Valentine's Day....

D and I have missed out on spending some holidays with each other because of our year long hiatus, but the one holiday we never seem to miss is V-Day. This time around with all the new house expenses and me not working yet, I wasn't expecting for Valentine's Day to be over the top. I knew D was planning to take me out somewhere that involved "tickets" so I figured it was either to see Mike Epps perform, or to see the Tyler Perry play. Either would have been fine, although neither was quite my style. They were the only things I heard about on the radio and D dropped what I took as a hint as he waved his hand over toward the impulse-buy rack at the check out line in Target.

"Look, is that Tyler Perry?" He said pointing to the newest issue of Essence.

When we got home from Target (and multiple other stores), and I was putting away groceries I heard D sigh loudly. He was sitting on our blood-red couch tapping away at his Mac Book.

"Well I guess if I want you to be able to dress properly, I should tell you where we're going tonight." My eyes lit up.

"Where???" He waved his hand for me to come there and as I walked up behind him he pointed to his laptop screen. I squinted and bent down to see what it was and there was not the crackish jokster, Mr. Epps; nor the mildly spiritual morals of Tyler Perry but the very classically perfect ballet. D was taking me to see Swan Lake. Again, I was alit.

D, the man's man that he is, sat with me through 4 acts of women (and men) in tights hopping around on stage to classical music and actually seemed to take it in. It was refreshing to see that D could be so open minded. Almost as refreshing as knowing that Houston offered more culture than 200 variations of barbaque. It rained, and the streets were wet when we came outside. I found myself silently challenging Houston to make me like it as I looked around at the downtown scene. There weren't thousands of people crowding the streets, bussling around against the curtain of noise and taxi cabs like in New York. But there was another kind of charm. The tall buidlings that didn't come close to shutting out a very big sky, the sculptures that stood outside the theatre and a low rumble of thunder. D had no idea that he had given me exactly what I needed for Valentine's Day.