Valentine's Day Clam

Hello all, today I will at some point inscribe a declaration of love into the blockchain to be forever preserved. @eonwarped to @eonwarped wife.

Every Valentine's Day, I drop the ball. It's never a romantic Valentine's day when I am the one planning it. But it went better than I thought it would go!

Late work day, and exhausting day at work. The plan was to cook dinner and buy a gift, because of course I have not planned ahead. No excuses in America either. So many ways to buy stuff.

Planning. One of these days, I'll figure it out. Well, at least the only thing I needed to buy was clams.

I got two hints this year. Buttery clams. And writing something.

My thinking was to cook something relatively simple and tasty, so spaghetti with clams! First few recipes Google spat out is spaghetti garlic clams in white wine sauce.

The clams were easy. Get home. Take the dog out. And then take... A nap? I am exhausted, yeah let's do that.

Rudely awakened by an alarm I set, I start preparing. Cute clams bubbling in the water.

A problem. I don't have spaghetti. Curses! But I have rice. We'll make it some dishes over rice then.

Peel the garlic, smash the garlic, cut the onion.

Prepare the pots, and melt the butter. Oh? Someone's at the door.

Early. Uh oh. No!!! Go back outside!

Dinner is not ready. And she is hungry. She tells me, I didn't eat lunch for this, hope it's good! Yay pressure. And there's more.

"I was expecting dinner to be done already and candles to be lit, and nice music to be playing." Yeah, me too. That nap sure cost me this time.

Nothing to do now but finish the food. The garlic and onion sizzles in the pan and that buttery garlic fragrance fills the room. Wine goes in. Clams go in. Lid steams them. At least this is quick.

My dish finished just 10 minutes later, with a bunch of other sides I cobbled together quickly. One of them is leftovers from a restaurant (yeah I know, lame).

A moment later, the candles are lit, soft music is playing in the background, and we are at the table, finally. Gosh I probably would have forgotten about the music.

Recounting our lousy days, where people were generally angry. That bad energy again. Her recent students were uncooperative, one playing piano with a lollipop and making the keys all sticky. Gross. Me? Just lots of computer things going wrong at the same time.

Really hoped there would be something good today. On a positive note, the clams were delicious. Didn't have a single dud clam this time also.

I then had a brilliant idea. Finish... the wine...

A glass or three of wine, shared between the two of us. And we became a giggling teenage couple. Literally.

Great times with this app that had many Chinese New Year themed filters for shooting videos. I am not sure what the app is called but it looked like Snapchat but wasn't. It was just fun. And also ate more junk food and some oranges. And we played a bit of piano together, just like old times.

End with the declaration. You know, these years really have been some of the most interesting years of my life, and I can only owe that to my wife.

• She drastically improved my self image inside and out. I would show you some before and after images, but I'm not tipsy enough for that.
• She threw me well outside of my comfort zone to do things I would not have dreamed of. I'm being intentionally vague here because I would rather share it when I'm good and ready.

She is a wonderful woman, and one thing is that since she came here from Taiwan, she's really had a rough culture adjustment. But she's come out of it much stronger than before. I admire her bravery in essentially moving her life to the states, and to see how far she has come. Sometimes it may not feel like it since improvements are never sudden. But look back to a snapshot of five years ago, and it's as plain as day.

She'll say, she's heard this all before, what more do I got? Well, plenty, but I'll save them for off the blockchain. wink.

To my wife, whenever she reads this: I love you very much. Happy Belated Valentine's Day.

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