Wining, Dining, Flowers and Romance

Erenor · Post by **Erenor** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:10 am

The "romantic touches" tend to be just little surprises. I'm considered old fashioned, so if I don't open a door or help put on a coat I just feel strange and it doesn't seem like anything new or extraordinary to my SO. Valentines Day has always been tricky, and I always do the dozen roses, but my "romantic touches" always include spicing them up a little bit or adding another creative gift to the mix. I love the effect that springing something on my SO has, b/c she doesn't expect it from me. I tried too often with a past girlfriend and after a while, she expected these "romantic touches" and I was pressured to include them monthly. I space things out a lot more now, but by cooking a surprise dinner or cleaning something I normally don't or helping out with something unusual is often enough to be considered a "romantic touch." Fixing her car when she hadn't even mentioned the trouble to me, but to a friend, was something nice I did for her recently. A candlelight dinner was another recent one. If anyone has some general ideas for more, I'm open for opinions and suggestions.

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:20 am

[QUOTE=dragon wench]lol!!!

And here I thought that your 'publication' interests were always pure and above board

I feel so deluded.....

[/QUOTE]

I tend to keep my obsessions and professional interests separate, though I wouldn't characterize them as pure necessarily.

Being deluded is not so bad, really. Fortunately, you are posting in a family-friendly thread. If you had stepped into one of Scayde's infamous bar threads, by now you would be denuded...

Cuchulain82 · Post by **Cuchulain82** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 9:08 am

[QUOTE=C Elegans]I am a European woman and I have never celebrated Valentines day, nor has any of my friends as far as I know. It's not at all as big a think in Europe as it is in the US, although it has grown bigger over the last decade than before. Personally, I think the idea is disgusting.[/QUOTE]

Please resist it- V-Day is a silly and disgusting holiday. Having a day that makes you think about the person you are with is one thing, but the commercialization and competition aroud the whole thing... yuck!

[QUOTE=C Elegans]Do you think women are more romantic than men? If so, I suspect you tend to select more traditional women in your social sphere.[/QUOTE] I am stereotyping, and doing so deliberately. That said, I think that I am pretty accurate in my asessment. Maybe I am just selecting traditional women in my social sphere, but I live in New York now, and V-Day here was a social event. Where you went to dinner, what your boyfriend did,... these were serious questions for many people. Granted, I am part of a younger crowd (early-mid 20's), but I don't think this alone explains it.

As far as romance is concerned, I don't think that women are more necessarily more romantic than men. In my experience they tend to be, but it is really an individual thing. However, V-Day puts the pressure on men to be romantic, every year on February 14th. It sets a standard that is really difficult to live up to, especially if romance is supposed to be spontaneous.

I think that DW said it best:

[QUOTE=dragon wench]There is such incredible emphasis in our society on an appointed day for flowers and "romance," yet so little attention is paid to all of those underlying things that truly count. *sigh*[/QUOTE]
Romance is supposed to be something organic. The emphasis today, at least in the US, is on flowers, dinner, wine, etc.- all things that supposed to indicate a deep, loving, meaningful relationship. Buying dinner doesn't make for romance. Furthermore, not buying dinner or getting flowers for a girlfriend that is expecting them can really be upsetting, and I don't think that would be the case if V-Day wasn't marketed so extensively. Once expectation is there, then there is room for dissappointment.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:35 pm

[QUOTE=thantor3]I tend to keep my obsessions and professional interests separate, though I wouldn't characterize them as pure necessarily.

Being deluded is not so bad, really. Fortunately, you are posting in a family-friendly thread. If you had stepped into one of Scayde's infamous bar threads, by now you would be denuded...

[/QUOTE]

How is it that so many threads about these days inevitably lead to nudity?

First a bunch of hooligans become fixated on Canadian nude beaches and now you are making suggestions about nudist bars...

Darth Zenemij · Post by **Darth Zenemij** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:49 pm

Beacuse Nudity is "In"

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:27 am

[QUOTE=dragon wench]How is it that so many threads about these days inevitably lead to nudity?

First a bunch of hooligans become fixated on Canadian nude beaches and now you are making suggestions about nudist bars...

[/QUOTE]

In a comprehensive analysis of SYM threads, only 11% mention nudity, nakedness, or the act of disrobing. However, 87% of threads that you participate in and 94% of threads Scayde participates in mention such things. Are we seeing a pattern here?

@Darth Zenemij: I fear for you. Please do not visit threads that feature barnyard animals.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 4:54 am

[QUOTE=thantor3]In a comprehensive analysis of SYM threads, only 11% mention nudity, nakedness, or the act of disrobing. However, 87% of threads that you participate in and 94% of threads Scayde participates in mention such things. Are we seeing a pattern here?

@Darth Zenemij: I fear for you. Please do not visit threads that feature barnyard animals.

[/QUOTE]

Oh, what a wonderful thing to wake up to. This pattern just made my day.

Cuchulain82 · Post by **Cuchulain82** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:37 am

[QUOTE=thantor3]In a comprehensive analysis of SYM threads, only 11% mention nudity, nakedness, or the act of disrobing. However, 87% of threads that you participate in and 94% of threads Scayde participates in mention such things. Are we seeing a pattern here?

[/QUOTE]
These statistics are very illuminating- in fact, my own independant analysis concludes that 86.4% of all GB statistics are made-up at the time of posting

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:16 am

[QUOTE=Cuchulain82]These statistics are very illuminating- in fact, my own independant analysis concludes that 86.4% of all GB statistics are made-up at the time of posting

[/QUOTE]

Oh, indeed. My friend and I only have 17% of the booze we started with left now, and most certainly got 43% drunker than previously expected this past week. There was 4% more nudity that I thought would occur, and 13% less spillage, excluding my brother shotgunning Labbatt cans in the garage. This ruins the spillage statistic, but may have something to do with the nudity statistic.

There is now 14% more odd smells next to me than before, so assuming that's the baby, and not me, I should change her.

Oh, and apparently my friends think I'm romantic for cooking them dinner all week and tucking them in. Go me.

Obsidian · Post by **Obsidian** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:03 am

So here's the question ladies, is it appreciated when your SO gets the door for you?

I may be old fashioned here, but I always unlock my girlfriends side of the car before my own, I just think it's the polite thing to do.

As for romance, I think it should be a combination of the spontaneous and the planned. But it should always be honest.

ie) My lady and I are both outdoorsy folk, so our first date was walking through a park, our first kiss under a crescent moon and clear sky. It just happend. Was it romantic? For my part I thought so. I appreciate romance more than her I think. I'm always chalk full of "romantic" lines and comments. Like I say though, they are spontaneous and honest.
This weekend, I'm picking her up for work, and she thinks we're going to a movie, when infact, I've got my expedition pack supplied with several blankets, nice chocolate and a thermos of coffee, and I'm going to set up a little shelter on a hillside overlooking the river. That's not spontaneous, but I'm trying to be romantic.

GFreeman · Post by **GFreeman** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:10 pm

I think suprises, flowers, etc are very underrated...its not the flowers themselves or whatever its that it shows someone was thinking about you enough to do all this for you..its like the idea that right now someone is sitting at their desk wondering what they can do you make you happy...pretty cool.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 1:25 am

Why not just whisk them away to a back room while they are at work? Worked for me and saves you money on killing plants.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 8:27 am

[QUOTE=Magrus]Why not just whisk them away to a back room while they are at work? [/QUOTE]

Bah, that must not work very well for people who are really fond of their jobs! I mean, I enjoy airplanes, a bench in a park, behind a shrub and all sorts of places...but if somebody jumped me at work, I would wrap him in a strait-jacket and push him into our radioactivity chamber!

Cuchulain82 · Post by **Cuchulain82** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 8:41 am

[QUOTE=C Elegans]Bah, that must not work very well for people who are really fond of their jobs! I mean, I enjoy airplanes, a bench in a park, behind a shrub and all sorts of places...but if somebody jumped me at work, I would wrap him in a strait-jacket and push him into our radioactivity chamber!

[/QUOTE]
Before or after the dirty deed was done...?

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 8:42 am

[QUOTE=C Elegans]Bah, that must not work very well for people who are really fond of their jobs! I mean, I enjoy airplanes, a bench in a park, behind a shrub and all sorts of places...but if somebody jumped me at work, I would wrap him in a strait-jacket and push him into our radioactivity chamber!

[/QUOTE]

Bookstores are fun to play in.

She got hired to write a program to make the store more efficient and implement and upkeep all the improvements. So she gets sent into the basement for organizing all the backstock often. It's cozy and discreet.

jopperm2 · Post by **jopperm2** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:24 pm

[QUOTE=Cuchulain82]Before or after the dirty deed was done...?

[/QUOTE]
During, that's how she likes to get the job done.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:28 pm

[QUOTE=jopperm2]During, that's how she likes to get the job done.

[/QUOTE]

Only in your dreams, only in your dreams.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:55 pm

[QUOTE=GFreeman]I think suprises, flowers, etc are very underrated...its not the flowers themselves or whatever its that it shows someone was thinking about you enough to do all this for you..its like the idea that right now someone is sitting at their desk wondering what they can do you make you happy...pretty cool.[/QUOTE]

Couldn't put it better. 10 out of 10.