V-Day.

About two weeks ago I decided that I wanted to get Yilin something nice for Valentine's Day. This is not as easy as it sounds, for a variety of reasons.

Jewelry? Nope. Everytime I see a piece that I think she would like, I point to it and ask her what she thinks. She doesn't really love it. It's not quite her style. It's just ok. Besides, jewelry is too expensive a thing to get wrong. I don't need to buy her a pair of earrings only to have them end up in one of her many jewelry boxes, buried in 3,000 other pairs of earrings that she doesn't wear.

Fancy restaurant? Ha. Unless you want to make reservations for Valentine's Day months in advance (which I sort of forgot about), you aren't eating anywhere fancy. Although that is fine with me, I am sure she would break up with me if I took her to El Malecon for Valentine's Day. Besides, I wanted to get her something that she could keep forever. (Ok, memories are something that we can keep forever, but she is very forgetful.)

Then it resurfaced from deep within my brain. A vague memory of Yilin telling me that she wanted a hip flask. There was no context, no scenario with which this statement was attached. But there were no red flags either. Normally, if a woman were to just blurt out "I want a hip flask," I would immediately think "alcoholic." It's a natural response. Therefore, since there were no red flags, I assumed that Yilin and I were walking down the street, passing by window displays at some mega-expensive department store, and she saw an assortment, nay, a vast array of hip flasks. Then, and only then, she revealed a secret desire that she had thus far been unable to act upon. Her intense yearning for a hip flask, which she had been harboring for years. I realized at that moment that only a man like me could fulfill such a desire. So I stored that piece of information sans warnings and sirens. (At least, that is the story I will tell since I can't remember the scenario at all.)

I emailed my dad, who works for a company that does engraving on a large scale, asking if he could get some of the guys to engrave a message for me on a hip flask. He wrote back saying that the hip flask needed to have a matte finish for the best results, as a mirror-like sheen would reflect the laser and not become engraved. (I envisioned reflected laser beams shooting across the room, wreaking havoc in a James Bond sort of way.) Great, now I just needed a message, and it had to be in a file format that is used in computer aided design.

So naturally I emailed a fellow friend and classmate who is from China. Not only is she from China, but years ago she won second place in a huge (I think "national") calligraphy contest, which means that she has beautiful handwriting. I sent her a message which she kindly translated, wrote out, scanned, and emailed back to me. I then converted the scanned image to the proper file format using good old Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and emailed it to my dad.

The guys he works with engraved the hip flask, and my parents wrapped it up nicely and mailed it to me. The result:


I think it looks great, which is why I am posting a photo. I am not going to tell you what it says because it is lovey-dovey and mushy and, well, it basically says that it is from me to Yilin, and has the date: February 14, 2006. (I realize that Mr. and Mrs. Chen will be able to read the inscription, and I considered blurring it, but I wanted everyone to see how beautiful the characters look. The next time I see them I will certainly be embarassed.)

Great, I got the gift. Now I needed a plan. I told Yilin that I would make her dinner for Valentine's Day. Yesterday, when I finished up in lab, I ran to the grocery store to buy all the ingredients I needed to make seafood risotto using this recipe. Of course, the Washington Heights Gristede's does not have fresh shrimp and scallops, or dried porcini mushrooms. So I used frozen cooked shrimp and sliced white mushrooms. It came out fantastic. It was so good that I had to get Yilin to stop picking at it despite the fact that I told her that I had made dessert as well. (She knows that when I make dessert I always include her favorite food in the whole wide world, perhaps her favorite thing in the whole wide world: dark chocolate.)

I brought out dessert next: dark chocolate bowls containing vanilla ice cream and accompanied by pretzel sticks dipped in dark chocolate and chopped peanuts. I even made a dark chocolate and peanut heart for Yilin, too. She was so high from all the chocolate (and the white wine) that it was hilarious. She told me that she "loved the whole meal." Mission accomplished.


Then I went for the extra credit and pulled out the ribbon wrapped box. I was nervous that she might say, "Why the heck did you get me a hip flask? Do you think I am an alcoholic?" or "What does this say? Am I supposed to be able to read this?" She opened it, and at first was a little confused as to why I got her a hip flask, but read the inscription and told me that she loved it. All was well on Valentine's Day. Phew!