When I was in college I was a sociology major — not to be confused with a social work major, because these are entirely different things. A sociolgist studies people and trends, analyzing the world we live in scientifically. Most facets of human nature can’t be measured in a scientific way… still, the sociologist tries to stand outside his or her culture and look back at it objectively, almost in a detatched way. This can be a blessing and a curse.

It’s a blessing because of what you can discover, but it’s a curse because it’s hard to stop looking at the world this way. I always want to know what people actually think and experience and sometimes it can be hard to find out.

Today being Valentine’s Day, I am curious about romance. It’s no secret that romance is extremely important to some people and hardly important to others. Where do you find yourself along that spectrum?

And more importantly, what do you consider romantic?

I have a wonderful husband and he’s done some pretty darn romantic things for me during our time together. Once he got about forty scratch-offs (those tickets where you can win money) and he hung them on red string all over my attic (which I used as a loft at the time) so when I went upstairs, there were all these cards hanging from the ceiling. Each one that I took down I got to scratch the ticket and see if I won anything. It was really fun and really creative.

At the same time though, the part of our life I consider the most romantic is the time we spend doing nothing. Yes, nothing. (This is what inspired my choice of song, by the way.) I simply love laying on the couch, listening to music, sometimes hearing his heartbeat… I think I’d choose this over almost any other romantic gesture no matter how grand it was.

So, what’s your idea of romance? How important is it in your life? Does it hardly make a blip on your radar or is it so important that you’d sacrifice almost anything in order to get it?