Happy Valentine's Day!!! As a special surprise from me to you, here is a free pass to any SoulCycle, good any time between now and March 2, 2015! First ride complimentary, Must bring pass to class. Walk-in only, expires March 2, 2015. You can either print this out, or just click on this link and show it to the front desk when you arrive.
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If you read my last post, you know I Love, Love LOVE Valentine's Week (err... Day). In it, I wrote that Valentine's Day is not about boring ol' flowers and chocolates. It's about going above and beyond -- it's about putting extra effort in (or taking extra time to) build an unforgettable experience.
Not everyone has time for a Valentine's Four Day Weekend (even though it is President's Day this Monday). But you can still come up with an incredibly cool, thoughtful and experience-making (or enabling) gift for your special someone. If you need a little help getting inspired, I've put together a list of really fun gift ideas. Remember: money does buy happiness -- if you know how to spend it. ***
For the Fancy Pants: Spice Lab Himalayan Salt Glasses
These shot glasses have the translucent appearance of rose quartz, but actually are carved from the finest quality, food-grade Himalayan pink salt. They naturally add a nuanced, salty note to your tequila. Serve with lime wedges for a bite of citrus tartness.
These would also be a nice gift for someone you traveled to Mexico (or another tequila-drinking region) with. It's a fancy way to relive a special memory and drink to your future.
(Heck, if you've gone on a trip together, there are a lot of ways you can relive that! I was given a bottle of Philosophy Senorita Margarita Body Wash and Bubble Bath following a trip to Mexico once. It was a pretty simple and relatively inexpensive gift... yet I smile and think about how amazing the trip was every single time I get in the tub. Keep in mind, though, that I love bubble baths. What does your Valentine love? Use that as your compass.)
For the Poet: Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins.
It's well known that Billy Collins is the best poet in the whole world.
When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to meet him (briefly) and get him to sign my copy of Sailing Alone Around the Room (which is fantastic, thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud hilarious). Sadly, I later left an ice sculpture on it accidentally, and it turned into a soggy mess.
But lo! A very special boy surprised me with a copy of Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems. The note he wrote in front was almost as beautiful, and certainly more personally meaningful, than the poems in this book. Don't miss "Love," "'I Love You'" and "Looking for a Friend in a Crowd of Arriving Passengers: A Sonnet." You should also bookmark "Lanyard" and read to your mom on Mother's Day.
In a previous post, I wrote,
Before every holiday, I find myself saying, "I'm so excited! [Upcoming Holiday] is my favorite holiday!" Which is a much happier and more positive approach than the typical, "Ugh. I hate [Upcoming Holiday]! It's so commercialized!"
But if I haaaaaaad to pick one favorite holiday, and it couldn't be Christmas, Halloween or Thanksgiving, it would definitely be Valentine's Day. I mean, when I'm with my significant others, I don't even call it Valentine's Day. I call it Valentine's Week. And if he's not a Valentine's Week kind of guy... then it's probably time to break up with him. Because what's the point of dating someone you can't be incredibly fun and silly with?
And since today is the first day of Valentine's Week 2015, I thought I'd share this old post from back in my Quora days. ***
Around this time of year, you start to hear a lot of people bickering about how stupid Valentine's Day is.
“It’s a Hallmark holiday!” “I hate flowers and cards and crowded restaurants!” “You should show your love for your partner year round – not just on Valentines Day!” But the truth is, I totally love Valentine's Day. It’s one of my favorite holidays – right up there with Christmas and Thanksgiving. Why? Because Valentine's Day isn’t about paying $50 for a $12 bouquet of flowers. And it’s not about some mass-produced Hallmark poem. If it were, I suppose I would hate it, too. Valentine's Day would feel contrived. Artificial. Obligatory – sort of like a chore.
But no! For me, Valentine's Day is an opportunity to be insanely creative and silly and over-the-top with my partner.
It’s a day when I can demand heart-shaped pancakes with heart-shaped strawberries and juice with heart-shaped ice cubes in it.
I received a comment from a Gunn Alumnus after posting When "Achievement" is Toxic: My Thoughts on the (most recent) Gunn Suicide, and Raising Resilient Children. In it, he writes (among other things, you can read the entire comment here),
I take great offense at your description of putting our future colleges on our graduation caps as a “pissing contest.” This opinion exemplifies your lack of understanding of our school. Our graduation caps represent our proud achievements, and I can assure you that they are worn with pride in whatever school we got into. As an example to demonstrate this pride to you, every one of these caps were handmade by the students themselves—we put effort into these because we are proud of what we’ve accomplished.
I wanted to take a moment to address this comment. So here goes.
Gunn Alumnus, I stand by what I said about the graduation caps, though. Because getting into your first-choice school isn't an achievement. No matter how amazing and smart and "perfect" you are... there's only a 5% chance you'll get into an Ivy. When I was at Stanford, the admission rate was closer to 10% -- and even then, I knew that I was at least a little lucky to have been accepted. I've been called a lot of things, and "arrogant" is one of them. However, I have never been so foolish as to think my high school achievements were somehow "better" than those of the 9 students who didn't get my spot. We ALL had good grades. We ALL had good test scores. We ALL worked hard. We ALL experienced setbacks, failures... and major victories. In other words, I truly believe that students who get into Stanford and Harvard aren't "better" than kids who only got into their second-choice (or safety) school. They're just luckier. So calling the college you got into an "accomplishment" is like calling finding $5 on the street during your run an "accomplishment." On the one hand, you wouldn't have found that $5 if you hadn't braved the rain and cold weather. On the other, you're not a better runner than I am just because you found $5 on your run and I didn't.
Bring it on!
Let me start out by saying, in the words of MacArthur Genius and UPenn Professor Angela Ducksworth: People differ from one another on innumerable dimensions. Many traits follow a bell-shaped, or normal, distribution. Height, for instance. There are outliers, yes, but, even the very tallest man in the world is – at 8 foot 5 inches - only 1/3 taller than the average man. I'm not posting this to disparage your child's chances of success (though a little expectation management never hurt anyone). I'm posting it to help you help them maximize their chances for achievement and success.
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Eva is a content specialist with a passion for play, travel... and a little bit of girl power. Read more >
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