The greatest gift I have ever been given was for my 18th birthday by the girl I'd been dating for only a few weeks (though she had been a part of my close circle of friends for much longer). She had gone to my parents and all my closest friends and gotten pictures from every stage of my life. She had everybody write me a letter. Then she made me a 40ish page scrapbook entitled "This is Your Life". When she gave it to me, I was so overwhelmed at what she had done. Tears were shed. I still have it and will cherish it my entire life; in fact, I used many pictures from it for the Childhood Photos Photo Friday we had a few weeks back.

She was the sweetest person I have ever known, and the first (only?) person I ever loved - in fact, I can add the fact that we had such a short time together before I left for college to the regret thread from last night.

One guy showed up at my house at 3am, becauase when he'd called me to say goodnight, I "sounded sad." Turns out, I was actually just drunk and slurry because the bar had just let out. But it was still an infinitely sweet gesture, considering it wasn't a five minute, pop down the road type of drive.

This girl I was hanging out with a few years ago invited me over to her house on my birthday. She cooked me dinner, and then pulled me into her room where she had a half-rack of Olympia sitting right next to a Scrabble setup. I fell in love with her right then and there.

(of course, the relationship ended miserably, so it's probably a good thing that women don't try to do romantic things for me anymore)

Just a note to anyone in the universe in case I'm ever single again. This would be the most romantic thing you could do for me:

Find out a book that i really want to read. Make the bed. Give me the book, tuck me up in bed and damn well leave me alone, except when I want you to bring me cups of tea.

This will never happen.

mr. g occassionally brings me home flowers for no reason. I feel a little 50s housewife-ish when he does it, but I love love love flowers, and I like little gestures like that.

I was in high school, and had a date with a guy from another school. He drove me all the way down to Georgetown to see "Remains of The Day." The movie broke half way through. Of course we couldn't go back and see the end at another time. The next day, on my porch, There was the book "Remains of the Day", with the pages ripped out to where the moive stopped, and microwave popcorn.

I was in high school, and had a date with a guy from another school. He drove me all the way down to Georgetown to see "Remains of The Day." The movie broke half way through. Of course we couldn't go back and see the end at another time. The next day, on my porch, There was the book "Remains of the Day", with the pages ripped out to where the moive stopped, and microwave popcorn.

Oral sex.

no flowers, cards or candy for me. No presents either. Don't get me wrong: I like them, I'll take them, they just don't do it in a romantic way for me.

But, I would do the Amelie-melt-the-frost if someone caressed my hair or my face briefly while looking at me playfully or whispered in my ear. The fewer words the better.

Ys, I am that cheap and easy!

A man I was briefly albeit intensely in love with wrote me a song. This doesn't sound that unusual, but he was a classical guitarist (scholarship student at Berklee) and the song was one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful pieces I've ever heard. I have a recording of it and still cry when I listen to it.

I was 15. My girl dumped me for Pedro in the lunchroom after second period.
Her sister came over and kissed me. We stayed together for 5 years.

The one that goes like this:

*gestures*

My friend Shane's sister Heather heard that I was sick with the flu. She brought over homemade chicken soup and a copy of The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, which she read to me over the course of three days. We started dating the next week and stayed together for a year.

At the first appartment we lived in (a real roach-trap of a place with a landlady named Faust -- well, Faustini, but close enough), I came home from work and Jon had tuna melts, a bubble bath, and a pitcher of margaritas waiting for me.

Another time, he called me up at Barnes and Noble, where I was working at the time, and asked if I wanted to go to the beach. He picked me up with a blanket and a bottle of something called Grasshopper and we found a secluded spot on the sand under a lean-to. It was night, and I remember watching him afterwards in the dark, just talking and smoking a cigarette, and thinking how much I loved him.

My ex-husband also proposed with a song he wrote.

Keep 'em coming! I'm trying to learn all this stuff in a hurry over here! ;)

Romance is dead.

ay! I hear you dg. loud and clear.

Actually, Kyleg recently gave me a shark kite (yeah, a kite shaped like a shark). I laughed so hard and let a few tears out. I really like kites, and I really like sharks.

It just hasn't been windy enough to fly, yet.

Yeah, carmina, I wish it weren't so, because I am an incurable romantic at heart, but it is.

The mister is not conventionally romantic, but he comes up with some good stuff now and then. My favorite was the time he taped a love note to my steering wheel then cued up my car stereo to blare "Let's Get It On' when I turned the key.

I also like that on cold nights he goes to sleep on my side of the bed so it's warm when I get in.

I also like that on cold nights he goes to sleep on my side of the bed so it's warm when I get in.
Heh, I do that too.

Back when I was a senior in high school in Denver, I had just fallen in love with James Joyce at the age of 17. I also was falling in love with my boyfriend's best friend (yes, it was all very illicit and dramatic!) -- my boyfriend had left for his freshman year out-of-state, but his best friend has stayed local, going to college up in Boulder. One wintry night, he took the bus down from Boulder to meet me downtown so that we could have a few hours together at our favorite coffeehouse. I'll never forget how he got off the bus and pulled "Dubliners" out of the pocket of his overcoat. "I read it for you," he said, "so that we could have even more to talk about." Thus was my adoration for intellectual guys in glasses forever cemented.

*sigh*

My wife did something that I find wonderfully romantic. I'm a devotee of Robert Greenberg's Teaching Company lectures. She emailed Prof. Greenberg and asked him for information on when he'd be lecturing, and where, so we could see him in person. She also tracked down a rare CD of a performance of a string quartet by Robert Greenberg. What a sweetie!