Hello, my name is Cory, and I am a serial procrastinator. That feels good to get off my chest.
I've been a procrastinator most of my life. I live by the motto "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?" The reason I procrastinate is that most of the time I can get away with it. The reality is, most things can wait until tomorrow... or the next day... or maybe even next week.
But this is not true with Valentine's Day, which I learned a long time ago. Procrastination means forgetting to make a dinner reservation until the day of only to find out that every place in town that takes reservations is already booked. And let's face it. Valentine's Day is a day when you want to go to a place that takes reservations. McDonald's isn't going to cut it. This is a cautionary tale to those of you who, like me, put everything off until the last minute.
Let me start by telling you about 2 Valentine's Days in the 16 Valentine's Days since my wife and I started dating in the Fall of 1996. The first is our first Valentine's Day in 1997. I was a senior in high school, and this was my first Valentine's Day with a serious girlfriend.
As a high school student in Waco, Texas in 1997, naturally I wanted to pull out all the stops and take my date to the only logical place a guy would take a girl for Valentine's Day - The Olive Garden. I picked up my beautiful date around 6:30 and we arrived at the restaurant around 6:45 to find a 2-hour wait. As romantic as The Olive Garden is, neither one of us wanted to wait that long, but we realized our mistake. We hadn't made reservations anywhere, and everywhere worth going would be just as busy.
That's when inspiration hit us. We headed to the bar and ordered takeout from The Olive Garden. Within 30 minutes, we were back at her house enjoying a lovely Italian dinner. It was not the most romantic thing in the world, but it was perfect for us. That became a bit of a tradition for us for the next few years as we celebrated Valentine's Day.
Fast forward to 2003. We had been together for a little over 6 years, and married for a year-and-a-half, and Valentine's Day was fast approaching. We had decided to do something different this year, and it was up to me to make reservations somewhere. My wife reminded me several times in the month or 2 leading up to the big day, but as a serial procrastinator of course I put it off. Two weeks before Valentine's Day, I started calling places in Austin to make a reservation only to find that everywhere was booked. My only option was to make reservations at 4pm or 10:30pm. I was in pretty hot water at this point because my wife knew I had waited too long to get reservations anywhere.
Fortunately for me, she was a regular listener to a popular morning radio show in Austin, the JB and Sandy Show, and that year they had made several fake reservations at various places in town. They were giving them away to lucky listeners who called in and gave them the best story for why they needed the reservations. My wife told me about the contest and basically said this was my one chance to redeem myself.
I woke up early one morning about a week before Valentine's Day and called into the show. They informed me that the contest would be happening an hour later, so I hung up the phone and waited an hour to call back. Luckily I got through, but I found out that I would be competing against 2 other callers for the coveted reservations. Each caller had to tell his sob story, and the hosts would decide which one they thought deserved the reservations. Long story short, I told them how I was a serial procrastinator and my wife already knew that I forgot to make the reservations, and they picked me. Crisis averted. We ended up having dinner at Sullivan's Steakhouse that year under a fake reservation placed by the JB and Sandy morning show.
I was lucky both of those times, but you might not be so lucky if you put off making Valentine's Day plans until the last minute. Here are some tips from a serial procrastinator on how to do Valentine's Day.
1. Make reservations at least 3 weeks ahead of time.
If you wait any longer than that, you run the risk of missing out on the prime locations and times around town. Obviously, if you have not yet made reservations, it's too late for you this year. Fortunately, our friends at Cafe Homestead are hosting one of their farm-to-table dinners Friday night, so there's still a chance you might be ale to get in. Go here to find out.
2. If you can't get reservations, do takeout and have a nice dinner at home.
There's no shame in that. My wife and I have done that many times. Get some candles and make it as romantic as possible. Or get a tv tray and watch the Olympics while you eat. Do whatever makes the most sense for you and your significant other. Be sure and call ahead so the food is ready when you get there.
3. If you can cook, do that.
Seriously, girls love a guy that can cook. If you can cook, it's a no-brainer. Do that.
4. Get flowers.
Always get flowers. Always. This is non-negotiable. If you are a procrastinator like me, you have a good excuse. You can't get flowers until the last minute anyway. HEB always has good flowers the day of Valentine's Day.
5. Don't just get a box of chocolates.
Nothing says "I put no thought into this" like a box of chocolates. Chocolates are nice, but do that and something else like flowers.
6. Be creative.
Write her a poem or a song. Paint her a picture. Make a video with photos of the 2 of you together. Doing something creative is a gesture that will go a lot further than remembering to make reservations.
If you've put off making plans until today, there's still hope. You can do most of the things I mentioned the day of. Just try and do a better job next year, ok?
