Since its inception, online dating services have gained remarkable popularity in the Internet world. In fact, almost 40 million American singles try online dating sites to find romance.

However it is still best to observe safety measure when dating online. With millions of strangers out there, an individual will never know if the person they are about to date is 100% harmless.

Here are some safe dating tips for people who are into online dating:

1. Anonymity

Even if you’re already eyeing the profile of somebody that you particularly like, it is still best not to divulge any personal information like e-mail address, home address, contact number, or any pertinent information that would reveal your true identity.

2. Honest profiles

Being honest does not necessarily mean revealing personal information immediately. Being honest with one’s profile means simply being true to one’s self. It’s best not to create a dishonest profile or to display a fake picture. At the least this will disappoint others and waste their time if they find you are not what they wanted after all.

3. Pressure measure

It would be safer not to meet somebody who pressures you to meet immediately. It could mean a lot of things that might not be favorable to you.

4. Inconsistency

Be wary of people who are inconsistent with their profile information. They may not be telling the truth about themselves.

5. If somebody seems to be depressed, it would be better to stop all contacting with them.

Uneasiness is a good indicator if something is likely to get out of hand. If you feel uneasy or uncomfortable about any relationship, stop communication immediately.

All of these things boil down to the fact that safety on online dating starts with you. Set certain safety rules for yourself and stick to them. No-one can give you better protection than you yourself.

Okay…you know that you are supposed to give red roses, candy, jewelry, etc. to the one you love on February 14th each year. But how much do you know about St. Valentine’s Day? The answers to the questions are at the bottom so don’t scroll down until you have answered all of the questions.

1. Which Roman god is one of the symbols of St. Valentine’s Day?

a. Diana
b. Bacchus
c. Cupid
d. Mars

2. Who was St. Valentine?

a. A Roman historian
b. A Roman Legionnaire
c. A priest in Rome
d. A Roman senator

3. Which one of these famous men were NOT born on St. Valentine’s Day?

a. Gregory Hines
b. Jimmy Hoffa
c. Fred Astaire
d. Jack Benny

4. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be a day of love but on St. Valentine’s Day in 1929 there was a mob war that is called the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”. What were the names of the two mob bosses whose men were involved in the massacre?
 
a. Charlie Luciano and Bugsy Siegel
b. Pauolo Gambini and Don Corleone
c. Al Capone and Bugs Moran
d. Al Capone and John Gotti

5. What flower is the traditional Valentine’s Day flower?

a. White Roses
b. Gladiolas
c. Red Roses
d. Orange Blossoms

Answers:

1. c.  Cupid is the correct answer.
2. c. A priest in Rome is the correct answer.
3. c. Fred Astaire is the correct answer. (He was born on May 10, 1899)
4. c. Al Capone and Bugs Moran is the correct answer. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)
5. c. Red Roses is the correct answer.

There are several theories about where and how St. Valentine’s Day got started. The real reason why, each year we celebrate love on the fourteenth day of February, may always be shrouded in mystery but there is no shortage of the legends about why this is true.  

One theory is that Valentine was a priest who defied Emperor Claudius II in Rome during the third century 270 A.D. Claudius, it is said, decided that single men made better soldiers than married men so he issued a decree making it illegal for young men to marry. The priest, Valentine, continued to perform wedding ceremonies in spite of the decree. He just performed the ceremonies in secret. When Claudius found out about Valentine’s disobedience he ordered him executed. He was buried on the Via Flaminia in Rome and his relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome.

Valentine’s Day contains vestiges of ancient Roman tradition as well as Christian tradition and the Catholic Church has at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus all of whom are martyred.

There are stories that suggest that St. Valentine was killed by the Romans for helping Christians escape from Roman prisons. There is also a legend that says that Valentine actually sent the first Valentine greeting himself to a young woman (rumored to have been the daughter of one of his jailers) while he was imprisoned. The legend claims that Valentine wrote a love letter to her before his death and signed it “From your Valentine”. (This is the legend that I like the most.)

You can choose the legend that you like the best. Just don’t forget to send Valentine’s Day greetings to all of those whom you love on February 14th…and especially to that special someone in your life! Valentine’s Day is the day to celebrate love in all of its many forms.

St. Valentine’s Day falls on February 14th each and every year. It is the day that is set aside annually for telling those that you love that you do love them. It’s not a bad idea when you think about it. We get busy. Life intrudes upon love. We get so busy and so involved in all of the various aspects of life that it is easy to forget to tell that special someone just how special they really are to us.

There are many ways to say “I love you”. A romantic dinner for two….a quiet evening with Champaign toasts to love eternal and beautiful romantic music playing in the background…..a magical  vacation to an exotic location……sending red roses, chocolate and a romantic card….giving a gift of heart shaped jewelry….all of these are special ways to tell your special love just how loved they are.

I think one of the secrets of successfully conveying feelings of true love on Valentine’s Day or any other day is in knowing the other person well enough to know what to choose. Showing up on the doorstep of your lady love with a bottle of wine or Champaign only to discover that she doesn’t drink…AT ALL…is a long way from conveying romantic feelings. Giving a gift of large dangling earrings when she would never wear anything but studs isn’t romantic either. Sending her a large (no matter how expensive) box of chocolates when she is allergic to chocolate isn’t going to tell her that you love her. It will only serve to tell her that you don’t know anything about her and don’t care enough to find out.

Remember that Valentine’s Day is a day for expressing love and love means caring enough to know the other person well enough to choose a gift or an occasion that will truly please them. 

Hearts and Flowers Valentine’s Day Jewelry

Valentine’s Day is the one day each year that is designated as the day to say, “I love you” with both words and gifts. There are many who think of Valentine’s Day as just another commercial opportunity…..a day for which florists, candy makers and jewelry stores are most grateful….but  I prefer to think of Valentine’s Day as an opportunity….an opportunity to tell the love of my life that she is and will be loved for all of my life.

Traditionally Valentine’s Day jewelry is heart shaped. (A heart is the universal symbol of love.) The jewelry might be a heart shaped pendant, heart shaped earrings, a bracelet featuring hearts of a ring featuring hearts. There might or might not be precious of semi-precious stones included in the jewelry. The value of Valentine’s Day jewelry isn’t so much monetary as sentimental. (Buy the best that you can afford for your love without breaking the bank or sending yourself deeply into debt….it really IS the thought that counts here!)

Rubies are the traditional stone for Valentine’s Day if there is one simply because they are red in color. Diamonds are always a wonderful choice of a precious stone for the one you love. “They” say that diamonds are forever.

The most important thing that you need to know (next to how much you can afford to spend) is your love’s taste in jewelry. The best way to know what she likes is to take notice of what she buys for herself and what she wears. If you are thinking about buying her a bracelet for Valentine’s Day, you need to notice whether she wears bracelets or not and if she does how large the bracelets are. The same is true of pendants, earrings and rings. Knowing what she likes is part of telling her that you love her. Being able to choose a piece of jewelry that will please her tells her that you care enough to have noticed.

Take the opportunity offered on Valentine’s Day to tell the one that you love how much you care.

Valentine’s Day and romance go hand in hand. One is synonymous with the other. There just couldn’t be a more romantic day for a wedding than Valentine’s Day. If you have chosen Valentine’s Day as your wedding day, you are a hopeless romantic and I hope you never recover. True love and real romance are two commodities that are in short supply on planet earth. 

Choosing a venue for your romantic Valentine’s Day wedding will be an adventure unto itself. You might choose a location that provides a feeling of intimacy. If you choose a place with a lot of nooks and crannies where private moments can be exchanged, your guests might rekindle the embers of their own romance. There isn’t anything more romantic that a real fire burning in a real fireplace and candle light. Think about a romantic country inn or an off-the-beaten-path bed and breakfast as romantic locations for your Valentine wedding.

Or maybe you would really like to go for the exotic! A fairy tale wedding in a real castle would certainly fill the bill as ‘romantic’. You might consider a gracious old mansion as your Valentine wedding venue.

Red and white are the obvious choices of a color theme but you aren’t stuck with just those choices. You can choose any color scheme that appeals to you and just use hearts, flowers and touches of red to convey the Valentine theme in whatever venue you choose. 

Valentine’s Day is a day for lovers and Valentine’s Day is the most perfect of all wedding days!

Each year when Valentine’s Day comes around on February 14^th, it is still cold. Winter still has a strangle hold on most of the country….but love and romance are supposed to be warm. Love and romance doesn’t make us think of snow, ice and cold gray skies. Love and romance brings forth pictures in our minds of sunshine, warmth, beautiful white sandy beaches…..  bikinis. Enough of winter, already! We need warmth! 

Maybe that is why romantic Valentine’s vacations to exotic and warm destinations are so popular. The thing that you need to remember is that everybody else is going to have the same idea. If you really want to take that Valentine’s Day vacation with the love of your life to a warm and sunny shore, you will need to make your plans early…VERY early!

Valentine’s Day is right in the middle of the ‘high’ season in the warm southern countries. If you are planning a Valentine’s Day vacation, you can expect to pay premium rates for hotel rooms, restaurants and entertainment of all kinds. You aren’t likely to find any bargain basement prices for a Valentine’s Day vacation to a warm and exotic island.

You can also be pretty sure that you are going to have to fight the crowds. The beaches are not going to be deserted.

But even though you are going to have to make your reservations early, pay premium prices and fight the crowds, a Valentine’s Day vacation to a warm and exotic location can be worth all of the trouble and expense!  

Here are some of my favorite love quotes for Valentine’s Day.

Number 1: Oscar Hammerstein from The Sound of Music:

 “A bell is no bell ’til you ring it,
A song is no song ’til you sing it,
And love in your heart
Wasn’t put there to stay -
Love isn’t love
‘Til you give it away.”

Number 2: Leo Tolstoy said, “All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”

Number 3: In Hamlet’s letter to Ophelia, William Shakespeare wrote:

“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”

Number 4: Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:

 “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.”

Number 5: A. A. Milne, from Winnie the Pooh, “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.”

Number 6: Rupert Brooke said, “A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years.”

Number 7: Robert Browning said, “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.”

Number 8: Virgil said, “Love conquers all things.”

Number 9: Henry Van Dyke said,

 “Time is
Too slow for those who wait,
Too swift for those who fear,
Too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice,
But for those who love,
Time is eternity.”

And last but not least…

Number 10: Lucy Van Pelt, in Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, “All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!”

Christmas and New Year’s vacation was over. I was back in school facing the prospect that it was months before warm weather would really be back and even longer before I wouldn’t be required to get up, brush my teeth, put on clean clothes and go to school five days a week. I liked hanging out with by buddies okay but I had recently noticed that the girls in my class actually smelled better than my buddies. They were softer and sweeter and there was one, Amber, who seemed to be softer and sweeter than the others. I began to think of Amber as my (gasp) girl friend. I sure wouldn’t have wanted my buddies to know that but there it was.

One day the teacher, Miss Sherman, set a large box that was covered in red paper and had white hearts on it in the front of the classroom. She began to explain Valentine’s Day to the class. She told us about St. Valentine and about Roman and Greek mythology…or something like that. I really wasn’t paying much attention until she said that Valentine’s Day was a day to tell people that we liked them. “Ah Ha,” I thought. “Here is my chance to let Amber know that she was my girl friend!”

Miss Sherman passed out those little heart shaped candies to the whole class….the ones that have words written on them…and lo and behold…I was holding the perfect way to let Amber know that I was her boy friend. The little heart I was holding said, “Be Mine”. Perfect! This was just what I needed. I stuck the heart in my pocket so I could pass it to Amber later when my buddies wouldn’t know. All day I carried that little heart around in my pocket and then finally, just as the school day was over, I got my chance. I walked by her desk and set the heart right there in front of her. She took one look and screamed! “WHAT IS THAT?” The heart was a tad worse for the wear after living in my pocket all day.

That was my first experience with trying to tell a girl that I liked her. I’ve gotten a little better at it over the years…at least I hope I have. I, of course, grew up and married Amber. I still give her a slightly melted candy heart every year but there are always roses, candy and a nice piece of jewelry included. See…I did get better!

Cupid’s Arrows

One of the most universally recognized symbols of Valentine’s Day is Cupid. Legend has it that Cupid (that winged creature that makes us fall in love) is actually equipped with two kinds of arrows. He has golden arrows which cause true love when they penetrate the heart but he also has arrows made of lead which cause wanton sensual passion.

Cupid is the Roman god of love. He is said to be the son of Venus (the goddess of love) and is usually depicted as a chubby, mischievous child with wings who is armed with a bow and a quiver containing a never-ending supply of golden arrows. He uses the bow to shoot a golden arrow into the heart of the unsuspecting victim causing them to fall in love with the next person they meet.

There is a mythological story that describes how Venus, while playing with her son, is scratched by one of his arrows and then falls instantly and helplessly in love with Adonis…the first man she saw after receiving the wound.

In Greek mythology Cupid is known as Eros and is the winged son of Aphrodite. Cherubs are believed to be the descendants of Eros and they are usually depicted as lovable little winged angles that are not armed with bows and arrows.

If Cupid aims an arrow in your direction this Valentine’s Day, just hope that he uses a golden arrow and not one that was made of lead. Wanton desire ends but true love lasts forever.