Displays of Affection

After reading my last post and some of the comments generated, I realized that my heart must come off as a bitter, jaded, dried up old piece of shoe leather, which isn't the case.  I have a lot of love for the people in my life, giving just as much to a stranger I just met to someone I have known my whole life.  Since I was 21, I was always in a relationship, most lasting 3 or 4 years.  I always identified myself as a relationship person because I can be selfless when I am with someone, always thinking of them.  It's only been in the last couple of years that I have been able to learn how to be by myself and to love myself, somewhat.  So, as a testament to my ability to love and be loved, I thought I would share a few stories of love shared in some of my past relationships.

When dating my girlfriend in high school, for Christmas, I wanted to give her a ring, so I bought a box of Cracker Jacks, steamed it open, removed the prize and placed the ring in the packet and sealed it up and gave it to her.  She was quite surprised to receive a box of cracker jacks, and I just sat there quietly as she ate down to the prize... the look on her face when she opened it was as priceless as it was dumbfounded.

I was working for SAP back in the late 90's and had to go away to Paris for a business trip.  I was living in Philadelphia at the time and my boyfriend, John, lived in Pittsburgh.  I went on my trip and was gone 4 days... after a long flight back, I was coming down the escalator to get my luggage and, standing at the bottom, was John, open-armed with a dozen white roses.  He flew to Philadelphia to greet me as I came off the plane... one of the most romantic things anyone has ever done for me.  I was awestruck.

My boyfriend, Brian, and I lived together and he was working a lot.  I decided to surprise him one Valentine's day by coming up with a theme.  I had all the lights out and I took tea lights and made a runway down the long hallway to our bedroom leading to the bed where I was perched in nothing but my old Air Force hat on my head, surrounded by white rose petals.  Unfortunately, he switched the light on, asked why I was being so ridiculous and what was for dinner. 

I was dating this guy that I was head-over-heels for and he was leaving to go to see his parents in Atlantic City for a few days, so we had lunch at a cafe in downtown Philly and I walked him to the train and kissed him goodbye.  I then ran to my truck, sped out of the city and headed towards Lindenwold, NJ where I knew that he had to change trains at a certain point.  With a toll bridge, traffic and various side streets in my way, I barely made it in time for his train to pull in, where I met him on the platform to give another kiss.  Needless to say, he was surprised.

When I was dating Jesse, we went on a trip to Myrtle Beach to see my friend Brad.  We were trying to get through some of our issues and had a great car ride down to talk.  I purchased this book called "All About Us", where it asks you certain questions like 'what was the first thing you thought of when you saw your partner for the first time?' and the like.  Those were the best couple of hours I ever spent, getting to know him more.  When we got to the beach, we were at an outlet mall and with one of the issues he was working through being his fear of people abandoning him, I wanted to get him a ring to show my commitment.  So I left the store where he and Brad were shopping, ran to the jewelry store we were just in where he tried a ring on that he liked and I purchased it... and snuck back before they knew I was gone.  Later that night, we were staying by ourselves on Brad's parent's boat docked at the marina outside of their condo, laying in bed... and I placed it on his hand.  He started crying.  This song was playing, totally by accident, but perfect for the occasion.  We were always better when we were by ourselves.