For Cupid Week

There has never been a Valentine’s Day that I have been in relationship. Some years I get close but for some reason or another the relationship will stop just shy of making it to the day of love. This used to bother me immensely. However, in the past few years I’ve tried turn Single Awareness Day ( S.A.D.) into a day of friendship.

One friend, Aerie, has helped me achieve this endeavour. Five years ago my ward decided to host what is now commonly called Cupid Week. Cupid week begins by matching a guy with a girl, and a girl with a guy (it works out that you never have a guy and girl who have each other). Then the week before Valentines Day anonymous acts are done everyday until the big V day. I’m not sure who came up with this idea but after doing Cupid Week for several years now I have to say that’s a lot of creativity to ask of the male population.

Anyway, my first year of this unique Mormon tradition Aerie was chosen to be my cupid. On the final day of cupid week Aerie sent me a sealed can with message. However, the message–comprised of magnetic letters–was scrambled . I had to try to unscramble the letters to figure out who my secret cupid admirer was (which is a lot harder than you think when you have a name with four vowels and one consonant).

The next year for cupid week I actually got suckered into helping match people up. Since, I was in charge of the fates of my ward members I decided to be Aerie’s cupid. Believe it or not I still had Aerie’s can of love from last year stuffed in the top of my pantry (I found it when I was trying to bake her some brownies, which tells you how often I bake). Being the creative male that I am I re-used and repackaged Aerie’s idea. Of course it didn’t take to much effort to figure out who had Aerie for cupid week that year.

The next year Aerie had already graduated from Law School and received a job in Denver. I had earlier introduced Aerie to my family who lives in Denver. About three days before Valentine’s Day I received a call from my younger brother. My brother heavily hinted to me how it might be a good idea to send Aerie something for Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, I was no longer the proud owner of the can and had to make do with a substitute, but nonetheless come Valentine’s Day Aerie received another can of love from her cupid buddy.

Several years have passed and each year Aerie and I take turns being the others cupid. This is my year, and since I am no longer a poor college student, I decided to graduate our little can to a very large flour canister, and fill it with fun and random Valentine love (I’ve given up on having her guess every year who her cupid is). This crazy tradition of sending our fun filled cans of love have given my relationship-less Valentine’s Day a much different and more fulfilling meaning!