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Valentine’s Day was amazing, and Mauro’s wishes of me not hating the actual holiday came true. It started off wednesday evening, when my Doorman told me I had a delivery of long stem roses from my father. As my mom says: “A girls first true love will always be her daddy”. He also sent them to my two little sisters (ages 5, and 8) which I thought was very sweet.Then thursday had arrived, thankfully I woke up in a good mood, wished Mauro a “Happy Valentine’s Day” and we arranged to meet at 2 after I was done with my marketing classes. In between those classes I had three stops: Godiva, Crumbs, Starbucks and Duane Reade (where I met about 12 business men all indecisive on what cards to get their girlfriend/wife/daughters). The isle was packed and by the time I actually got to see the cards, of course the only one left was about a monkey and a banana No thank you!
I then headed to Godiva where there was about 40 people in line, so I rationally decided that a box of chocolates from the pharmacy was my only option. So I rushed back to Duane reade, picked up a box of chocolates, grabbed some cupcakes from crumbs, a Starbucks gift card, and my favorite drink, all within 30 minutes.
Finally after my last class, I walked outside to see Mauro. He had my three favorite things: Starbucks, macaroons from Laduree and red roses. We then walked over to times square, to check out the “Aruba pop up beach”.
Mauro was skeptical that we should go, after seeing the mayhem driving into Manhattan. I was persistent that we should go, with the excuse that I wanted to blog about it! Finally we turn up and see the crowds. There were film crews doing interviews, rep stands, and a Dunkin Donuts stand handing out free “heart creme” donuts, and hot chocolate. Oh and then there was a tiny (semi-heated) beach with chairs, a tree and photographers, once again with a huge line that seemed to take forever.
Although almost loosing my patience multiple times, I kept calm and carried on..waiting in line. Finally we approach the “Aruba-i-do” reps, where we had to give our information, in order to “win a free trip”. As we were getting ready to take the picture, a camera man comes up to us and starts asking us questions about wanting to go to Aruba, and what I believed our chances of wining were. I said that we were highly confident that we would win, and Mauro agreed, laughing. Finally we took a picture, and were approached by an additional camera crew to do an interview on us both. Without consulting Mauro, I said yes and we had some great talks with everyone in preparation.
For example one employee asked us what our Valentine’s Day plans were and what we were doing. I explained that Mauro was surprising me with dinner, and then asked what she was doing. Expecting the average answers of: “celebrating single awareness day” or “seeing my boyfriend” she then said she was working, and that..she taught pole dancing classes at night! I was taken back, and held back laughing because of how flabbergasted I was.
She then explained that it’s a really good workout and that its called s-factor in Chelsea. Mauro and I held back laughing together, at what had just happened and then we progressed to get hooked up to monitors and microphones, so that they could hear us.
Between the time of set and up and the actual interview, there was about 15 minutes of Mauro and I going over what we would say. We were also talking about how nervous we each were, when the women that hooked us up to the devices, then said that she could hear everything that we were saying and “not to be nervous”.
Finally the interview started and while Mauro said I was a “natural” at answering questions, there were a few times where I thought: oh god, what did I just say! Like when the man interviewing us asked me where I wanted Mauro to take me on vacation, and instead of an obvious “I want to go to Aruba!” I answered: Paris and Barcelona. Everyone started laughing, and Mauro said he would absolutely take me to Pairs and Barcelona. The last question was why we loved each other, and my answer was (other than Mauro being gorgeous hehe) that I loved him because he has a heart of gold and is always there for me.
Finally we left, and I opened the door finding a trail of rose petals, leading to a little blue bag, with a white bow on a blue box.
I opened it to find a gorgeous (Tiffany, incase you didn’t follow my trail) diamond ring. It has three diamonds, which Mauro explained stands for: Past Present, Future, and I love you. My heart melted, along with my eyes once the ring didn’t fit me. So by this time it was about 6, Tiffany’s closed at 7, our reservation for Bar Italia on Madison Avenue was at 7.45 and I was in desperate need of a new ring (that fitted), and a manicure. So we rushed over to Tiffany’s, went straight to the third floor and relatively quickly swapped the ring. We then headed over to David Yurman, where Mauro showed me the alternative ring he was contemplating getting me, but I said the Tiffany one was much more “me”. All three diamonds of it.
On the walk home we also found a quick nail salon, so we popped in and got our nails done. I then decided that I was inevitably starving, haven not eaten all day, so we dashed over to Starbucks, shared a fruit cup, and a drink together.
Mauro kept joking about having drinks, so I then asked him if he wanted to grab a “nerds mojito” in Dylan’s Candy Bar. Of course he was all for it, so we walked right up to the second floor, to the bar and looked at the menu.
I told the bartender that I was looking for something with minimal calories, and he laughed at me saying that all of there drinks were loaded with calories and sugar. He then said he had skinny girl “organic” vodka, and my decision was made. Two shots, and a nerd mojito.
Mauro and I took the shots together, and then the manager decides to walk out and congratulate us on trying them. He then said the second round was on him for trying the drink, and dazzled Mauro asked why he was happy we tried them.
Thats when we learnt that we were the first people to taste the “organic vodka”, which literally tasted like water (quite dangerous if you ask me)! After Mauro paid, we headed to McDonald’s to get ice cream cones (with the exception that it was Valentines Day) and then started to walk back to my apartment.
Of course by the time we got to the apartment, it was evident that there was no way we were making our 7.45 reservation, so Mauro called and canceled and we mutually agreed to go to, our “go to place”-Serafina.
We were still quite hungry and tired after a long day, so we started off with drinks. Having drank so much at Dylan’s candy bar, I must have still been quite out of it given that instead of reaching for my drink and drinking it, I reached for the candle almost burning two of my fingers off.
Mauro luckily saved me by a quarter of an inch, and we then ordered: salad, pizza and calamari for appetizers, and pasta for dinner. Finally we left, feeling the size of two sumo wrestlers and if almost burning my two of my fingers off on Valentines Day wasn’t embarrassing enough, followed by dropping my fork eating spaghetti, I then walk into the subway turntable, forgetting that I had to swipe my metro card. Mauro then burst out laughing, and I validated my point that this is why I take taxis. Finally we both fell asleep, and I woke up thanking him for an unforgettable Valentines Day, and my beautiful ring.
