a list of songs, photos, videos for the 365 project.

for my photo project. posted here for posterity and perhaps the enjoyment of the three people still checking this site. more background on what’s going on here.

Day 1: Queens of the Stone Age – I Think I Lost My Headache
See live performance of song here

Day 2: White Stripes – Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground
listen here

Day 3: Supersuckers, Some Day I Will Kill You
You can listen to a sample here. If you want to hear the whole thing, email me. Great band.

Day 4:LL Cool J, Mama Said Knock You Out
Video here.

Day 5: Atmosphere, Shoes (my favorite picture of the project so far)
Listen here. Really good album.

Day 6: Radiohead, Lucky
Video (live)

Day 7: Our Lady Peace, Superman’s Dead
Video here

Day 8: Nick Cave, There She Goes My Beautiful World
Live video (excellent performance, per usual)

Day 9: Queens of the Stone Age, In My Head (one of my favorite songs from my favorite band)
Video here

Day 10: Faith No More, Helpless (my second favorite band!)
Video here (it’s one of those homemade videos, but you get to hear the song)

Day 11: Descendents, I Like Food
Listen here, with funny video. 15 second song!

Day 12: Pogues, Fairytale of New York
Video

Day 13: Butthole Surfers, Whatever, I Had a Dream (one of my most listened to songs ever)
Another one of those homemade videos

Day 14: Bouncing Souls, Bullying the Jukebox
A really stupid homemade video for a good song.

Day 15: Accept, Balls to the Wall
Video (man, this brings back memories)

Day 16: Fugazi, Promises. Such an awesome song.
Live video

Day 17: Mr. Bungle, Retrovertigo
Live video

Day 18: Muse, Feeling Good
Really cool video. Great song.

Day 19: Anti-Flag, She’s My Little Go Go Dancer
Listen here

Day 20: Fran Zappa, Joe’s Garage. Love this song!
Live video

Day 21: Deftones, Lucky You
Another crappy homemade vid

Well, folks, it looks like my trouble with numbers will be my downfall yet again. This should have been day 22. But I called it Day 23. So my 100th day was actually my 99th day and….crap. I am NOT going back and numbering them all again. I’ll just tack an extra photo on at 365 and call it even.

Day 23: Stormtroopers of Death, Milk. I love singing this song. And it’s got such a cool bass line.
Live video

Day 24: Far, Mother Mary. My 2nd favorite photo of the set, and one in which the song really fit perfectly.
Video (the actual band’s video!).

Day 25: MDC, I Hate Work. Awesome punk band from California via Texas. REAL punk.
Live video

Day 26: Mad Season, River of Deceit. I loved this band, which featured members of Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees. Depressing song, which I used in a tongue in cheek way on this photo.
Video

Day 27: Guns n Roses, Night Train. There’s a neat story behind this one.
Video

Day 28: Reverend Horton Heat, Martini Time
Video

Day 29: The Cramps, Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon. What a fun band.
Fun video

Day 30: Black Flag, Jealous Again. Maybe my third favorite band. Maybe.
Live video from 1984. Those were the days.

Day 31: Drowning Pool, Break You
listen here

Day 32: Hum, Stars. One of my favorite songs.
Video

Day 33: Aztec Camera, Soul’s Migration. I still have this photo as my background at work. It’s..peaceful.
I can’t find anywhere you can hear this song. Email me if you want to.

Day 34: Master P, Converse B ball. The first appearance of our dog in 365!
Can’t find this one either, but I have it.

Day 35: Nirvana, Pennyroyal Tea. Well, this could be my 3rd favorite band. I didn’t really come to appreciate Nirvana until recently.
Live, unplugged. I love that album so much.

Day 36: Pink Floyd, Learning To Fly. Pink Floyd purists hate this album, but I love it, especially this song.
Video

Day 37: Queens of the Stone Age, Lost Art of Keeping A Secret
Video. Go ahead and watch it. Such a great song.

Day 38: Animaniacs, I’m Cute. Hey, it fit.
Watch Dot be adorable

Day 39: U2, Trip Through Your Wires. One of their only songs I can still tolerate (excluding the Boy album).
Video

Day 40: Ben Folds Five, Mess. Mess of notes on this photo.
Listen

Day 41: Misfits, Teenagers From Mars. I used to adore this band and I just can’t listen to them anymore. Still love me some Danzig, though.
Video

Day 42: Made For TV, I’m Afraid of the Russians. 80’s cold war music at its best.
Unfortunately, not to be found online.

Day 43: Social Distortion, Mommy’s Little Monster. With a story about the adoption of my nephew.
Video

Day 44: System of a Down, Patterns
Listen

Day 45: Everclear, Nervous and Weird. One of only two songs I like by this band.
Can’t find this online.

Day 46: Cheap Trick, Surrender. With tacky KISS Christmas ornament.
Video. Brings me back.

Day 47: Fall Out Boy, Sugar We’re Going Down. The most infectious songs on my iPod.
Video. Sort of. It’s a video of someone intentionally misinterpreting the lyrics. I laughed.

Day 48: Glassjaw, Pretty Lush. Long Island screamo band. Hey, I don’t make these labels up. I just listen.
Video

Day 49: Captain Sensible, One Christmas Catalog Too Many. Love the captain. And this is my favorite color photo of the bunch.

Day 50: Machine Head, Take My Scars. A band I reserve for my “I need to kick something” days.
Video

Day 51: Mojo Nixon, Elvis is Everywhere. Elvislution, baby.
Video

Day 52: Strawberry Alarm Clock, Incense and Peppermint. Far out, man.
Listen.

Day 53: Type O Negative, Black No. 1. I do have some metal goth chick in me. It only comes out at night.
Video

Day 54: Perry Como, The Christmas Song.
I’m quite sure you know this.

Day 55: AFI, A Winter’s Tale. I used to love this band before they went all Hot Topic on me. I would love to retake this photo. Good idea, not executed well.
Listen

Day 56: Vandals, Soup of the Day. Fun punk band.
Can’t find online.

Day 57: Queens of the Stone Age, Sick, Sick, Sick. Mmmmm…Pepto soup!
Cool video.

Day 58: NoMeansNo, Cats, Sex, Nazis. No, wait, THIS is my third favorite band!
Unfortunately, there’s no video for this song. Instead I will link you to an incredible, amazing, powerful live performance of their song The River.

Day 59: Supersuckers, Fisticuffs. Could THIS be my third favorite band? Heh.
Crappy quality live video

Day 60: Del the Funky Homosapien, Proto Culture. Del rules.
live video

Day 61: Death Cab For Cutie, The New Year. My daughter got me into this band.
Video

Day 62: Donny Osmond, Puppy Love. It was the obvious choice.
Video, 1972. My god. The memories of being in love with him. Man, I’m old.

Day 63: Soundgarden, Blow Up The Outside World. Before Chris Cornell turned into a girl. He was only half girl here. He was all man on Badmotorfinger.

Day 64: Smashing Pumpkins, Blank Page. The midst of my muse crisis.
I’m linking to this instead of the song because it never fails to crack me up.

Day 65: GBH, Midnight Madness and Beyond. The best punk band you never listened to.
Can’t find it, so here’s a live version of City Baby Attacked By Rats

Day 66: Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy, Kiss Me. In which I get my 80’s new wave on.
Listen. Hold on while I dance for a little while.

Day 67: Fear, New York’s Alright. Here’s a story by Todd about a Fear show that turned into a riot.

Day 68: Queens of the Stone Age, Quick and to the Pointless. Yes, another QOTSA song.
Video.

Day 69: Queens of the Stone Age: Auto Pilot. Umm..yea. I get on kicks sometimes.
Video. In my top five favorite of theirs.

Day 70: Wu Tang Clan, C.R.E.A.M. Dolla dolla bill, y’all. One of the finest albums ever recorded.
Video

Day 71: Adam Ant, Yin + Yang. I really reached for this one.
No video, so here’s his best song.

Day 72: The Cure, A Forest. Guess I was in “Band from my wild years” mode.
Video

Day 73: Suicidal Tendencies, Go Skate. I really love this picture. And I love skate punk.
A video of a video

Day 74: Youth Brigade, Sink With California. More skate punk. Complete with California shaped birthday cake.
Video

Day 75: Atmosphere, Trying To Find A Balance. Go see out the album Seven’s Travels right now. Complete awesomeness.
Video. Give it a listen. Great lyrics, great beats.

Day 76: Phantom Planet, California. You probably know this song from it being the them to The OC. So I’m going to link to another song by them that rocks. And there’s zombies in the video!
Watch

Ok, here’s where we get lost. This is when I went to California. I still haven’t gone back and posted a photo from each day there. Guess I should do that. So don’t mind the missing days.

Day 78: Descendents, Weinerschnitzel. Mmmm…chili dogs.
Video. The song is about 11 seconds long.

Day 79: Frank Zappa, Who Needs the Peace Corps. Tales of Haight Ashbury and the broken dreams of my childhood.
Can’t find it, so here’s a clip of Zappa on Letterman.

Day 81: The Who, Tattoo. Oh yea. Five hours watching someone get a tattoo. Actually, it was more interesting than it sounds.
Video

Day 82: The Vandals, Rico. The best song about California ever written. With my love letter to Sacramento.
Sadly, I can’t find this online. Email if you want to hear it. But here’s another Vandals song for you, The Legend of Pat Brown.

Days 83 and 84 will have to be thrown in at the end.

Day 85: Faith No More, Last Cup of Sorrow
Neat video, with Jennifer Jason Leigh

Day 86: The Von Bondies, Broken Man. The best rock and roll band you are not listening to. Did I say that already?
Crap quality live video

Day 87: 50 Cent, Candy Shop. Sometimes listening to his stuff gives me the creeps.
Video

Day 88: Meat Puppets, Fruit.
No Fruit video, but here they are doing Oh, Me, which Nirvana covered beautifully.

Day 89: Blind Melon, Three Is A Magic Number (Schoolhouse Rock). I heard Blind Melon is touring. I hate when bands replace singers. I mean yea, he’s dead. But change the band name and move on. Replacing singers never turns out well. Except when Faith No More did it.
Video

Day 90: Tom Chapin, Happy Birthday. Kids music that adults find more than tolerable.
No birthday video, but here’s a cute song about the states.

Day 91: Indyanna, Go National. I wish this band got more recognition. Good stuff.
Here they are at Old Ironsides singing Stealing is Wrong.

Day 92: Dead Milkmen, I Hate Myself. In which I take a photo of a toilet bowl.
Struck out yet again on a video, but here’s the band doing Stuart.

Day 93: Quicksand, Thorn in My Side. In my top 20 of favorite songs ever.
Video. Get your anger on.

Day 94: Adolescents, Wrecking Crew. My favorite picture of Lili.
A bad sound recent performance of the song. Didn’t know they were still around til I saw a flyer for a show in Sacramento.

Day 95: Filter, One. Such a great cover. And I still haven’t found my ring.
Video

Day 96: Swingin Utters, Five Lessons Learned. I’ll be using more from this punk band pretty soon.
Listen

Day 97: Hanson Brothers, The Hockey Song. Fun, fun Canadian punk by the guys from NoMeansNo. And a hockey bet lost.
Video

Day 98: Stone Temple Pilots – Big Empty. I’ve been on an STP kick lately, after ignoring them for so many years.
Video

Day 99: Bouncing Souls, Hopeless Romantic. Fun song, fun band
Video

Day 100: The Fray, Hundred. I’ll be honest. I only knew of this song from my daughter and I needed a song with 100 in the title. Then I listened, and liked. So I learned a little musically from this as well. Photo includes about 40 notes.
Live video

Day 101: The Who, In the Blue and Red and Gray. Finally got a copy of this song. Very sweet. Really like the words, which fit nicely on this photo.
Video

Day 102: Judas Priest, All Guns Blazing. Rip-it-up metal, to go with a lame ass phot of some rip-it-up video games. Hey, I’ve been sick. I try.
Live video. Rob Halford rocks.

Day 103: The Von Bondies, C’mon, C’mon. I might have said this already, but if you don’t own this album you are missing out. I’ve been playing it non stop in my car for about three weeks and I’m not even near sick of it.
Video

Day 104: Meatloaf, Paradise By the Dashboard Light. Why, it feels like just yesterday when I wrote about my hatred of this song….oh, it was!
Hah! I found a video of a couple doing it at a wedding!

And that’s where it stands now.

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for the interested

My 365 days, 365 songs project posts will be over at flickr every night, not here.

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for the interested

My 365 days, 365 songs project posts will be over at flickr every night, not here.

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365-98: smoke a cigarette and lie some more

Day 98 of 365: a year in songs and photos
Song: Stone Temple Pilots, Big Empty

I quit smoking a few months ago. Previous to that I had quit for three years. Previous to that, I had quit for 12 years. I’ve been smoking on and off since I’m 13. Smoke, quit, smoke, quit.

I’m smoking again. It started with one cigarette here and there. Because, as anyone who has smoked and quit will tell you, the cravings never go away. No matter how long you quit, it’s always there. You get that feeling that starts in the your mouth and then permeates every nerve ending in your body. Sometimes – most of the time – you can ride that feeling out. Sometimes, for those of us with obsessive personalities and little will power, you can’t.

The occasional cigarette turned into two or three a day. Then four or five. I’m up to six. Any day now, I’ll actually buy a whole pack instead of taking from Todd or a co-worker. Nobody likes a non-smoker who smokes. Because I’m a non-smoker, right? I don’t really smoke, I just…dabble.

I know how bad smoking is for you. I know how much it costs per year to smoke, especially in New York with the damn cigarette tax. I know it will make it hard for me to breathe when I take the stairs at work, I know I will have heart palpitations at night, I know I am probably shortening my life span, I know what it does to my lungs and heart and every other part of my body. And I know my kids will be furious with me if they find out. So I’ve taken to that age old habit of smoking behind the garage like a teenager. I don’t want to disappoint them. I’ve already disappointed me.

I’ve quit a lot of things in my life. A lot of vices that were very bad for me. Hell, I haven’t had a drink in almost two years. I’ve left behind in my youth a trail of various substance abuses. But nothing I’ve given up is as hard to give up as nicotine. It’s a drug. It’s an addiction. It’s one I will most likely never beat. Not with medication, not with gum, not with a patch. The two lengthiest bouts of non smoking I had were done cold turkey. I will quit again soon. And I will start again eventually. I’ve reconciled myself with that fact.

I lay in bed at night and silently yell at myself for starting again. I go through the laundry list of reasons I shouldn’t light up. I swear I’m done. And then the next day the need, the urge, the craving starts up and I’m a victim of my own weakness.

There’s a line in a favorite movie of mine, Dead Again. Robin Williams, in a bit role, says, metaphorically, “Someone is either a smoker or a nonsmoker. There’s no in-between. The trick is to find out which one you are, and be that.”

I know which one I am. The trick here is to NOT be that. The problem is, I don’t think I want to.

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shit.

Guess I’ll be doing the 5am dog walk for a week.

They played like crap. Inept. Lame. Etc.

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365-97: and the best game you can name is the good old hockey game

Day 97 of 365: a year in songs and photos
Song: Hanson Brothers, The Hockey Song

No, not those Hansons. This band – an alternate persona to the amazing NoMeansNo – is a fun punk band that sings songs about hockey. They’re Canadian, eh.

Tonight, my New York Islanders play Todd’s Anaheim Ducks. We’re going to the game. Me in my Islanders jersey and Todd in his Ducks jersey. This should be fun.

We decided to make a bet on the game. Whoever’s team loses has to do the 5am dog walk for the next week. Unfortunately, my team is in a bad slump. It does not look good for me or my beauty sleep (really, I get up at 5 anyhow. It’s just the point of having to walk the dog every cold morning for 7 days straight).

Oh, the good old hockey game
It’s the best game you can name
And the best game you can name
Is the good old hockey game

Amen to that. You can keep your football. There’s nothing like hockey. Sure, I prefer the 80’s style, no helmets, bench clearing brawl version of the NHL, but I still love the game more than any other sport.

Old time hockey!

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365-95: one is the loneliest number

365:95 is here.

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365-94: wrecking crew

Day 94 of 365: a year in songs and photos
Song: Adolescents, Wrecking Crew

This is Lili. Lili is a homewrecker.

She does something we call “prize patrol.” She goes from room to room, grabbing socks, shoes, gloves, underwear, toilet paper, toys, whatever she can grab in her teeth, and drags them into the living room. She even once tried to drag an entire blanket out of our bedroom. She piles everything up in front of the couch and then sits in front if it, guarding it like a king guards his kingdom. Every once in a while, she’ll choose one of her “prizes” to play with.

I cleaned up the prize patrol yesterday. This was taken today. She moves fast. Sure, it’s probably our fault for leaving socks and such where she can get them. But…I hate to say it…we’ve actually gotten into the habit of leaving socks on the floor on purpose so Lili has some prizes to catch.

When I was taking the photo, I was looking at her saying “Lili, you made such a mess!” And she just gave me a look that said “Guilty as charged!”

A note about the couch: We have this weird couch that pulls out on some kind of roller. Sometimes we pull it out just a few inches to give us more room to stretch out when we’re playing video games or watching tv. The space under there has become the cat’s only means of escape when Lili wants to play Pounce The Kitty. So we leave it open for her now.

I’m so glad we spent a crapload of money and countless, backbreaking hours redoing the living room last spring. It now belongs to the pets.

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365-93: thorn in my side

Day 93 of 365: a year in songs and photos
Song: Quicksand, Thorn in my Side

This was an accidental picture. I forgot what setting I had the camera on and the flash went off. I wrote off the shot. Later when I was going through the photos I took outside today (none of which I liked) I decided this was the only keeper. Go figure.

I’m not going to write about thorns in my side, though. That could take days.

I want to tell you how I am an idiot and almost killed myself today.

It was a miserable, cold, rainy, windy, disgusting New York day. It even thundered, in the middle of winter. The weather was treacherous at times; the rain would let up a bit and then all of a sudden come down in a windblown deluge for about ten minutes, immediately flooding the streets (my ridiculously high property taxes still do not afford me a proper drainage system, I guess).

I had made lunch plans with a dear friend I hadn’t seen since before my vacation and didn’t want to break them, so I ventured out of the office at noon and headed to the diner, despite the rational side of my brain telling me this wasn’t good driving weather. Who listens to their rational side, anyhow?

I was cruising along at a nice clip down a main street. When I say “a nice clip” I mean I was probably going too fast for the weather conditions. But there was no one else on the road. I was alone, thinking how the roads really weren’t as bad as everyone said they were. What wimps! Ype, just me, the rain, the Von Bondies on the stereo and………..holy shit, when did they put a lake in the middle of the road?? All of a sudden, my car felt like a giant, unseen hand had taken control of it. It lifted a little bit and pulled left and pulled right and my windshield was plastered with a huge wave of water so I couldn’t see and as the car was hydroplaning sideways through the enormous puddle, I looked out my side window to try to get my bearings and all I saw was the cement of an underpass and some guardrails and my life flash before my eyes.

Now, I’ve been in accidents before. I was in one not too long ago where I knew I was going to be hit from behind before it happened and all I could do was look in my rear view mirror and prepare myself for death (obviously, the death part never happened). I was doing much the same today. Just nonchalantly thinking to myself, as I was flying through air and water (allow me some hyperbole here, please) “Gee, I’m going to die now.” And then I thought “I hope someone remembers to feed the cat when I’m gone.” And just as I was about to renounce my agnosticism and repent for my plethora of sins, the car was back on solid ground and I was on my merry way to a cheeseburger and french fries.

It took about fifteen seconds for the whole thing to transpire. I think I missed two lines of the song that was playing while I was airborne. When the car settled down again, I played it real cool like and just started singing again without missing a beat. Just in case anyone was looking. And I’m sure if anyone was looking, they were saying “Wow, that asshole sure is lucky she didn’t kill herself.” What that person would not see was how bad my hands were shaking.

I drove about 20mph the rest of the way to the diner and took a different road back to work.

The moral of the story, kids? SPEED KILLS.

Well, it could.

And now, I must get Every Rose Has Its Thorn out of my head.

(By the way, the song used tonight is in my top 20 of favorite songs ever)

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the annual valentine’s day rant

It’s February 1st, which means it’s time for my annual Valentine’s Day screed (I used to post this on my blog every year. I think the original version – since updated – was written in 2002).

Not that you need a reminder, what with all the storefronts decorated with sickening pink and red hearts and little cherubs with pointy weapons, but V Day approaches. I hate this holiday. People who do not have significant others do not corner the market on hating Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day is not a day of amnesty. It is not a day where a guy or girl can say “Well, I’ve been shitty to my partner all year long, but if I buy them a huge bouquet of flowers on February 14th, I’m off the hook!” It doesn’t work that way.

Confession. I used to hate Valentine’s Day. Well, I told myself I hated Valentine’s Day in much the same way I told myself I hate diamond rings and romantic proposals and long walks in the park and pina coladas in the rain. See, it’s easy to get over the knowledge that you’ll never have that stuff if you pretend to hate it. Candy and flowers? Meh. Who needs them? A nice card? A romantic dinner? A sweet gesture? That stuff is for sissies!

That’s what I told myself anyhow. Sometimes it’s just easier to pretend.

Truth is, I am a romantic. And I love Valentine’s Day. And I love getting flowers even if they do make me sneeze. And I love cute greeting cards and romantic dinners and holding hands and small, thoughtful gestures of love.

Still, even after acknowledging my inner romantic and even after having spent the last year or so in a state of romantic bliss, I have to find some fault with this holiday and its false pretenses and its way of making single, lonely people feel like buying a bottle of gin and a large bottle of sleeping pills and maybe stabbing a few people to death at a Lover’s Lane before offing themselves in their ex wife’s garage.

Honestly, this day has a way of even making people in stable relationships feel awkward. All the commercials for diamonds and gold and restaurants where an appetizer costs more than a heart transplant are enough to drive even the most hardcore romantic away from Cupid’s bow and arrow. How much is enough? Why do all the commercials make me feel that no matter how much I spend I have to spend even more if I want to prove my undying love and affection? Why do all these advice columnists on tv and the internet imply that while my loved one can get away with plunking down some cold cash on flowers or jewelry, I have to dress like a five dollar stripper and suck him dry in order to please him? And after that make him dinner and serve it in a French Maid’s outfit while the soundtrack to some porn movie plays in the background. It’s kind of unfair. Why can’t I buy him flowers or why can’t he dress like a two dollar whore for me?

Do I sound bitter? Maybe I am. Have you ever been that kid in class who got one valentine (from the teacher) while everyone else got 20? Have you ever sat home on Valentine’s night crying in your beer and eating a pint of chocolate chip mint ice cream because you bought your special someone a really thoughtful gift and all you got in return was a look that said “this better not mean that you think you can get away with cooking for me tonight”? Then you know. You know how Valentine’s Day only causes pain. Even for the guys who have a girlfriend, because they feel they can’t live up to the expectations that the media has set for them as far as presents go. Diamonds are a man’s best friend apparently, and the only way to truly show her you love her is to spend the equivalent of three months salary on some raw material that Dopey and Sneezy dug out a South African mine.

For the girls who have a special someone, it sucks if they have been watching a morning television show where some guy pops out of the audience in a tuxedo and gets down on his knee and begs his girlfriend, who is a grip or stagehand or something, to marry him. And then Katie Couric or one of those hags on The View sends them on a trip around Manhattan in a horse drawn carriage and the snow falls gently on their heads as he puts a diamond ring on her finger and….well, that’s not reality for everyone, folks. So don’t think it’s yours. Valentine’s Day only serves to get your hopes up and then have them crashed down on top of you by the end of the night when all you got was a half-hearted kiss and an offer to let you watch while he plays Grand Theft Auto.

Anyhow. For the men out there who are still contemplating what to buy your wife/girlfriend/mistress/companion/dog/RealDoll(c), a word or two of advice:

Chocolate is not a good gift. Chocolate says “I would like you to gain a few pounds so then I can say to you in a week or so that you look like you could lose a few pounds.”

Flowers are not good. Flowers say “Here are some beautiful works of nature that will wilt or dry out and lose their beauty in a relatively short time. Like you. Which is when I will leave you for a younger woman.”

Sexy lingerie is not good, because that just says “I really hate the way you look naked. Do you think you could dress like a stripper when we have sex so I can pretend that you are Shana from The Raven’s Nest?”

So what is a good gift? I’ll tell you. And this applies to men and women. But not RealDolls.

A really good gift would be to just be thoughtful and sweet every day of the year. To make your relationship a romantic one all the time, not just one day. To say “i love you” every single day and look in their eyes while you say it. To turn off the tv once in a while and just sit and cuddle and remind each other why you fell in love. To not take each other for granted, or take the time you have together for granted. To make your partner smile each day, whether by a word or a gesture or the way you touch them. Be spontaneous. Be romantic. Enjoy each other all the time. Don’t wait for a Hallmark holiday to remind the person you love that they mean something special to you.

You don’t know unless you have lived thousand of miles away from the person you are deeply in love with how lucky you are to be able to hold and kiss and look at that person every single day. Take a little time every day to remind that person that they are your Valentine all the time, not just on February 14th. That’s a perfect gift.

Unless you have just started dating the person. Then it would seem kind of stalkerish. I suggest a nice sushi dinner and a movie then.

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