A rememberence of Valentine's Days past

Ah, the memories of my first Valentine's Day with a boyfriend. Names in this story have been obscured to protect the innocent.

I was 15. The First Boyfriend was a year older than me. We used to double date with our friends C and D. I thought having a boyfriend was the BEST THING IN THE WORLD!!! Valentine's Day was coming up and The First Boyfriend and C decided they were going to take me and D out for dinner and a movie. This was 1996. Bed of Roses, starring Mary Stuart Masterson and Christian Slater, was out in theaters. D and I had guessed that the guys were taking us to see this sure-to-be-romantic movie and we were so excited. What could be better than boyfriends, dinner and Christian Slater??? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

So since I was 15 and they were all 16 and the driving age in New Jersey is 17, my dad drove me to C's house and his mom drove us over to the shopping center that held a TGIFridays and an AMC movie theater. Man, living in style. At C's house, the boys gave us laydeez each one rose. That was so great! Then at dinner, there were roses waiting for me and D on the table. Wow! These guys sure know romance, we thought. During a trip to the bathroom, D and I decided that it was official: they gave us roses at home, roses at the restaurant, we were OBVIOUSLY GOING TO SEE BED OF ROSES!!!!

After dinner, we walked over to the movie theater. It was packed. The guys went inside to get the tickets they had reserved. D and I looked at the board and noticed that Bed of Roses was sold out. "Good thing they bought tickets in advance," she said. Good thing indeed. When the guys came back, they gave us each ANOTHER ROSE! They held the movie tickets behind their backs. C said "We wanted to take you to a movie we knew you'd like." D and I could hardly contain our excitement! The First Boyfriend said, "So are you ready?" YES WE WERE READY! CHRISTIAN SLATER TIME! BED OF ROSES! BED OF ROSES! They brought the tickets out from behind their backs, handed one to each of us and smiled. D and I cheered...until we saw on the tickets, where Bed of Roses should be:



MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND.



We sat in the front row and a little kid kept putting popcorn in my hair. D and I made a pact that night to never see Bed of Roses.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!