The CheckerBoard

I'm very late to this thread but thoroughly enjoyed reading it all this morning! Many great comments in here.

My one piece of advice a couple days ago (because clearly Crockett doesn't need advice at this point) would have been to not assume that you're the only game in town. If she's as awesome as you think, she probably has other duders fighting for her attention (my initial reax to her "no Valentine's Day" thing was that she already had a date planned with another guy that she wasn't as into as you). Blow those jokers out of the water. No mercy.

When I got to be a touch older (like 27), I developed my own dating style (ok, I stole it) I called Smothering. If I met someone cute/fun/smart/interesting, I would Smother her with lots of attention and fun dates in rapid succession. As Rucker said earlier, this helped me (and the girl) figure out if something was there faster, and it basically blocked any other guys in the picture because she literally wouldn't have time for them. If it got past 3 dates (which would usually happen in like 10 days), I knew it had potential and would likely last to around 3 months (about when the "serious talk" would need to go down). Needless to say, I'm glad Crockett went big on Valentine's (although sending something large and unhideable to the office was a bit risky).

Everyone needs their own style, and Smothering isn't for the meek, but when I met my wife, I didn't mess around, got her locked down quick (my strongest move - I flew her to NYC for a 24 hour date after 4-5 weeks), and I'll be honest - I married WAY up. Isn't that we're all trying to do?

Best of luck on the next date. The pressure is on because she raised the bar on you with a creative, fun activity date (honestly, that's a fantastic sign for a 2nd/3rd date, like seriously fantastic).

Tallbrad gets it. You're signed up to be on the one of the panels for our seminar, "Romance for Dummies -- Help for Desperate Male Vols With No Concept of the Workings of the Feminine Brain."

Ghost giving advice on how to deal with women? I'm down with the other three, but let's not get carried away ...

I don't mind clotheslining folks..

I'll go dust off the Nikita Kohloff VHS

I'm in. I can speak on two major themes: 1. Chasing Women Is More Fun Than Catching Them, and 2. No Matter How Hot She Is, Somebody Somewhere Is Sick Of Her Shiate.

Ahh, what is that but love that is in the air
Ask the hot train chick out, if you dare
This type of tactic, I never knew
Would get you free admission to the zoo

But The Ten's false apathy about Valentine's Day
Could have thrown Crockett off of love's pathway
But for that little ruse, Crockett's much too smart
So he sent a big bear to win over her heart

A Poem by Henry Gibson