He gifted me with a sweet-sweet card and beautiful tulips, pink and red. Tulips are my favorite flower, so this just about made my month.

I'm so happy I don't have to go to work tomorrow. I'm still feeling a bit under the weather and looking forward to sleeping in again tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who wished me to get well soon in the comments! :-)

In closing, I want to share something I wrote on Protagonize yesterday. It's a brief little snippet of a Valentine's Day verse that came out of the blue. Let me know how you like it. :-)

Pas de deux
Halfway between memorizing the topography of your skin --
This hillock of knee, those winding roads of your arms,
The raised veins like rivers at the confluence of your wrist,
I feel my heart flutter, like a white flag waving
Over the battlements of my last doubts.

So this is what happens when the mirage takes hold,
And the phantom fantasy comes to life;
When the whole of love opens wide:
I enter with eyes closed and heart open,
Ready for the thrill and kill of desire

But these hands are whispering promises
I am half-afraid to keep.
Your hand slides over mine in a clumsy pas de deux
And I open my eyes again and smile,
Watching the lightning flash of awareness
Catch fire in your eyes.

So last night, we celebrated Valentine's Day, my valentine and I. Originally, the boyf said he was going to take me to an Argentinian steakhouse called "Beefeater." Reader, I squeed on the inside when I first heard the name. And not in a good way. But I had faith, because I know my boyf has good taste (hello - he picked me - just kidding! - kinda...), so I went in with full faith.

Then while I was in the salon yesterday afternoon with a friend from work, the two of us getting prettified, I got a text from the boyf saying he'd made reservations for 8:30 PM at a surprise restaurant.

...

He refused to tell me where, breaking down only later and confessing it was an Italian restaurant.

"But you don't like Italian!" I protested, to which he replied, "But you do."

Oh my dear, sweet boyf... His selflessness still amazes me every day more and more.

The restaurant was this pretty little Italian "ristorante" named Mama Mia. You can view its website and see pictures of it here. Yes, I took my camera with me and was full prepared to take pictures, but since I am currently suffering from the plague (i.e., the flu), and had dissolved into a sneezing, coughing mess as the night wore on, I didn't bother taking any pictures, because I would've looked like this:

Not pretty, I know. So instead, I will grace your eyes with the loveliness that is my boyf instead:

Ah, that's better.

Unfortunately, my sickness prevents us from spending our weekend together at the beach like we wanted to. Ricky was still thinking we should go, but I don't want him getting sick, too, as I'm feeling pretty wretched. So I slept in my own bed last night, sleeping 14 hours (!). And today we will probably just hang out together at his place and maybe catch a nice, relaxing dinner somewhere we don't have to wait 5 hours for - hence why we chose to celebrate V-Day last night.

For Valentine's this year, we decided not to buy each other anything and make home-spun gifts instead. Cheaper + Thoughtful = FTW.

I kinda sorta cheated in that I bought him a card, but I figure that's not a big deal as it cost only a few bucks. In addition, I made him a mixCD as per my earlier plan. It's made up of songs that chronicle our time together, songs that mean something to us. And by the way, the number of songs happened in a great, kismet kind of way. I needed to choose enough songs to fill up an hour's worth, and when I finally reached the exact number of time I needed, I noticed how many tracks were on the CD and just had to laugh.

The CD has 14 tracks. :-)

Here are the songs:

1. "Hit" by The Sugarcubes
2. "Kelly Watch the Stars" by Air
3. "The First Taste" by Fiona Apple
4. "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" by Talking Heads
5. "A Waltz for a Night" by Julie Delpy
6. "This Is Love" by PJ Harvey
7. "City of Blinding Lights" by U2
8. "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens
9. "This Strange Effect" by Hooverphonic
10. "Locket Love" by The Ramones
11. "En Tus Pupilas" by Shakira
12. "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" by Radiohead
13. "Amazing Life" by Jem
14. "Our Song" by Shinichi Osawa