How did your Valentine's go?

Last Friday night Mitch and I had a dinner date at Chili's Greenbelt 5 after our meeting with some friends. It's not technically a Valentine's date. We just had to eat and had the mood for a good talk and good food. But with the bill and the entire wait, we felt that it was good enough for a Valentine's date already.

Yesterday, Mitch and I did some precautionary measures at home. I wanted to squeeze out whatever romantic juice that's left on me, therefore I volunteered to cook our dinner. Well, let me rephrase. I shopped. I enjoyed shopping at the newly opened Robinson's Supermarket, which (for me) is way better that SM Hypermarket, because I found everything that I needed there. The stocks are obviously fresh. There are lots of people to assist you and the mood is not rushed. It's chill shopping. Although due to its location and circumstance, the crowd is only minimal, which is exactly the thing that I like and which is exactly the reason why establishments close up. I hope not. The grocery is perfect already. It just needs a little support group of other stores to cheer it up otherwise people would still go to bigger malls where they can find an excuse and the need to just do about everything.

So after I enjoyed my shopping moment, my heart instantly plummeted after I found out about my bill. Goodbye, credit card payment. I hurried home, gave the rest of my cash to my mom for safekeeping and called on my sister to cook. Don't get me wrong. I do cook, but if the mood really calls for it. I mostly create sandwiches, desserts and traditional red sauce pasta only if there's an intense mood and there's an occasion. My sister, out of her stronger interest and habit to watch the Barefoot Contessa, know more pasta recipes than we could imagine. Never thought eggs will be an essential ingredient in a pasta dish, but she did it. She likes to experiment and cooks spontaneously.

After fooling around with JD while Karla cooked, I went off to make my Fruit Salad cake. I intended to use Mangoes, but I just couldn't find riper ones at the market so I ended up using a canned Fruit Cocktail. Good thing it came out edible.

Thanks to my parents for letting us use the house as our "date" scene no matter how cheesy it sounds. I prepared the food, got some candles and asked JD to light it. If not for my siblings, I wouldn't have gone through this date. That's why when Mitch was astonished to see the blue lights, dishes and the end product, I reminded him to thank my siblings for it because they did most of the work. What I did was to finance and get the dessert, but labor rests with them.

Aww....

Eeew....sweetness stops now.

We may be in a recession and people have been whacked to be more practical and realistic, but Valentine's offer a discreet way to be sweet without the fanciness and outlandish tradition. This time, it's the thought that really counts.

Long-stemmed roses are being replaced by homemade cards. Theater tickets are being replaced by Netflix. Personal jewelry is beingreplaced by personal poems.

And even some preparing to propose on Saturday are seeking a bargain approach: on Yahoo, searches for “cheap engagement rings” are “off the charts” compared with a year ago, according to Vera Chan, a trend analyst for the company. Other searches that are up over last year include “cheap lingerie,” “free Valentine’s Day cards” and “homemade Valentine’s Day gifts.”(nytimes.com)