Day 38, 14 Feb: "Your Kiss" and "Musical You"

Norfolk Terrace, Day 38. [0:43] “Your Kiss” and “Musical You”

            Valentine’s Day. It ended in happy tears after a two-hour skype, starting at 10:30pm my time and 2:30pm her time. As much as it was heartwrenching and sad that the first Valentine’s Day with Katya had to be a rose-less affair from 5000 kilometres away, I would be remiss if I did not say that we felt each other’s kiss in another way. (I guess I’ve never really talked about my girlfriend on this blog (well, it is a travel log, really), but let me just say that she is the quintessence of adorableness. For one thing, she plays the ukulele and sings along with her beautiful mezzosoprano voice.) So tonight, we exchanged a token of our love for each other through verse and song. She sent me a video of her playing and singing her original song “Your Kiss”, specifically about us, and another video of her singing a youtube star’s Valentine’s Day song as well. I watched them before our skype date, and within a half-hour, I responded to the video (the first one) by composing “Musical You”, a Spencerian sonnet (traditionally spelled “Spenserian” after the originator Edmund Spenser; it’s the form embedded in his medieval work Faerie Queene; but it’s my name in this case, so a change was in order) as a token of my appreciation for her song, her love, and her. Her song really made me feel in the moment with her: as the lyrics said, in the library reading while she would await her chance to steal my book and then I’d tickle her and people would “shh” at us.

            The rest of the day really built up to that. I know that a “skype date” is a virtually mediated meeting for two lovers, but the event and the emotions are as real as if we were talking somehow without holding hands or kissing—yeah, skype makes you have that suspension of disbelief feeling you get in movies. You normally wouldn’t just talk with your significant other, would you? Exactly, suspension of disbelief. You just have to go with the limits to adjust to the reality it composes for you.

Romantic Dessert (Brownies + Cookies N' Cream Ice Cream)

            I finished Emily Brontё’s Wuthering Heights, but I definitely had 21 pages left at the time I rushed to class. I was frustrated, but Robbie’s lecture (a nickname that I attribute to Stef) was insightful yet it short-cutted WH and focused more quotes on Charlotte Brontё’s Jane Eyre (yeah, we had two novels to read this week. Guess I have a day to read the other one. *I’ll just start it.*). Creative Writing week 5 was one of my best experiences  in writing: just like how yesterday I wasn’t in the mood to read but enough diligence got me into a really focused reading mode, today the same thing happened for writing about characters and their voice. I somehow was able to really vibe in the voice of this sarcastic, youngest-girl-with-three-older-brothers character (the sarcasm I attribute to Katya whole-heartedly).

            Dinner was a vegetable and chicken stir-fry, but not artistic enough to warrant a picture. But Stephen’s brownie-making skills deserve one! He made both dinner and dessert for his sweetheart Marie (yep, both in my same flat. *aww*). Another great couple to mention is Charlie and his Valentine coming all the way up from London for the day, I believe. Then who can forget the 5-year-and-some-days couple Steff and Jen. Aww, the day of love it was for this flat, as a general theme to the atmosphere.

            I’m just going to end by saying that love is as personal as a custom glove—the chemistry and the flow of interaction is so nuanced, so fitted for both lovers, so totally encapsulated in a microcosm of two people sharing life and their experiences together. There is nothing else quite like it. Those three words are only overspoken if meaning is lost—with meaning, even in distance, “I love you” can still continue.