Happy Valentine's Day!

Before I tell you all how Michael and I are celebrating the holiday, let's start off with some warm-fuzzies from other places in my world that I've been saving up for just the right time to blog about them.

Warm-Fuzzy One

I was sitting in my office one evening a few weeks ago. I still had an hour before it was time for me to go home, and a student had just cancelled an appointment, so I didn't really have much to do. The phone rang. I answered it, and the voice on the other end of the line asked, "Did you used to work in Ellensburg?"

Surprised, I told him that I had. He explained, "I was one of your students, and I saw your name on the faculty list here, so I called to ask you about this school."

He was a student in one of the first writing classes I ever taught, just after I'd finished my Master's work. Now he's graduated from school and is a track coach at one of the area community colleges. He's just accepted a job at the community college that's connected to my university, and he wanted to know more about the university programs so that when his athletes are ready to transfer he knows what to tell them. Our conversation ended with him saying, "You were one of two people I actually liked in Ellensburg. I'll tell all my athletes to visit you!"

Warm-Fuzzy Two

Two weeks ago, I attended an advisory committee meeting for Career Link. Belinda told me a story about one of my former students, who had been acting up in class every day this quarter. I was surprised, because I'd never had a behavior problem with this kid. She had called him into her office to ask what was going on, and he'd said, "I want Prairie back!"

It's nice to be missed.

Warm-Fuzzy Three

For the past couple days, Valentine cards and gifts have been arriving at our apartment. We got lovely cards from Hope and my mom, and our gifts to each other came in the mail, and Michael got a mystery package from one of his blog admirers.

Our Valentines

Michael and I decided that since we're going on six years together, we wanted to mark our relationship in some sort of a more formal way this year. We did some research into symbolism and rings, and discovered a neat kind of ring called a "posey ring." During the Middle Ages, these rings were given "as a romantic gift or a token of friendship." The particular rings we chose are replicas of one made in the 15th century. The original is in the British museum. Posey rings have a message engraved on them that, when it touches the skin, is supposed to "have a particular power." Our rings say, "Of my love be sure" (in French, because French was the Court language in England at the time the original was made). This message seems really fitting for our relationship: if there's one thing I can be sure of in this world, it's that I know at the end of the day, no matter how tired and cranky I am, Michael will love me. I can always count on him, and he can always be sure of my love. (Michael has a picture of the rings up on his site that's far superior to anything I could get with my little camera.)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!