I will not go into how much I love Valentine's Day, since I stated that in the previous post, but for those who missed it, I REALLY love Valentine's Day. To Summarize: I am a hopeless romantic. In New York, I have noticed females are not so keen on guys being super romantic with them (and that sucks). Valentine's day is the ONE day where I can be myself and do sweet things and it is ok. Now on to the blog!
[And a super deluxe picture of us is at the end of the blog, so do not miss that!]
This was one of the three best Valentine's Days I have ever had. EVER! My top three in no particular order are this year, last year, and Melissa Stanley's year. I can not find a way to comparatively quantify which would be tops overall, they were all special. What made this year so special?
I woke up nervous on Tuesday. I believe part of what makes me so good as a comic is that I do not get nervous before shows. However, I awoke on Tuesday and butterflies were rampant. I did a lot of praying throughout the day. It wasn't just my show that night that had me nervous, I also had nerves from the pressure I had put on myself to give my Valentine the BEST Valentine's Day ever. I felt really honored to be Natalie's Valentine. I know that may sound stupid to use the word "honored" when describing a Valentine, but it is how I felt.
I had spent most of the day Monday shopping for Tuesday to make sure everything would be perfect. My goal for the Tuesday was perfection. Anything less would NOT be good enough. To me, my mission was accomplished. But do not let me jump ahead of myself.
I awoke nervous (as stated earlier), but knew the best way to calm my nerves was to practice my set. Even though I had already practiced it, and practiced it, and practiced it, and practiced it; practice would make me less stressed. And the more I practiced, the more the nerves disappeared. But, there were still nervous energy that could not be conquered. The only way to quell these nerves would be to cook.
A little known fact about me is that I love to cook. Also, not something I share a lot: I'm a REALLY good cook. It's a talent. What had brought about my nerves for the meal is that Natalie is a vegetarian. I have never cooked a vegetarian meal. Sure, if I did something simple, I couldn't really mess it up, but Natalie deserves better than "simple". Girls going out with me do not get "good enough", they get the best. When Nata-hottie was guessing what I fixed her for our dinner, she guessed "Steamed Vegetables". And I know that had I fixed steamed vegetables with rice, she would have been happy. And that would have been a fine meal, but for Valentine's she deserved better than that. Fine isn't good enough. It had to be perfect.
Although I haven't fixed a vegetarian meal before, I knew that if I trusted my instincts I could make a great meal.After listening to suggestions from my friend's fiance, I prepared spaghetti squash mixed with parsley and kale as the side dish. For the main course I prepared Eggplant Parmesan. I learned something that day. I am a GREAT vegetarian cook. I think I will cook more vegetarian meals in the future. (Sidenote: I have eaten nothing but vegetarian meals all week, and this will continue until Saturday (and have lost another 2 lbs to get down to 178.5)) I got everything ready and placed it in the fridge.
I left to head to the club. I was hosting a Valentine's Comedy Show at Broadway Comedy Club in NYC, and I wanted to get there early. Natalie shows up before the show and she looked amazing. The room darkens and I go on stage. Natalie was seated on the front row. This was NOT what I was hoping for. It actually made me a little nervous. And by "little" I mean "Grand Canyon sized". I did my opening six and it seemed to go really well. People still love my "Dinosaur Arms" joke. As the night wore own, my nerves dissipated. I got stronger and stronger and by the end of the show was rocking out. The best part is, none of my friends could tell I was nervous. If they couldn't tell, then I know the crowd couldn't. WIN!
Natalie and I leave to go back to my place. We get home and I give her the gifts that I had gotten for her. I gave her a trophy (for being my hot trophy Valentine), a multi-pack of PopRocks (because she rocks), a home made card (because I feel those are more personal than store bought), and I showed her where I made a special picture for her on my Digital Picture Frame. I place our dinner in the oven. Fifteen minutes later I am serving Natalie her favorite food. I gave props to God for me guessing what to fix, and getting it correct. She could not believe I fixed it, and to be honest, I couldn't either. With dinner we had my favorite wine. I do not think it would be in her top 3, but she enjoyed it as well. It was a wonderful dinner. I mean, any dinner where one has to ice their nipples is a good dinner, right? WHAT!?! Exactly. (Just seeing if you were paying attention)
After dinner we started watching Bridesmaids. It was the perfect movie because we had said ages ago that we would watch it together, and just never had time. Valentine's was the night we finally had time. Hooray. I won't go into any more details about what happened post movie starting, but you can probably guess what happened. Without being gratuitous with the details, I think it would suffice to say we had some really hard core, engaging... conversation. I love that Natalie is beautiful, but I love even more that she is beautiful and can carry a good conversation. We talked a lot that night, and I am so glad we had several hours to talk.
By the time our eyes could not fight off sleep any longer, she had said it was her best Valentine's Day ever, and I had claimed it to be "Perfect!" My perfect may have came out as purrrfeck because I was sleepy, but she knew what I meant.
I would like to thank Natalie for being such an awesome friend and for being my Valentine this year. I feel really special, and really blessed to be able to bestow that title upon her. What could have ended up being a very sad, very bad, very lonely and depressing day for me, was a perfect day that I will remember forever. She eliminated my depression and got me out of my funk. I do not believe I would have kicked so much ass at comedy that night if it wasn't for her.
Here is a picture of us SUPER TIRED, but still willing to mug for the camera. You're welcome America (and parts of Europe)!
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