Here’s a little story about me and Valentine’s Day.

A year ago today I mistakenly left my Facebook profile logged in at the office with no clue as to the consequences. My wonderful work colleagues decided to take advantage of this and hijack my FB status by posting that “I was looking for a cheap date for Valentine’s Day and that I liked The Notebook & Love Actually”

The Facebook reaction was swift with quite a lot of my online friends finding it really funny and teasing me about it but the joke was on my colleagues… I do actually like those movies! All this to say that all the activity on my page made it so that my status appeared in someone I was admiring from afar’s newsfeed.

That person was Tara Hunt… having pity on me she invited me to an event that was she was going to on Valentine’s Day. The event was a screening of Casablanca (which I’m ashamed to say I had never seen) at the Rialto Montreal which is an amazing old theater and the perfect place to see that movie.

Being a fan of Tara I was excited that she had noticed me while at the same time full of panic because I was going there on my own (all my friends bailed). That said I manned up and went on my own, all dressed up to boot!

Once there I saw her from afar, she was breathtaking ( check her out here http://on.fb.me/xZdaMn ) & surrounded by at least half a dozen friends. At that point, all that courage escaped and my shyness took over. Also, the last thing I wanted to be was that geeky fanboy from the internet that showed up alone.

So there I was, sitting on my own in the last row of this amazing theater watching this classic movie, surrounded by couples enjoying a romantic Valentine. All the time kicking myself for being such a wimp and not having the courage to just walk up and say hi!

I ended up leaving before the movie ended (don’t tell me the ending!) with my head low and disappointed in myself. The details of what happened in the weeks following that will be for another time To put it simply, fate intervened and I’m now totally in love with the woman I most look up to and admire.

However, once again this year I’m spending Valentine’s day alone but not in my heart. Tara is out doing what she does which is be amazing and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So this post is my way of saying happy Valentine’s Day to the woman I love.

note: this post was originally on my Facebook wall but I decided to repost it here for it to be easier to find and link back to.