When you know, you know.

Valentine's Day is less than two weeks away, but I'm sure that the 23 million jewellery, hallmark and hershey's kisses commercials reminded you of that already. Now, generally blogs like mine are littered with gift guides for Valentine's for him & her, or what to wear guides for lingerie and clothing, but really how many variations of pink, red and black lace teddies and assortment of bodycon dresses do you need to see? Not that I won't do one too, but generally we get the jist by now, right?

I figured that instead of focusing on the commercialized aspect of Valentine's day which I've never really bought into, I am going to use this blog for a 4 part feature on what makes the day so fun all around: it's about Love, the big ol' L O V E. It's so easy to get caught up in what Valentine's day has become and lose sight of what it's actually about. Sure, you shouldn't need a specific day to treat the person you're with with all this love and affection, or to let them know how special they are to you. But what the fuck else does February have to offer except snow and slush? I'll take some hearts, thanks. After years of working Valentine's day at restaurants, you couldn't pay me to go out for dinner at a restaurant on the 14th, and I don't need presents from my guy this month to know that I'm loved - but babe just a hint, no lady is ever mad when they receive chocolate ;). Instead we do a nice fancy dinner at home, curl up with some wine and it's the one night a year he'll watch a real romantic movie without complaints, he even battled through the Notebook with me, tears and all - whatta guy.

*disclaimer: If you are a) bitterly single, b) declarations of love make you sick or c) you're just a grumpus, stop reading now and go away. you've been warned.

Part 1: when you know, or the story of when I knew I was falling in love with Jake.

Ever since I had started seeing Jake, I knew he was different than anyone else I had been with. Our first date was 3+ hours of just talking and laughing, to the point where our server came up and was like "hey I really don't want to rush you but if you could just settle with me, that would be great". I remember leaving that night with crazy butterflies and a mega watt smile plastered across my face, giggling about all the random things we had in common. This was in the middle of October, and from our first date I just had a feeling this guy was going to be a big deal in my life, whether it was for a short time, or the long haul.

Fast forward to December 16th, 2013 my birthday. We were going for dinner in Kelowna, to my favorite restaurant to begin with, Twisted Tomato. The car ride wasn't necessarily eventful, just signing a long to the radio etc. When we parked, as I was unbuckling my seat belt Jake was racing to get out of the car, and next thing I know he's at my side of the vehicle opening the door for me. Now, Jake is many things, but admittedly he is not the most romantic of sorts, at least not in your typical classic way. So him opening the door for me was such a sweet gesture to begin with, it set the mood for the rest of the night.

Once in there our dinner was a lot like the rest of our dates, him making me laugh until my cheeks started to hurt, humoring my really dorky sense of humor that I find seriously hilarious, and excitement over the most random things, not to mention so much talking. However, the icing on the cake was when we realized that to make my birthday even more perfect, we were seated beside what had to be a first date directly from the reject pages of Tinder. We're talking serious WTF. Picture a really scrawny geeky guy with a bottle-blonde girl dressed to the nines for a night of bar-hopping with really bad extensions, and no more than maybe two sentences between them. It was awkward, it was hard to watch, and it was hilarious. We were far enough away to make our own commentary on the date and how we thought it was going, and we kept giggling at how unbelievably mis-matched this couple was.

There was never this moment of angels singing, halo's dancing around his head, smack me in the face realizations that I was falling for this guy, I would just look over at him smiling at me and my heart would swell up and feel so full. It hadn't felt that way in a really long time, and I don't know if it ever felt the way it did with him.

The rest of the dinner went amazingly, I've told him before and I stand to it, it's the best date I've ever been on. Maybe it was because my birthday is my favorite day, but hands down it's the best one yet. As we held hands back to the truck, and he again opened the door for me, the second I sat down in the seat and watched him walk to the driver's side I just knew, "I'm falling hard for you kid, and I really hope you're feeling the same way."

Jake came into my life when I was least expecting him to, and honestly when I was the most ready to be swept off my feet, whether I knew it then or not. And I must say, he did a magnificent job. <3