I’ve noticed a lot of guys in the past few days buying flowers, cards and gifts for their significant others. The other day I was buying tokens at Petro Canada and the guy in front of me was buying a Valentines Day card, and today I saw my coworker tiptoeing around with a bag from La Vie En Rose. Romance is definitely on everyone’s mind, but everyone has a different definition and approach when it comes to love.

Yesterday night, I went to an Anti-Valentines day party with Emily and Amy at 6 Degrees (this club at Eglinton and Yonge). Emily dared Amy and I to go up to one guy and start conversation. I instantly chickened out, not because everyone there was a lot older than us, or because I don’t know how to talk to guys, but because I’m old fashioned and I think it should be the guy who should approach the girl first.

Side note: Amy reminded me of the 5-second Stare last night, which I admittedly used to use on guys all the time. Basically, when a guy makes eye contact with you, you have to stare back for five seconds before looking away. This works like magic every time. Back in Jr. High, I had to go to summer school with my friends and there was one guy there from another school that I used to use the 5-second stare at (don’t ask why, I guess my 13 year old self was just a lot more daring). Eventually, it got to the point where every time we made eye contact we’d just grin at each other and he ended up having the biggest crush on me. But, as a characteristic of all Korean dramas, my friend had an even bigger crush on him so I gave up my 5-second game so she could have the guy. I am glad I stopped doing this.

Anyway, so I was following Emily and Amy around as they looked for guys to talk to, when all the sudden I hear someone from behind me saying “Excuse me, excuse me!”

I turn around and see this guy coming up to me. He said, “Hi, what’s your name?”

I contemplated giving him my fake name, which I should confess now is Jessica (When I’m at work and customers ask for my name I always tell them it’s Jessica. Dude, I don’t want them to know my real name). But then I stupidly gave this guy my real name, as I watched Amy and Emily give me questioning looks in the corner of my eye.

So this guy tells me his name, which I can’t remember but I think it starts with a B. Then he says, and guys, I’m sorry if this part makes you gag, “I think you’re really beautiful.”

CHEESE BALL ALERT. At this point, as he then started to babble about where he works and his age (I swear he said 37, but Amy heard 27 and he looks 25) I was just thinking of how to get rid of this guy.

Then he was like, “So why are you here?”

I answer truthfully, “Because my friends wanted to come.” Pause, and here I saw my chance of escape, “Do you want to meet them?”

Yeah, my plan of ditching this guy was to dump him on my friends. I’m smooth like that.

Ok, so, this guy was somewhat creepy and right away he did something sleazy by saying “you’re beautiful,” and some people do the 5-second look. Question is, what is the appropriate way of approaching someone without coming off as desperate and freaking out the person you’re talking to?

According to Emily, it has to be spontaneous, like running into someone down the street and casually just saying ‘Hi,’ and from there, maybe go out for coffee or something. Or maybe it can be a missed connection, where you’d see each other once and have such a deep impression of that person that the next time you run into them by accident again you ask them out. Some people just ask people out on dates right away after meeting them without getting to know the person first, which is not a good idea because the person you’re asking out won’t feel like he/she is anymore special to you than the person standing next to them.

I’ve actually given up this notion of accidentally running into someone and falling in love at first sight long ago. For me, it’s better if we’re just friends and then one day realize that maybe there’s something more to it. This method takes a lot longer since the friendship part can feel like forever, but I’m willing to wait.

Back to B. I’m not giving B enough credit because he is nice, just lonely and desperately wants a Valentine this year, plus he’s in Toronto by himself without family. (B is from India, he reminds me of Raj from BBT because he brought it up.) But even nice guys can come off as creepy when they don’t think before they talk.

So that was my adventure for the night. It was interesting. Valentines day is really that bad of a holiday; it’s a good way to express your love to the people in your life.

And different topic:

I was having brunch with my mom this morning, we skipped church because I had a headache from last night’s mishaps, and I suppose she just didn’t feel like going. I was reading the Sunday cartoons and there was a one-page advertisement for a writing contest. I immediately got inspired and exclaimed loudly: “I will enter this!”

My mom looks over at me and says, “Huh, you can’t even write.”

Gee, thanks for paying attention to what I do at school mom.

We’ll see what happens.

(Btw this post took me forever to write, I started this morning and only finished now. Don't know why, it takes me a lot faster to rant about Shakky than love. I didn't even want to post this, ah well! Oh and Lady Gaga ftw.)