Men's Guide to Women

Here comes Valentine’s Day and another opportunity for you to strike up a little romance. 

If you are short on ideas take a look at what I have in store for my wife this year.  Man to man, you need to step up and take care of her on this one.

Want to know where Valentines Day came from?  Look here. 

I know, I know.  Why should you have to buy her a card just to tell her something that she already knows, (that you love her) Right?  Nope.  No Sweet Tarts for you.

If you think that way, you are missing the point and destined to have a disappointed woman, and a disappointed woman has a way of disappointing her man.

 Valentines is a decidedly female holiday.  Most women are into the flowers, gifts and candy.  I do not want flowers, I do not want a teddy bear with a little heart sewed on its chest, and don't even think about giving me anything with a cherub on it. 

I could eat some chocolate, but I could do without the heart shaped box.  I do not see the point in any of it for the average guy, but I do understand the value for her.

I could give you a long list of tips and great ideas but I am not going to do it. Nope, I am not going to hand it to you, I am going to make you think a little first, because the romance is in the details and details, my friends, are only details if they are important to your woman (and she notices.)

This year I am going to tell you what I am doing for my wife this Valentines and show you my thought process and the details I am incorporating so you can snag a few ideas and do the same. If you come up with something fantastic, though, I want to hear about it.

Where I Begin or “Jeez, it is already Valentines again, what am I Going to do THIS Year?”

(For the record this took a total of four hours to figure out and about two weeks of advanced planning to get the more obvious pieces listed below.)

One of my wife’s favorite books right now is The Da Vinci Code. One of my wife’s favorite movies is Serendipity.

So, this year, I am incorporating elements from the book and the movie into what I hope is the perfect Valentines Day experience.

OK, Now What, Genius!

It would be helpful if you understood the plot to Serendipity so you would understand the significance of what I am talking about as it relates to the movie. Here is my Cliff’s Notes version:

In the movie, Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) bumps into a girl named Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) there is some attraction but Sara is not sure if it is "meant to be," so she puts her name and phone number in a copy of a handy used book, titled Love in the Time of Cholera that is subsequently sold.

Jonathan spends years checking used bookstores for the copy of Love in the Time of Cholera that she signed. He eventually finds it and gets a chance to meet her again.

(It is just the kind of syrupy story my wife loves. I am the John Cusack fan in the family and what is not to like about Kate Beckinsale?)

Here is the Plan

This year I am going to send my wife on a small scavenger hunt based on elements of this book and movie to find her Valentine’s Day gift.

I am beginning with a code, ala The Da Vinci Code, that she has to read and follow.

See the example below:

It is not much of a code really, but read top to bottom, left to right, it says:

SEEK THE SMELL OF SOMETHING SWEET

I am incorporating two other coded letters at different locations around the house that have significant meaning for her.

The last letter will direct her on a date at home with me watching Serendipity on DVD with all of her favorite home made and store bought snacks.

After the movie is over, I will produce a gift for her, strategically wrapped and hidden under the nearby couch.

The gift, or pre-gift really, is a copy of the book Love in the Time of Cholera, just like the one in the movie.

Opening the book, she will see an inscription (placed exactly where the character in the movie, Sara, wrote her phone number in the book) and another small code to lead my wife to her Valentines gift.

This last letter will lead her to a small wooden box hidden in our bedroom. Once she tries to open it she will realize it is not your average small wooden box, as it has no lid, but she will be able to hear something sliding around inside of it.

The box is a four move puzzle box. You have to slide the panels around on the face of the box in a certain order to get it to open.  If you have not heard of puzzle boxes before, look here.   Check out the video clip at the end of this article for more on puzzle boxes.

Once my wife solves the puzzle and gets the puzzle box open she will see another small box, one that has a more traditional dark blue velvet exterior, otherwise known as your standard jewelry store ring box.

Opening the ring box, she will discover a custom made ring already sized for her with a very small note rolled up telling her just how much I love her.

That’s my plan. Got any ideas for next year?

Image courtesy of Pictures of the Heart