Valentine's Day is just a month away--so with that in mind, it's time for another memory post! But since this day is rather mediocre, especially for someone like me, I don't remember as many details, which means this will be shorter than my other memory posts.
2011--I went to my astronomy class. Our professor always showed us some YouTube video before class, related to some degree to astronomy. On this day it was some old love song by Frank Sinatra or Elvis or someone about either the moon or the stars. Between classes, I was leaving the library and saw my old roommate Alex. I started talking to him as we left the library, but he got a phone call. I started walking really slow so I could talk to him but he said he'd talk to me later, and went to the HFAC. I for some reason went in the Wilk, where there were tables set up by the Sugar and Spice store. They had Valentine cookies, but there were lots of kids around so I didn't feel like getting one. After my piano class, I walked home and it was an unusually warm day. I went home and dropped off my backpack and my hoodie, and then walked the ~fifty feet to South End Market, where I bought a small bottle of strawberry milk. This might have been the time I also bought some Doritos because we were supposed to take something to FHE that night but that may have been a different week. I drank my strawberry milk and ate a lot of conversation hearts because I wanted to finish all of them that day so I wouldn't have any left. I made a Facebook status about how that year Valentine's Day felt more like St. Patrick's Day. I watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown on my computer and my roommate Derek looked at my DVD set of the Peanuts 1970s Collection, Vol. 2. Then we went to FHE at an apartment in the Elite complex. Derek and I were early. Other girls in our group arrived. I asked Kaitlin Cooper where she was from to see if I knew her from someplace else. Some commented on my Valentine shirt. One of the girls had inflatable lips. One of the party games was a variation on "Pin the tail on the donkey," but the girls had drawn a picture of a large marshmallow with a face, and they put lipstick on and were kissing it. The girls tried to get us guys to do it, but we all declined. My roommate Tristram told the girls they should pretend they were kissing Jimmer. Derek had to leave to go to work. After FHE I walked back home with Tristram and we talked about Valentine candy. He told me he didn't get to have any conversation hearts (he didn't call them that), and I told him I wished I had known that earlier so I could have shared mine with him. I called my mom and she told me that that day's Pickles strip had Earl pinching his wife and she got violently mad and he said he confused St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, which made my mom think my status was especially funny. I went running in my orange running shirt, and I remember being by the Smith Fieldhouse and thinking about how the next day I could think about St. Patrick's Day.
2010--I had gone home for the weekend, and I wore my gaudy Valentine tie to church. In Elders Quorum there was discussion that the Elders Quorum president, Ryan Bott, had sung high at the karaoke party the previous night. He said that he had found out that karaoke songs are transposed in higher keys because most karaoke singers are women. That evening we had Black Forest cake with whipped cream and we watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. After everyone went to bed, I went on Amazon to redeem three free downloads we got as a result of some purchases. I looked for artists I thought I would like but who mostly released clean songs. (Now I'm kind of the opposite--if I search for a single to download, I'll probably pick a clean song by a dirty artist, reserving clean artists for whole albums.) I downloaded "Feel" by Michelle Tumes, which I liked from my mission. I looked for John Mayer, and was excited to see a song called "St. Patrick's Day," since the next day would start that holiday's season. The lyrics didn't really have too much to do with the holiday, but talked about holidays in general, so I got it. I looked at Smashmouth, but saw they had explicit songs so I didn't want anything they had. I looked for Coldplay, and downloaded "Things I Don't Understand."
2009--Elder Betenson and I walked to the house of our Elders Quorum president. When we knocked on the door he said he heard an expletive from the garage, and didn't think it was fitting of the EQP. It turned out to be the EQP's wife's brother, who was not a member, but who was nice to us. He was the only one home. That evening some members, the Maurers, took us to dinner at KFC. We discovered that there was a name we had found new on the ward list, and this woman (probably a mother) lived with the Maurers and came to dinner with us. I wasn't as talkative as I should have been; Elder Betenson did most of the talking.
2008--We had zone conference in the Regina building, our own stake center. Elder Chun and I drove there, and I remember being around Market Street and I turned on the "Heartburn Waltz" song on my Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits CD. Elder Chun seemed a bit uneasy about this, even though he was the one who had told me the CD was OK and in fact led me to ask my family to send it. But maybe he just didn't like it. Now I realize this was inappropriate, not necessarily because of the song, but because it was from a TV special I couldn't watch, and it made me think about it. I had been on a week-long exchange with the Elder Rand (since Elder Chun and Elder Gammon had been sick), which ended (I think) the day before. I had left my toiletry kit, including my retainer, at the zone leaders' apartment, so I had asked them to bring it, and I got it out of their car at the church. We all went up to greet our mission president, President Clark, as was customary, and he told Elder Chun he had called his mom. President got up with Sister Clark and told us how much he loved her. We broke into smaller meetings, and we all had to get up and introduce our companions, describing them like a candy bar. Elder Rand said Elder Gammon was a Rolo, referring to his rolls (because Elder Gammon was obsessed with the weight he had gained). Sister Clark was in there without President, and she said he was her Sugar Daddy, and she was his Tootsie Roll in the same way Elder Gammon was a Rolo. Elder Chun introduced me and told them I was from North Salt Lake, which was its own city, and Elder Johnson, from Bountiful, said, "Hardly." Elder Chun couldn't think of a candy bar that existed to describe me. I described him as a chocolate-covered macadamia nut, because he is "dark and Hawaiian." Later Sister Clark told me she loved my description. That evening we went with Brother Smith, a ward missionary from the Greenbluff Ward, to our appointments in the Northpointe Ward, including Shane and the Davises. Brother Smith didn't mind teaching with us because his wife was out of town. She called him and told him how she had either run out of gas or else broke down and was at a bar for bikers with an, um, unusual name for either the bar or some event at the bar. I won't tell you the name since I'm trying to keep this rated G, but Elder Chun asked if it was a gay bar.
2007--All I can remember is sitting on the swing on our patio with the patio light on, doing my homework and listening to the MP3 player I got for Christmas. The only music I had added to it was some of the Corpse Bride soundtrack, so I listened to a lot of the sample songs, including an alcohol warning with a swear word in it. Our home teacher had brought us a chocolate pie from Marie Callendar's. But it's possible my sitting on the patio actually happened a day or two before Valentine's Day.
2006--I was wearing my Snoopy Valentine shirt. I had to go to the dentist, and members of my theater class seemed sad when I had to leave. As I was leaving the dentist, I didn't stop or look as I was pulling out of one parking row and there was a car coming, so we both had to slam on our brakes. I felt dumb and sheepishly pulled out and left, and learned that I always needed to stop and look.
2005--In my world history class, there was a girl who had received black fake roses, and our teacher, Mr. Bell, remarked about that being wrong. (I can't figure out how to word it--he wasn't mad; it was more like he was sad.) When I went home, I went downstairs, and my sister had turned on Full House, and it was a Valentine show and one of the uncles told a teacher that her boyfriend was outside in a thong. Allie was holding my DVD of A Charlie Brown Valentine, and my mom said she might like to watch it. I asked Allie if I could watch the other one--not like she cared, since she was only one and a half. So I turned on my VHS copy of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. The closed captioning was on, and my mom thought it was funny when Lucy said, "No, I can't say that I have," but the CC said, "No, I haven't."
2004--It was a Saturday. In the morning I watched A Charlie Brown Valentine and Gilligan's Island on our computer while eating the Valentine candy my mom got from her class, including a chocolate apple with a worm. That night I wanted heart-shaped pizza with white cheese, pink ham, and red pepperoni. My dad and I went to Winegar's to get some ingredients, and on the way I had my Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits CD and I kept playing the "Heartburn Waltz."
2003--I wore a red shirt and my gaudy Valentine tie. There were lots of kids at school wearing ties for the Valentine dance after school, but I wasn't going to that since my cousin Lacey was having her reception. On the bus I gave handfuls of conversation hearts to Katie Clark and Ali Snarr as they walked by. (Later, either that day or much later, I second guessed myself because it's kind of gross I gave them cheap candy out of my hand.) In the car my mom had a bag of the Valentine candy she got from her class, including a heart-shaped Altoids tin with peppermint Altoids, some of which were heart shaped themselves. My sister had bought Easter candy. We had to pick up David in Provo, and for some reason we had to pick him up at the Creamery Outlet. We stopped at his apartment, which had been "heart attacked," i.e. some girls had put paper hearts all over the walls. [In the car after we left Provo, I was thinking it would be cool to make a CD of Valentine-like music. I even thought of the theme to The Love Boat.] Then we went out to Flowell (Fillmore) for Lacey's reception. When we went through the line Sarena saw "Hug Me" on my tie so she hugged me. They had lights strung across the church gym, and dry ice in heart-shaped bowls on the tables. My aunt Michelle was wearing what I think is called a dog collar shirt. After the reception we helped clean up, and my sister thought I was acting awkwardly and unhelpful toward a girl who was also cleaning up. Then we drove to my grandparents' house in Fillmore to spend the night.
2002--My school had given a bunch of us tickets to the Olympics, and this Thursday was the day I got to go. I wore a red shirt. Those of us who were going were in the commons area, waiting, and there was a conversation about Chewy Gobstoppers. Then we loaded the bus. We parked at a parking lot and then rode shuttles up to the event. I was by myself. Tyler Brklacich invited me to sit with a bunch of them but I declined. There were people there wearing American flags as capes. I don't remember what the event was; I think it was women's slalom. At one point I bought a very expensive hot dog. Later I felt dumb that I bought a hot dog when for nearly the same price I could have bought a mascot item that I could keep forever. I saw some men drinking beer and they had spilled some drops on the railing. Somehow I touched the beer drops, which made my glove smell terrible. I already knew alcohol was bad because of the Word of Wisdom and because of Red Ribbon Week and DARE, but the smell further convinced me beer was no good. When the event was over, I was worried. I couldn't find anyone from school, and I hoped that the bus wouldn't leave without me. We were all walking out and there was a bluegrass musician playing stuff over the loudspeaker, and he invited everyone to sing along to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." This excited me, and after the regular lyrics he said, "The Beverly Hillbillies" just like they do on the show and continued playing the intro. I got on the shuttle and was still worried about the bus. Would I have to walk until I found a gas station and then call my mom and tell her I was stranded? I sat by a window and a foreign woman asked, "May I join you?" It sounded like "May otoño?" I nodded but didn't say anything because I didn't know if she'd understand and I was so worried about the bus. When we got off the shuttle I was so relieved that the bus was still there and I ran to it so it wouldn't leave. When I got home, I told my mom about my experience and she was mad at the teachers that I was alone. We had heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and I was excited to watch and record the new Peanuts special debuting that night, A Charlie Brown Valentine.
2001--Ah, the sixth-grade Valentine dance--what a weird tradition. One kid in my class, Jesús, came wearing a tux, and I thought the ruffled shirt was ridiculous. I was wearing a splint because my arm might have been broken. (It was just sprained, but I didn't know that yet.) One of our early dances was to Will Smith's "Men in Black" and I was frustrated because everyone was doing it wrong. One Andreia Dixon had to dance with me and I kind of inferred that she wanted to get it over with, but I could be wrong. I was confused at why I was dancing with her. We submitted names to the teachers of people we wanted to dance with, and Andreia was the only one who didn't get all of her choices. I didn't put down that I wanted to dance with her, and I found it unlikely she wanted to dance with me, so I was confused at why the teachers put us together. We danced the Twist twice--once was supposed to be to an old song and one was supposed to be to the "Peppermint Twist," but they played the same Twist song, which I thought defeated the purpose of doing it twice. One of my Twist partners was Hillary Ulmer. One of my slow partners was Latecia Pope. When I had a break in my dancing, I went outside and squeezed a lot of sweat out of my foamy splint. They had little gummy hamburgers and fake fries for us as snacks--they tried to make it a little 50s-ish, including cutouts of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. They had giant balloons with little balloons on the side, and I got fake mesmerized by pulling it down and watching it bounce up. After the dance, some girls in my class exchanged valentines. They had little tiny heart stickers, and somehow I got some and put them on my glasses. That night I went to mutual with the stickers on my glasses. My parents gave me a land-line phone that resembled a cell phone for my room, but that might have been the night before.
2000--We all brought our own homemade valentine boxes. Mine was a decorated shoe box with a slot in the top. We went around putting our valentines in the others' boxes, and Cory Sheley told me he opened my box instead of using the slot because the slot was too narrow. His slot was fat. Indeed, when I got back to my desk, I discovered that many people just put the valentines next to the box because the slot was too narrow. Mrs. Call gave out prizes to the best boxes, one of whom was Kelsey Butters, whose box was wood and plastic. I resented this, because she obviously didn't make it herself like I had. Kelsey seemed pleased and surprised she won. Mrs. Call went around taking pictures and when she came to me I put my box lid in front of my face but Andreia Dixon pulled it away. That night, we went to Media Play and I got Snoopy Come Home and then we went home and I watched it and Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and had conversation hearts. Before going to bed I cried that Charles Schulz had died the day before. (Now I think, Really? You didn't even know him!)
1999, 1998--Because Valentine's Day in elementary school is all about the school parties, and the holiday was on a weekend these years, I don't remember anything. :(
1997--All I remember is that we had receptacles for our valentines made out of gallon milk jugs. Mine was a bear, with some terrible "beary" pun, and others were dinosaurs, with "dino-mite" puns, and there was some other thing I can't remember. That night I watched a Valentine episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
1996--[Before school I was standing outside, waiting for carpool, and my teacher, Sister Weight, brought me a small red bear in a bag.] We had valentine receptacles shaped like mail trucks and I got a cheap little Valentine game where you try to get the tiny ball in the holes. That came from Kelsey Butters; she gave necklaces to the girls. I remember playing outside at recess and it was sunny but there was a lot of snow and slush on the ground.
1995--All I know is we got valentines in paper hearts we made, but I only remember the heart because I remember making it. My parents got me a Valentine bear that I loved.
1994--My parents gave me a card with a caterpillar that said "I love you THIS MUCH!" with the caterpillar holding his arms wide. They got my brother a card too but I can't remember what it was.
Other posts in this series:
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
A Pillowcase Full of Trick-or-treat Memories
Remember Every Detail, Volume 3: Thanksgiving
Yuletide by the Fireside, and Joyful Memories There
Auld Lang Syne
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