Everyone Should Celebrate Valentine Day

When Valentine Day approaches, it is marketed so heavily toward straight heterosexual couples that it's no wonder the event creates some worry and second-guessing among the communities of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered (GLBT) people.

With their ongoing fight for rights and recognition in society, one might simply assume that they would want to participate in the giving of floral arrangements, chocolate, and all the rest of the celebrations.

But some in these communities, who aren't even sure they want to partake of the institutions of heterosexuality, have doubts that they should participate in this festival either.

Yet there are those who would be quite willing to take part in Valentine Day celebrations on a larger scale, if the options were made available to them.

In 2008, Rich Ferraro of the Out Front Blog (http://www.fhoutfront.com/2008/02/gay-teddy-bears.html) did some searches to see what sort of unique Valentine gift, suited to the GLBT community, might be offered by the major retailers.

He found almost nothing, except a few gay-themed cards and the usual more generic floral arrangements and gender neutral merchandise. Ferraro believes the big retailers are ignoring a financial gold mine by ignoring the GLBT market.

Heterosexual couples think of Valentine Day in an almost matter-of-fact way, as one among many other institutions they simply take for granted. They might be surprised to discover that what is usually just a fun, romantic day for them might be the focus of so much either/or thinking among gays and lesbians.

Do they want to be part of the mainstream, or do they stay outside it? Should they stick to "gay" companies that offer gay-only options for the day, or should they repudiate the concept altogether? The right choice isn't necessarily an obvious one.

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Caring And Thinking About Valentine Day Ideas

The automatic assumption in many people's minds when they contemplate Valentine Day ideas is that they are planning for an evening of romance. Much care and thought goes into cooking that special dinner, creating the atmosphere with candles and floral arrangements, and dreaming up the one perfect gift that will express everything they feel.

Of course, for many couples, there's the added spice of seduction thrown into the mix. But Valentine's Day is about more than romance. It can be a special day for kids too, and can even be a day where you help others who are alone or less fortunate.

For kids, you might plan a Valentine theme party. There are all sorts of ideas for these, and plenty of decorations in the stores to help you set the scene. Younger children might enjoy coloring Valentines to give to each other.

You can play games like hunting for treasure, which of course would be Valentine treats. Other Valentine's Day ideas for a kids' party might include putting candies inside balloons before you inflate them, and then at the end of the party have the children pop the balloons and be surprised at the extra treats.

Nor should you lack for Valentine Day ideas even if you are alone yourself. You can take baskets of treats to those who are shut-in, or take the day as an opportunity to thank people who have done you a kindness in the past few months. Send flowers anonymously.

Give yourself a good dinner or treat yourself to a luxurious, relaxing, decadent trip to a spa. Even if romance isn't involved, there's no reason why Valentine's Day shouldn't be a special day for everyone.

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Making Better Choices About Valentines Day Gift Ideas

If you go by the advertising, then the romantic elements of Valentine's Day seem geared more toward women than men. It's not that men don't appreciate the day, or don't want to be caring to their partner, but the Valentines Day gift ideas usually presented tend to emphasize gifts to give to women, rather than the other way around.

Yet both genders need to understand what sorts of gifts the other side really wants, if the day is to be a success.

Men, meanwhile, really can't go wrong if they use the www.askmen.com website's "Valentines Day Gift Ideas" page. The insight demonstrated here, in every category from "New Romance" to "Newlyweds," to "Long Term Relationship," gives men pretty much all they need to understand how women will interpret specific gifts.

For example, the site suggests giving a heart-shaped pendant as Valentine jewelry to a new girlfriend, as something "sweet but not too serious," while an Espresso maker would be seen as indicating more serious commitment.

It's something that really can't be circumvented. The Valentines Day gift ideas that would be most pleasing to a woman probably won't interest a man, and vice versa. Both people will likely enjoy an intimate Valentines dinner, but when it comes to gift-giving, they need to tailor their presents much more specifically.

If each can make the effort to get into the other's head and learn what they really value most, then their gift on Valentines Day will be much more appreciated, and it will show that they truly want to make their partner happy.

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Bringing All The Elements Together With Valentine's Day Planning

If you want to throw a special Valentine theme party, you'll need lots of time to prepare and bring all the elements together. In fact, there aren't that many Valentine's plans you can make that won't involve some time and preparation, unless you're keeping it very simple.

The important thing is to start your Valentine's Day planning early enough that all the details can be attended to and be ready in time. You don't want to find yourself angry or really frazzled from trying to finish things at the last minute.

You can look in the various event guides or you might simply go with your heart in your Valentine's Day planning. An evening reading to each other by the fireplace, with some wine and strawberries, for example, can be very simple but provide an evening of sweet romance.

While you may not want to try most things in the Kama Sutra, without doubt you could glean a few romance tips from the book as you read it together and probably laugh a little.

If your Valentine's Day planning doesn't extend beyond a nice meal at home and a quiet evening, then you probably don't need to make many explicit arrangements. But even if you add a simple gift exchange, that adds to the need to plan.

Something much more elaborate than that requires both time and attention to a lot of details. Be sure to allow yourself time to accomplish everything you need to do, so when the big day arrives, you can enjoy it, rather than fretting about whether everything is ready.

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Better Ideas For A Romantic Valentine's Day

You can plan your romantic Valentine's Day so that it is one long setup for your dinner in the evening and a night of love after that.

If you live with your significant other, then you can begin by leaving little notes, telling them why you love them; perhaps giving tantalizing clues about plans for later in the day.

Throughout the day you can send little gifts to them, like a floral arrangement or a book of poetry perhaps, at their workplace or at home.

If you want to have a special meal, you could plan a picnic with all of your partner's favorite dinner food. Depending on where you live, it might be a little chilly to have it outside, though you could still pick a location that's special to the two of you.

If you want to make it really something out of the ordinary, even if it's a meal at home, you could turn it into the most romantic Valentine's Day dinner ever, by hiring a violinist for the evening.

Of course, you very likely expect that your romantic Valentine's Day will be crowned by a subsequent night of love. You might precede this by a session in the "spa," being a bubble bath with candles and soft music, followed by being wrapped in warm, fluffy towels.

Perhaps you might set the tone by a gift exchange of sexy lingerie. If you plan well, you can make the entire day the foreplay to sweet intimacy at the end of the day.

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The Hazy Origins Of St. Valentines Day

The first thing you discover, when you start looking for the origins of Valentines Day, is that there were actually three people known as Saint Valentine. But surely, you would think, there must be a significant element of romance or unrequited love in the life of one of these individuals, which will help narrow things down.

After all, there's got to be a good reason why the day is known as St. Valentines Day. Yet a search for some element like this is pretty much fruitless.

These three saints were honored through the centuries, but in the popular mind there was only one Valentine by the time St. Valentines Day actually began to be celebrated.

People built fictions around the life of this mythical figure, some based in what appears to be fact, in which the Valentine of Rome ran afoul of the Emperor Claudius.

But there are no real love poems or letters in the story, beyond one letter supposedly written to the daughter of Valentine's jailer. The connection with romance simply isn't there, despite the mythologizing.

In the end, the three martyred Valentines had almost nothing to do with the actual history of Valentines Day. What likely happened was that the church, trying to swallow up the pagan Lupercalia fertility festival held in mid-February, used the names of these men to create a toned-down Christian festival to replace it.

Thus St. Valentines Day was born, not from a story of romance in the life of a real person named Valentine, but from the efforts of the church to put forth its own rivals.

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Good Friends Are Soul Mates For Ever

Good friends are people you can trust, helping each other whenever the need arises. There may be a personal crisis, a family problem, a relationship meltdown with possible breakup of your family. These are the times when you turn to your soul mates, your best friends.

You may have been in a relationship for a number of years and you are concerned it will suddenly end. Rather than sitting in a darkened room, drowning in negative thoughts without any solutions, you can contact your soul mates for solutions. A soul mate may be outside your relationship, has had the experience of similar relationship problems and has kept their relationship intact.

Talking about these experiences and the solutions found, may help to heal your relationship and keep your family together. Hearing another voice, may be the answer to your problem.

If you need to find new friends, then you can attend the usual social gatherings at parties, bars, nightclubs and socialize with your workplace colleagues.

Another option, is to find new friends online. You can find many new friends, by participating in chat channels, live web cams and other online facilities. Many these new friends may be living in your neighbourhood, making it easier to meet face to face.

These days, there are many ways to find good friends.

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Making A Good Impression With First Date Conversation Starters

First date conversation starters need to be all positive statements and calm enquiries. For example, you may start with flattering statements about clothes, movies and other non-threatening topics.

Most of the initial conversation is about searching to find out if you are compatible. If you find you work in a similar field, you may discuss a little about work and future career plans.

If you are really still looking for something to break the ice, you can go to the last hope and ask her about hobbies. She may play the piano and you play the guitar, you want to have a little jam session making music together on your next date.

During your conversations, you will get an idea if you are interested in seeing her again and if she is interested in arranging another date. If she keeps eye contact, smiles, laughs at your jokes and continues the conversation, then she is sending you positive signals. Especially if your first date runs for hours on end and you did not realise time has flown so quickly.

This is the time to arrange for the next date. Stay in touch over the next few days, just in case she has questions, or you may want to confirm details of the next meeting place.

Even though this may be your second date, you should have received new ideas about what pleases her and if you do not want her to escape from your affections, then you should make every effort to please her.

For example she may like to see a new movie that has just arrived at the cinemas. You ask her to see the movie together and then take her to a nearby restaurant and discuss the movie. Your second date is much easier, as you know more about her personality and have more of an idea what she is like.

She may have looked nice in the photo, but it may have been taken years ago. She may have looked better when online dating with webcams, so that you can see her talking to you.

But now you are on a physical date together, you have better ideas with first date conversation starters.

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Finding Better Dates With Online Dating Sites

Online dating sites are rather popular these days, as these sites allow you to access a wider number of people, than attending social events. When you attend a social a event, you may find a small number of people who may be compatible to your needs.

Alternatively, when you go online, there may be thousands of people, living in your local area, who may have exactly what you need in a date.

This is why dating sites are popular, especially those people who do not have the time to attend endless social events to find a compatible partner. When you go online, you can browse the personal profiles of available dates, anytime, 24/7.

If you are searching dating sites for the first time, you may notice there are free to join dating sites, there are paid sites and there are totally free dating sites. Once you visit a number of these sites, you may notice the free to join and the totally free sites are rather limited in their dating resources.

Some free sites may not allow you to contact dating prospects until you upgrade your membership to a paid membership. Once you find the limitations rather restrictive, then you may look at upgrading, especially if you find one or two dating prospects rather appealing.

Once you become a paid member, you may access dating resources you can use to contact your online date, including online chat and online dating with webcams. You may also have access to dating information and advice

Taking advantages of these resources will help improve your chances in finding compatible dating friends with online dating sites.

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Free To Join Option With Adult Online Dating Sites

Adult online dating sites allow you the possibility of contacting potential dates in your local area, in another state and all over the world. Many of these sites are free to join, but offer severe limitations on your ability to contact members.

This is when you need to consider the advantages of upgrading to a paid membership account, including the advantages of using dating resources to contact prospective dates.

Many people initially take up the free offer to join a dating site and then upgrade to a paid account once they realise the facilities available to paid members. These facilities may include online chat, online dating with web cams and access to other dating resources, including dating tips and ideas.

Depending on the limitations of your free account, you may be able to look at profiles of other members and get ideas on how to make your profile much more interesting.

Be sure to include at least two photos of yourself, one head and shoulders and the other in full profile, head to toe. The full profile image should be one where you are on vacation or somewhere outdoors, to show you are an active person.

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When You Are Desperate To Date A Girl

Desperate to date a girl to start a new relationship, can be achieved by taking action, being ready and alert for dating opportunities. Especially if you have just come out of a relationship and you need to start again.

Rather than blaming yourself for the conclusion of the last relationship, you should look forward to a new relationship, with new ideas and preparing yourself for a new beginning.

When you are looking for a date, you need to go to the right places to find a date. You can take the long way and visit the usual social hangouts like parties, bars and nightclubs. Alternatively, you can take a shortcut and become a member of several dating sites, to find potential dates in a quicker time.

Many people are finding it is much easier to find dates online, than searching in social gatherings. When you register with a dating site, there are thousands of potential dates available and some may be perfect for you.

When you visit a social gathering, there are only a limited number of girls in your age and not attached. When you are registered with a dating site, there are thousands of available dates and the choice is much wider.

Initially, you can read their dating profiles to find out if there are any in your local area that you like and then seek to make contact using the dating resources available at the dating site, including chatting online with text or webcam.

These are some of the many ways to find new dates when you are desperate to date a girl.

Armed with these tips, you will know that you need to make a good impression, especially if you find her appealing, interesting, confirms your image of her personality and character. If you are impressed with her, then you need to impress her and not lose your chance of another date and formation of a new relationship.

Preparing for success is your secret to success. Before you meet for the first date, you can talk to her on the phone, exchange email, chat online with text and webcams. Throughout all this process, you are finding more and more about her. You should know a lot about her likes and dislikes and make every effort to stay in tune, in order to get to the next level of your new relationship.

Starting a relationship is like sowing the seeds for a successful garden. You need to know what will make your seeds sprout to become garden plants and continue to grow, rewarding you with produce.

In a similar fashion, you will need to prepare for a successful date and ensure you will be rewarded with more dates and become part of the blooming of a new relationship.

Once you have a successful relationship, then you will no longer be desperate to date a girl.

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Finding Cyberlove On Singles Dating Sites

Finding cyberlove is available as an option to those who do not want to take the long road to find a date at social events, bars and nightclubs. Online dating is much quicker and you do not have to dress up just to go online and chat to a prospective date.

You can sign up with a number of dating sites and place your personal dating profile online to attract prospective dates. Once the offers start rolling in, you can decide which ones appeal to you the most.

With online dating, you could be at home, resting after a long day at work and go online and see if there are any offers for dates, and then decide which offers are the most appealing.

You may be a photographer, who likes to meet another person who likes photography and art. You can enter these criteria in your profile and see if you get a response from people with similar likes.

You can take advantage of facilities available on dating sites including dating chat, online dating with web cams and many other options, depending on the site and the type of facilities available with each site.

Taking advantage of these facilities, increases your chance chances at finding cyberlove.

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Staying Alert Against Online Dating Scams

Online dating scams are all over the internet. If you receive wild promises of love and romance, followed by a request for money, then you should take precautions and assume you are talking to a scammer. Some of these scammers are in your local area, pretending to live overseas in order to claim money for traveling expenses.

Some may even have a sudden illness and out of the blue, the family requests money for hospital expenses and then funeral expenses. Quick promises of romance. Sudden illness and death. Request for money. Now you know, how these scammers work.

Real romance often develop over a period of time. Some take weeks, months and even years. Friends can become romantically involved and then may even marry. This is how real romance develops.

Take these tips in your consideration, whenever you are chatting online, online dating and even videochatting on a web cam. Just be aware that the person you are chatting online, may not be who they say they are and may be looking for opportunities to steal your money.

If someone is making wild promises of romance and love, comes back the next day and tells you a tale of woe and everything in his life has suddenly turned upside down and needs your money to make everything right again, then you should take extreme caution and presume he may be a scammer.

You work hard to earn your money, you should not make it easy to lose your money to online dating scams.

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Tips To Avoid Dating Online Scams

Dating online scams are all over dating sites, looking for vulnerable people. You can take advantage of tips in this article, to stop you becoming their next victim.

If you place a dating profile on dating sites, you may receive a number of emails. Some may be genuine and want to start a conversation with you, but some emails may be from scammers. You need to know how to sort out the scammers from the genuine potential dates.

Just like banking scam email, scammers will be very general, may not mention your name and not refer to specific information about your personal profile. These are the kind of email you should ignore as scam. If you have doubts about the genuine bona fides of the mail you receive, then it most likely is scam.

Being alert, keeping your eyes open will help to prevent you becoming the next victim of dating online scams.

Here is a true cautionary tale. An online friend flew to London to meet a man. Upon arriving at the airport, she got a message that the man she was to meet, has died. She spent all that money to fly to London from overseas, hoping to meet a man she has been dating online on dating chat channels for months. She later finds out the man is a actually a woman, living in Canada.

These were the days of message boards and chat channels. Anyone could put any picture on a dating profile and pretend to be someone else. These days, there are dating webcams and other dating resources, to help stop you making this mistake.

Now you know how to be alert to stop you becoming the next victim of online dating scams.

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Online Dating Profile With Your Recent Photos

Online dating profile on a dating site, is your fist step to attracting dating prospects. To attract the better quality dating prospects, you should include at least two images of yourself with your dating profile.

One image may include your head and shoulders and the second image should include your whole body, giving you a better chance of meeting new friends or finding new love.

To further improve your chances, you can look at including images of you on vacation, standing next to a landmark, or an image that will show a different and more interesting side of you.

Interesting images of yourself increase the potential of attracting more interesting people. If you have nothing to hide, then you can attract more people and increase your dating prospects by placing better pictures of yourself with your online dating profile.

When you are visiting a dating site, you may look at dating profiles, to get an idea of what you should include on your dating profile. You should also look at the rules of the site, that may advise you how to protect your privacy by not including certain personal details on your profile.

Placing a profile on a number of dating sites, increases your chance of getting quality dates, giving you a wider choice of potential dates. If you are not sure if you definitely want to go on a physical date, you can use dating resources available on many dating websites, including chat channels, webcams and other services, depending on membership services available on the relevant dating site.

It all starts by placing a quality image of yourself with an online dating profile.

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