Good afternoon and happy two-days-after-Valentine’s-Day!
How are your flowers holding up? Mine are doing splendidly.
Allow me to introduce them properly.
This Saturday was Valentine’s Day. I shall be a normal girl for a second and say Valentine’s Day is amazing when you have a Valentine. Who was mine? Well, my husband of course.
In the morning, Adam and I were getting ready to head off to church (Saint Innocent’s Orthodox Church) for the Saturday of Soul’s Liturgy, in which we pray for loved ones who have died. Adam zipped up his coat, 30 minutes early, and said “I have an errand to run.” Or something like that. I gave him a look, and he departed. He returned in 10 minutes with the absolute most lovely arrangement of flowers. Peach, pink, orange, white, and green. Roses, daisies, baby’s breath, and lamb’s ear. Oh how I nearly died over the lamb’s ear. My husband knows his stuff.
We went to Liturgy, which was beautiful and haunting and quite an interesting juxtaposition to the day. Valentine’s Day is a man-made day to celebrate the love and pretty things of life. But what’s even more important is that we remember death and that Christ came to destroy death! That is more beautiful than anything in this world. Glory to God–Adam and I are married and that extends beyond death. If we keep God at the center of our lives, we will have each other for all of eternity.
After Liturgy, we got bagels from the best bagel-spot in Bellingham (the appropriately named “The Bagelry“), lattes, and headed back to our studio. There, Adam presented me with THE MOST exquisite heart-shaped box of luscious chocolates, and *drumroll please* humpback whale paintings, made by an incredibly talented young man from our church. Clever Adam said “I may not be able to make you art, but I can commission other people to do it for me.” Hehehe, silly rabbit!
Enjoy this eye candy. I can’t wait to find the right frames for these fellows.
Many people, though not everyone, know that I have a strange attachment to humpback whales. It began from watching National Geographic, and it was a completely solidified obsession after I went to Southeast Alaska with my grandmother for my 18th birthday and we went whale watching in Juneau. In college, I got a tattoo of a humpback on my forearm (see photo in my “About” page). And last Valentine’s Day, Adam took me to a restaurant in Anchorage called “Ginger”, where I was totally shocked to find a rather large origami whale sitting on our table when we arrived. Adam had written it under “special requests” when he made the reservation, and lo and behold. the entire Ginger wait-staff ended up competing to see who could make the best origami whale for me. My goodness! What a guy that Adam is.
I gave my sweetie a few odds and ends of things. A couple Marvel comics (one old, one new), a bouquet of Cow Tales (his favorite old-timey candy), a card from the cat (along with real-Juvenaly paw prints and a photo of him I took with my awesome Fujifilm Instax camera), and a wood plaque with one of our wedding photos and a silly little poem I wrote on the back.
I took this photo the day before with my iPhone, so it’s a little lame and blurry.
The silly poem:
After we ate our bagels and exchanged gifts, we made a mockery of poor, adorable little Juvenaly. We put the bow from my box of chocolates around him, in various positions, and took photos, of course.
Oh Juvenaly, why did you let us do this to you?
He’s such a trooper. And don’t worry, we gave him his own special Valentine’s Day treats too.
When our antics came to an end, my thoughtful husband (who knows how much I love going to new places) said “Where do you want to go today? Let’s go someplace we’ve never been before.” Woohoo! So we went to Anacortes, which is going to get it’s own blog post, filled with odd photos. Stay tuned!
And to end the sweetest of Valentine’s Days, we had dinner in Bellingham at a quite-fancy Italian restaurant. Which, in itself, was a new adventure because Adam and I have NEVER gone to an Italian restaurant together. We’re Indian food, sushi, and food trucks kind of people.
But it was magical.
See you next time with a menagerie of strange people-murals and other things of Anacortes!
My Husband, the Cross-Eyed Cat, & Me. 