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" While a major date is pretty standard for an established couple, those of us who are casually dating or trying to set up a first meeting with someone might mark February 14th as a complete blackout day. Sorry, no available hours! I used to think it would be totally uncouth to have a first date on Valentine&amp;#x27;s Day, until my best friend did it. Guess what? She and her boyfriend are celebrating three years tomorrow! To hear the guy&amp;#x27;s perspective on why it actually worked so well for them, I spoke to her boyfriend, P., and got the scoop. Based on his account and a few other motivating reasons, here are some arguments for why a V-Day first date can be great: It&amp;amp;#8217;s super easy to remember your anniversary. Seriously, I can barely remember my parent&amp;amp;#8217;s wedding anniversary, and their marriage is basically the reason I&amp;amp;#8217;m alive. Yet I remember my best friend&amp;amp;#8217;s anniversary with her boyfriend with ease, because duh, it&amp;amp;#8217;s Valentine&amp;amp;#8217;s Day. So you can imagine that neither of them ever forget it either. And a bonus for the cheapies of the world: it&amp;amp;#8217;s a twofer! Rest assured that P. is no cheapskate himself, but he brilliantly pointed out that if you&amp;amp;#8217;re the frugal type, you can kill two birds with one stone by celebrating both your anniversary and Valentine&amp;amp;#8217;s Day with one fancy dinner or bouquet. Bars will be emptier than usual. If you want to have a first date at a fancy French restaurant, then this might not be a good idea. But if you&amp;amp;#8217;re going the more standard first date route, which in my experience is a casual local bar, it&amp;amp;#8217;s probably going to be quieter than usual, since Valentine&amp;#x27;s protesters are at home, and all the coupled up people are at Chez Overpriced. It shows you&amp;amp;#8217;re both relaxed. P. admits that he didn&amp;amp;#8217;t realize the significance of the date until they&amp;amp;#8217;d already made plans, but that once he did, he didn&amp;amp;#8217;t think it was a big deal. In fact, he was impressed that his now-girlfriend was willing to agree to the date without making a big deal of it or trying to reschedule on account of a silly holiday. It showed him that she didn&amp;amp;#8217;t play games, and I would say vice versa, P. proved he&amp;amp;#8217;s not one of those annoying guys that goes out of the way to avoid Valentine&amp;amp;#8217;s Day. It might end up making a super romantic story. Not only did P. have his first date with his girlfriend on February 14th, it was also the date of his grandparents&amp;#x27; first date! OK, that won&amp;amp;#8217;t happen for everyone, but how cute is that? It actually makes Valentine&amp;amp;#8217;s Day more romantic later. P. says he&amp;amp;#8217;s not super into being forced to celebrate &amp;amp;#8220;fake holidays&amp;amp;#8221; but the fact that they met on that day makes V-Day seem truly special. All the cool kids are doing it. According to this Us Weekly article, Lauren Conrad had her first date with her current boyfriend last Valentine&amp;amp;#8217;s Day. And last week, the celebrity mag also pointed out that tons of celebrities, like Keri Russell, Salma Hayek, and Snooki have gotten engaged or married on Valentine&amp;amp;#8217;s Day. Even if that&amp;#x27;s different from a first date, the point is: Having romantic occasions on February 14th is a popular thing. Would you ever go on a first date on Valentine&amp;#x27;s Day, or does it still seem too crazy to you? Have you ever done it? First dates (of many, we hope): *Relationships: What Did You and Your Boyfriend Do On Your First Date? *The 7 Traits of a Perfect First Date Spot *5 First-Date DON&amp;#x27;Ts Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2013/02/the-case-for-a-valentines-day>