Yes, that’s right, kittens! The day is here for the super, fabulous Unpredictable contest that I mentioned on Monday! All you have to do is answer the question at the end of Eileen Cook’s guest post here. That’s it! Seriously, not too hard. The winner will be announced Friday. What does the winner get, you ask? Well, first off, Miss Eileen Cook will be sending a copy of her brand new novel to you and to sweeten the deal, I’ll throw in a $5 Starbucks gift card. This way you can read your new book and drink that mocha frou frou stuff you like. Or if you are like me, some hot chocolate, because I hate coffee! Depending on how many people enter the contest, I might throw in another Starbucks gift card. MAYBE. Consider it my Valentine’s Day gift to you. So spread the word!

Let’s see what Eileen has to say.

———

What we do for love
(subtitled I must have been on drugs)

 

There is a theory that being in love releases a chemical reaction in the brain. This chemical reaction is the only explanation I can come up with for some of the things I’ve done in pursuit of love. Clearly, I wasn’t in my right mind.

Humiliating myself in the pursuit of love came easily to me starting at a very early age. In junior high my girlfriends and I would call the object of our affection and when he would pick up the phone we would give a super sonic giggle (capable of being heard only by dogs) and then hang up. Looking back on this- the purpose of the call eludes me. We didn’t give our name so the point must not have been to let him know we liked him. We never actually spoke to the guy in question so getting to know him also wasn’t a goal. The best I can determine is that the purpose of the call was to establish that he was in fact home. How this brought us closer to our beloved is unclear.

Then there were the stalking years. One guy that I liked worked in the mall. Along with a posse of my friends we would walk s-l-o-w-l-y by the front of the store dressed in our very best. We would then wait about .05 seconds and then repeat the slow walk going in the other direction. This would then repeat over and over sometimes lasting for hours. In today’s high security society no doubt I would have been arrested as a suspected retail terrorist- but those were simpler times.

By University my ability to go all out in the pursuit of love would lead me to signing up for a course on Ancient Chinese History simply so I could sit next to a guy I liked. I endured an entire semester of trying to memorize names that all rhymed. Was that Emperor Chin? No Lin. There were hours long road trips to show up (all casual like) at a party and one instance were I swore I LOVED downhill skiing (despite never having gone before) and then nearly killed myself in an effort to look like we had a shared interest.

A friend recently told me a great story. She had the intern where she works call the object of her affection and gave him a fake survey so she could learn all about him. On a scale of 1-5 how important are looks to you in choosing mate? It’s a shame I’m married now- because I thought this was a brilliant plan.

So why do we do it? Why do something insane for love? Because sometimes it works. After all- I married the Ancient Chinese History guy.

What have you done in the name of love?

Contest over! Thanks everyone! Winner will be announced shortly!