This week on The Love Project we're talking about Love Notes.
The video is a kind of cute little video of a man struggling for the right words for his love note.
Do you like to use humor in your writing? I know for me, a sense of humor is very important, so I love a little humor mixed in with a "love note." The best way I've found to do this is to remember a time the two of you laughed together and then refer to it in your note... sometimes writing a little poem where only the two of you will "get" the joke is the best kind of humor in a "love note."For example, I once had a boyfriend who was very proper and told me he never farted in front of his wife (back in the days when he was married.) He actually went into the bathroom to do his farts. Except one day, he had bad gas so he went to a back bedroom. He told me how his wife came sniffing in like a dog and her nose led her to the bed where he'd been sitting. She actually put her nose right on the mattress where he'd been sitting and wanted to know why it stunk!
When my boyfriend told me this story, we were both laughing uncontrollably. In fact, I'm laughing right now as I'm writing about it. It was just so funny. I teased him that I'd know he really loved me when he felt comfortable farting in front of me.
That Valentine's Day I wrote him a poem. I remember one of the stanzas was something like:
Warning: Wine or other alcohol may be a key in finding humor in something that may sound stupid when sober.
Want more ideas? Check out Funny Love Letters for samples and more hints about how to write funny love letters. And if you look over to the menu on the left, you'll find ideas for all kinds of love letters!
We know about eCards and there are the traditional cards from Hallmark, but what are some creative ways to express your love?
In my guest post for Pick The Brain (yet to be published so I can't hyperlink to it yet...) I give some ideas about how to write a unique love note. For example, you can use Scrabble letters to spell out a message and then maybe leave a 'U' out and say something like "All I need is U."
You can figure out how to write stuff in all kinds of ways... Write a message on a cake or in the clouds or (as pictured) on a park bench.
Another fun idea might be to use all kinds of different methods of communication and send a different message every hour... maybe with a new clue to a riddle.
Being a geek who loves puzzles, one of my favorite love notes was written in code. I finally figured out it was in ASCII (computer machine code) and was able to translate it.
More geeky love notes can be found here.
What was the most unique love note you've ever gotten or given?
Assignment 6: Send a note of love to someone you care about. You can use email or an eCard or a traditional greeting card or make your own.
Note: This does not have to be a romantic card. It can be to a friend, a parent, a child or even someone you don't know... someone who is sick or in a nursing home. Feel free to write a love note to yourself, reminding yourself of all your beautiful qualities. Be creative and tell me about it in the comments or on a blog post.
Background: Valentine's Day is coming up, so of course, if you want to make this into a Valentine's activity, do this again on the 14th. However, I put this as an assignment for this week because I think it's even more fun to receive an unexpected greeting for no occasion. I remember getting an eCard from a friend once that said "Just because you're wonderful." This was not from a close friend. In fact, other than that eCard (which he sent a couple of years ago) I have barely heard from him. He has a girlfriend and there was absolutely no romantic intent in his words. I don't know what motivated him to send the eCard as I hadn't done anything particularly wonderful that I knew of. He may have heard I was going through a rough time... or maybe not. All I know is that it brought tears to my eyes. It felt so good to have someone think of me out of the blue and tell me I was wonderful. So, whether you use the "L" word or not, this week tell someone they're loved with a surprise greeting.
Spread the Love
Are you a blogger? Leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll add your blog to our Love Link List. Check it out to find not just blogs, but sites and other projects designed to spread love.
Help me spread the word by cutting and pasting the following into your status:
Join The Love Project: http://bit.ly/aJWbG0 #love2011
I used to be confused or take it personally when someone wouldn’t be pleased by the same thing that pleased me. We’re so used to hearing the golden rule: Do unto others as we would have them do unto us. But really, it should be: Do unto others as they would want… which may not necessarily be what we would want ourselves.
Defining yourself comes from a combination of articulating your values and acknowledging your strengths. Knowing these things will give you a clear picture of where you want to go and the tools you have to get there.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but it is amazing how much we "judge" based on a picture. This week we are talking about Self-Portraits on The Love Project, so I wanted to talk about the impressions we give and get, sometimes without even knowing it.
I've become a guest blogger for Pick The Brain (a site I really love about self-improvement.) Today they posted the article I wrote entitled: Three Free Sexy Secrets and one of those secrets was "a genuine smile."
Now, it is a nice little perk for me that Pick The Brain picks out the photo to go with the article (I'm quite lazy about that) and any good blogger knows that posts with photos get more traffic. (Once again, photos are an important differentiator in the world of social media.) But, the photo they picked was a closeup of two lips kissing. The first person who commented said:
"Good topic, bad picture – a little moist, no?"
Yup! I'm a little embarrassed to promote that article because I don't want people to think I picked out that picture.
Sexy stuff is what "sells" -- or so they say. More people will click through on blog posts if they see the word "sexy" or see the hint of a sexy picture. My whole point of that article, though, was that what is "sexy" (at least to me) is a genuine smile of a regular person... not two wet lips getting ready to kiss.
In the book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the impressions we make, often without even knowing we are making them. When I see a public self-portrait of someone in an I'm-trying-to-look-sexy pose, I usually think, "They're kinda full of themselves." This is especially true if the context is an online-dating photo. There was one guy who's profile had a bunch of shirtless photos of him doing various exercises. Now true... he had a good-looking body and maybe some women would be impressed, but good body or not, publicly showing it off gave me the impression that this guy was self-centered. I would much rather date a humble, genuine guy with a few extra pounds than someone who is checking himself out in the mirror every 10 minutes
Of course, our first impressions might be wrong. I actually met this guy, and he didn't seem nearly as arrogant as I'd pegged him to be. We didn't end up dating, but I was glad I met him and to know that my quick judgment was not entirely accurate.
I've struggled with kind of a similar issue regarding my book, "The Laptop Dancer Diaries." I've had varied reactions from the title and the cover (designed by my daughter.) The title, of course, is a play on words, combining laptop and lap dancers. So people may think the book is about cyber sex or perhaps the diary of a stripper. I've worried about that because it's really about a woman who is abnormally close to her laptop (ie "geek") trying to be sexy. The review I got that I thought was most accurate was "Erma Bombeck meets Sex and the City." And while I often worry that readers will be disappointed when they find out the book is not all that "sexy," I'm always so flattered to get kind reviews such as this one.
In any case, whether we're talking about book covers, titles or photos, like it or not, we do judge, often without even knowing it. We are attracted to sexy. But sexy can mean different things to different people. For me, it's a smile. What is it for you?
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