Happy V-day

As a tribute to this romantic holiday I would like to tell you, my dear reader about my wonderful boyfried Jedi. He has a plethora of attributes that would recommend him to many women as an ideal man. He is kind and generous, loves to cook, and has an appreciation for arts be it a concert, musical, exhibit, or graffiti. He is open minded and fairly liberal in life and politics, which suits me well as I fancy myself to be like-minded.

But all these things are fairly generic, not that they aren't vital, but these are not the stand-out reasons why I love him. Jedi has a singular passion for music that brings joy and excitement to everyday. Music by diverse groups of artists, both mainstream and little known bands capture his imagination and inspire him to quiet reflection, frentic dancing, joyous revelry, and boisterous singing. A soul of music and light is what attracted me to him.

Once upon a time, not all that long ago, Jedi worked as a deejay. Weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, School Dances, you name it, he spun the records for it. Even though he has not worked professionally for some years, when we started dating he would occasionally put some CDs up and use his equipment to mix dance music, adding beats, crossfading, scratching, the whole nine yards. When I moved in last month, there was very little room for my stuff in his apartment (because one of his roommate who was moving out still had her stuff there). One day I came home from work and low and behold, Jedi moved all of his gear so that my dresser could be setup and I would have a little space to call my own. To me, that is romance.

Our common adoration of food provides many opportunities for trying new items at the grocery store, at restaurants, and at friend's homes. Jedi is meticulous in the kitchen, he buys materials suggested by his favorite commercial producer come celebrity chef, Alton Brown. Two years ago, The Brown One, my second roommate and friend, collected funds to get Jedi the first several seasons of Alton's cooking show, Good Eats. He refers back to episodes frequently. My favorite of the AB recipes that he has tried are the pork ribs (no big surprise there huh?), pancakes, meatloaf, and turkey. I am hoping he will soon try to take on Mr. Brown's onion soup, or I may just be up to the challenge myself.

My boyfriend is a dedicated worker too. The meticulousness in the kitchen is probably a hundred-fold more when he is working. Admittedly, I did not have a good understanding of his job as a Computer Consultant until we were in Hawaii where I experienced his work ethic up close and personal. It was a side of him that I had not seen before and brought out a level of professionalism that I admired, especially since it proved to be a difficult situation. His patience knows no bounds when he is trying to relate certain problems at work to me, much of which I have trouble understanding. Proudly, I consider myself better educated in computer networking from these discussions and am even capable of solving problems sometimes on my work computer from what I have learned.

Valentine's Day really isn't an important holiday other then the fact that it gives me the chance to tell everyone about my Valentine. Okay, I don't mind the chocolate either...