Posted on 02/12/2005 7:00:08 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick
By DAMIEN CAVE
IET GAUCHAT arrived at his new girlfriend's apartment on Valentine's Day a few years ago with box of chocolate candy and a card. Their first date had occurred only a few weeks earlier, and since he had just ended a serious relationship, Mr. Gauchat approached the holiday warily.
He figured candy was safe - a step up from the clip-on teddy bear he'd given to someone a few years back, yielding the complaint that he was "an emotional park bench." The idea was simply to keep the relationship in play, without moving it forward.
"I gave her mine first, feeling a bit sheepish," Mr. Gauchat, a 31-year-old software entrepreneur from Hoboken, recalled. "She then proceeded to pull out this nicely wrapped box, which had a blue cashmere sweater in it."
The clearly uneven rate of exchange, he said, "was an unmitigated disaster complete with tears, followed by breakup and nasty e-mails referring to my inability to 'validate her emotional needs.' "
There are probably no couples who consistently sail through Valentine's Day, each miraculously meeting and exceeding the other's expectations, neither one feeling put out or shortchanged.
But for those in the first flush of love or lust, the day casts a particularly long and ominous shadow, forcing couples to gamble on a relationship that has barely begun. Do too much, and you scare the other person away; too little and your date may be disappointed. Most people would prefer to just shut their eyes and hope it goes away, but of course it never does.
Steve Koppes, 47, a publicist and children's book author in Chicago, was so afraid of the Valentine's Day hex that he almost stopped dating altogether. Though he had spent most of 2004 alone and mildly miserable, he had a hard time facing the prospect of colossal, public romantic failure.
"I'd just rather not deal with it," he said.
Nevertheless, there is now a woman in the picture and Mr. Koppes - still unsure of what he will do - sees Valentine's Day bearing down on him like a freight train.
"You never really know what you're going to get or what's going to happen," Mr. Koppes said last week. "People get dismissed in the dating pool for the slightest provocation so if you don't hit just the right tone, you're out."
Trying to anticipate the romantic expectations of someone you don't know that well may in fact be impossible, said Barbara DeAngelis, author of "What Women Want Men to Know" (Hyperion, 2001). "People don't realize until it's too late that each of us has a secret relationship rule book based on a combination of expectation, fantasies or even television," she said. "We come into a relationship not even realizing we have it, but we enforce it immediately."
The misunderstandings, the tears, the breakups, usually revolve around a single question. Is Valentine's Day important?
For some - mostly men - the answer is a definitive no. They tend to see Feb. 14 as "a day on the calendar that vendors promote to get into their wallet," said Michael Webb, author of "The RoMANtic's Guide: Hundreds of Creative Tips for a Lifetime of Love" (Hyperion, 2000).
Others, he said - often women - "believe that what happens on Feb. 14 will be an indication of how the rest of their relationship will play out for eternity."
For the faint of heart, there's always leaving town. Mr. Gauchat's current girlfriend saw potential trouble coming and made plans to visit her family in Oregon over their first Valentine's Day together. They've been together ever since.
And of course it helps to have advance intelligence. Lucy Fowler, 29, a lawyer in Boston, said she pulled off a Valentine's Day coup a few years ago thanks to a friend who tipped her off that a new beau would be sending a dozen purple tulips. She liked him, but their first date had been only 10 days earlier; she hadn't gotten him anything because she didn't want to seem pushy or clingy.
"I freaked out because I realized that I would have to reciprocate without making it look like I was doing so only because I found out about the tulips," she said. "I wanted things not to be awkward."
So, like a prosecutor faced with a surprise witness, she put in a call to Zingerman's, a specialty food store in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the beau had attended law school. After hearing about her predicament, the saleswoman agreed to send him an e-mail message claiming that the gift was arriving late because of a software glitch.
"He loved it," Ms. Fowler said. Eventually the pair broke up, but amicably. "And to this day," she said, "he does not know that he received bread only in response to the tulips."
She's already built a palace of assumptions based on one phone and was manipulating him him into giving her something she wants.
Ah yes, a wise man never allows himself to let a shrew manipulate him. And a wise woman, never tries.
Just OK.
Thank God for clocks if I needed to rely on women would never know the time of day.</kidding around>
Bumpy.
True. However, in many cases this wisdom is gleaned from the harshest of experiences.
Right now all I want to do is kill and skin a Vermont teddy bear, I am sick of their commericals.
Yeah, isn't it the sad truth!
Think of it this way, the worst that can happen is she won't be interested (which would mean she's not the right one for you anyway). But if not... ;-)
I will pray for you!
Valentine's Day IS contrived and has never been a big deal to me. But in grade school, I used to love to count all the valentines I received. THAT was FUN!~
You got mail. (Didn't want to hijack the thread). :-)
Re: Valentine's Day
I'm off the hook this year. Shortly after new years, girlfriend and I stopped seeing each other.
Time to start dating again. Next meaningless holiday is Sweetest Day. I better start thinking about it now or it'll be cash in a card again :P
This country is filled with fools who are obsessed with "love" and "wealth", without knowing the meaning of either.
More Slimes inanity... I got a box of Godiva chocolate and stuffed Moose :o)
Think that's bad? When I was a cop in Dallas, the southeast precinct flooded after a major rain and was inaccessible, so I partnered with a chick, er, policewoman from the central division. After a few hours the waters receded and I wanted to get my own car. She asked me if I was dumping her!
It's a Valentine's Day article in the NYT magazine about a straight couple! Small favors, small favors.
My song "The Valentine Gifts I've Gotten From You" can give men a hint about what they can do for the woman they love.
Here's the addy if you want a free download.
http://music.download.com/gloriajane
Happy Valentines Day!!
A lot of people have "silent expectations" and then get hurt or mad when they don't happen. Bad communication.
I'm just happy if I, and the day are remembered. It doesn't matter how.
However, it is better to learn than to remain naive. Saves money and time, both of which are finite.
Does he have a "flat spot" on his head? ----- Kabong!
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