Guest Blogger Week: A love story
In my senior year at NC State (go wolfpack!), I had this friend who loved to do fun, unique things with big groups of people. She was an informal social director for a lot of different groups of friends on campus. She invited me out to her most popular event, kickball, one weekend. At the game I met my boyfriend—he was just as excited and dedicated to the game as I was and after the game, we talked about all sorts of things we had in common (love of NCSU Basketball and Arrested Development included). Fast forward a few weeks…….
…..much time had been spent on facebook and chatting on AIM. I started the new spring semester with butterflys in my stomach every day! We went on a few dates in between school assignments and projects. Suddenly, it’s almost the middle of February and a very red holiday is looming. I was really afraid to jump head first into a Relationship with a capital R so I was getting nervous. I didn’t want either of us to feel pressured to have to define “us” especially not with roses and teddy bears because I’m not that kind of girl. I wanted to exchange things that said “You’re Beary Beary Special to me” when we were ready to say it, not when the date said we had to. Why can’t we keep hanging out and having fun and ignore all the red and pink hearts! I normally love Valentine’s Day because I love the colors, decorations, and candy but this time, Saint Valentine was putting too much pressure on my awesome new sweet deal i had going with this guy.
On a whim, I did a google search of other events that happen on February 14th. Could we celebrate something else like some actor’s birthday or a pay day or anything? Lo and Behold, George Ferris saved the day: February 14 is also known as “Ferris Wheel Day” to commemorate the day when George Ferris presented the first ever Ferris Wheel. I immediately sent a note—guess what today is: Ferris Wheel Day, of course! What else could it possibly be?! He eagerly adopted my new holiday and we made each other Ferris Wheel Day cards since its not a holiday recognized by most Hallmarks (and I just love homemade cards—you can say exactly what you want. It’s something we still do today). We also went to this authentic mexican restaurant, my favorite kind of place, for Ferris Wheel Dinner. The restaurant was totally empty except for us, eating our barbacoa tacos and laughing at our new holiday. I still consider that night as one of my favorite, most perfect dates we’ve ever had. And we still continue to celebrate Ferris Wheel Day on February 14 (mexican food and all), which is now code for “I love you and I love that you’re willing to be just as silly as me.”
Written by Erin
