Men are not meant to blog

I am fully aware that the grand majority if not all of the people who are currently blog-stalking this blog are big fans of my wife, but I figured, "Hey, it's my life too" so here we are. Just as a general disclaimer so as not to scare away any of Claire's fans I probably won't be on here all that much so you can rest easy. So yesterday was Valentine's Day and as a newlywed husband I was feeling all sorts of nervous from the expectations that come on this the day of love. I had never been married to anyone on this day of days before and I just didn't even know where to begin. Claire and I had already been "dating" this time last year so it obviously had to be better than last year, but I didn't want to be one of those really annoying (sorry if anyone reading is like this or knows somebody like this...I mean no real harm) guys that goes all out to spend tons of money on chocolates, oversized stuffed bears, balloons, flowers and whatever kind of singing valentine card Hallmark has invented. I'm a pretty down to earth guy and, don't get me wrong I LOOOVE that Claire girl, but I don't feel like we need all that stuff to show we love each other. And neither does Claire. I woke up in the morning to find several paper hearts taped on various objects around the house with cute little notes on them like "I love you for marrying me in the temple!" and "I love how you make me laugh everyday!" Isn't she the best? So since she knows I'm your average, run of the mill, clueless male she was so kind as to give me a list of Valentine's demands that goes as follows:

1) A most sincere and heartfelt card written by yours truly

2) A tasty cupcake

3) A box of chocolates (size and quality not specified)

4) An idea of what I want for Valentine's Day

So like a typical boy I over thought things...a lot. I spent a good part of the day thinking and rethinking about what I could do/how I could do it/how cute I could make it/etc. The next thing

I know the day has flown by and I now only had a few more hours left. Busted. In my near 23 years of life I should have learned by now that I usually do better just flying by the seat of my pants. I made a little plan in my head and proceeded to run my various errands to hopefully make my wife fall madly in love with me again. I ran to the grocery store to buy some food for the dinner I was going to cook, grabbed a box of good looking chocolates (I didn't have a lot of experience in the field of chocolates so I was hoping it was a good one) and then made my way over to the "Sweet Tooth Fairy" for the much desired cupcake. I whizzed on home to make sure the apartment looked clean and cute so she wouldn't have to lift a finger when she got back. Before I knew it it was time to go pick up Claire so I made sure to hide some of the surprises and brought her home. She was so kind as to go along with my request to stay out of the kitchen while I prepared dinner (which unfortunately took a little longer than anticipated). When I was just about done I politely asked her to go into our room for a little bit. I tidied things up a little bit more and brought her out to our romantic dinner.

It's not much, but I tried my best. I cooked some tilapia with a recipe I found online, some mixed veggies and garlic mashed potatoes. In the center of the table I lined some candles around the box of chocolates with her beloved cupcake and cake bites on top.

Needless to say she was a big fan of the sweets. (P.S. Claire hates this picture. I happen to think it's very cute)

She then presented me with some orange juice (love it) and a bag of jerky which under any other circumstance would've been way out of our budget.

We spent the rest of the evening cleaning up and enjoying each others' company. What more could a guy ask for? So I guess that the moral of this whole story is...Valentine's Day is a billion times better with a wife/husband than it ever could be with nobody/just a friend/more than a friend/GF or BF/fiancee. Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day as well!