valentine's day! yay!

so, the fantastic thing about valentine's day is that it marks the final countdown to my birthday -- four days! it might seem kind of silly to be almost twenty and still counting down, but birthdays are a big deal in my family. got a card from my nana and poppi on monday, which is all pretty and hanging on my bulletin board, and to my surprise, my mom called yesterday to say that she's mailing off my birthday present, which will be late; apparently she didn't want to get to my empty pigeonhole and be sad to find it empty. but i wasn't even expecting a package; just a card and my wee shopping spree, but now this is doubly exciting. i went and bought my birthday groceries today: pasta, white sauce, salmon steaks, spinach and veggies. it's been decided that the birthday festivities will kick off friday night with a trip to a pub for some cocktails, and will conclude on sunday with dinner and a movie, and i'm really, really excited, because our kitchen cooking parties are always awesome. pictures, of course, will follow. as of now, i am taking a break from my break (lol), as i was writing when val announced that she was off to the post office, and as i have been meaning to get there for a month (ooops...), i thought i should go along. thankfully, i ran into a display of the trashy romance novels i need to buy for class (you know. market research and that kind of thing)..... yeah. they are, if nothing less, trashy. take, for example, the first: the businessman's bride. that's under the mills and boon 'romance' imprint, which means that it's a lot more... chaste. or something like that. love scenes are consumated behind closed doors, etc. and then i also purchased the greek's virgin (!!!!!!!!!!), which is under the 'modern romance' imprint, which means that it is to take place in an 'international and glamorous' locale. both, of course, feature the much needed alpha male character and.... yeah. i really don't know what i'll do with this, but the plan is that i shall do as much as possible with my austen essay today and take tomorrow to camp out in a cute cafe (i'm thinking queen's cafe on high street; it's really pretty and i've always, always wanted to go in....), read said trashy novels, and start my analysis. and who knows? maybe my muse will be so enraged at the inferiority of quality that 'twill prompt me to write a few scenes of my own. we'll see. anyway, i suppose that is the week to come. today will find me doing more with emma, as well as muddling through an hour and a half of aquinas. perhaps i'll dine in, that way i can throw on PJs and do some hardcore work. aaaaand... right. tomorrow is devoted to writing, friday to getting through class and then celebrating with cocktails, saturday to recovering (lol. no hangovers this weekend. that is my stipulation) and wine class, and then sunday to dinner and a movie. yay!!!! anyway, with that said, i am off.