Say It Like You Mean It:Thoughtful Gifts For Valentines Day

If you’d like to give your sweetheart something more meaningful than simply candy or flowers, check out these creative ideas from Anton Frisk!

Valentine’s Day has its roots in early Christianity, but by the middle ages it had taken on its alternate identity as a celebration of romantic love. Today  it’s a retailer-driven event based on  selling mass-produced novelty goods made in overseas sweatshops. Feeling romantic yet?

If you’d like Valentine’s Day to feel more meaningful this year, you can start by steering clear of all the artificially-dyed flowers, $6 greeting cards, waxy candy, and third-rate plush toys (unless your main squeeze is really into that stuff.) If you want to show your love with a gift, pick something thoughtful that shows your partner that you listen to them, know what’s important to them, and want them to be happy and fulfilled. That’s a tall order, but little things can say a lot. Below are some ideas to aid you with brainstorming.

Geeky Bow Ties from Etsy • $16-$40

Surprise your brainy, game-loving boyfriend or hubby with a cute, handmade bow tie featuring his favorite video game series or one of his favorite nerdy interests. Pictured are a $20 Animal Crossing Cats Tie, a $20 Poké Ball Tie, a $40 Atom Tie, and a $25 Minecraft Tie. Being handmade, products often come and go quickly at Etsy. If any of the specific items mentioned above are no longer available, just search Etsy to find similar ones or ask specific sellers if they’re willing to make more.

Enable A Dream

One of the most loving gifts that you can give someone is to help them realize their own potential. Does your partner have an ambition that he never acts on? Maybe he wants to learn another language, master a musical instrument, study dance, learn karate, etc. Based on what you can afford, do what you can to help him take those first scary steps towards his dream. You might pay for a language or acting course, buy him a musical instrument, hire a private teacher, etc. If money’s tight, just give him the encouragement he needs to start something new.

Life Coaches in West Hollywood • $100-$300 per session

If your partner is stuck in an emotional or professional rut, hire a professional life coach to help him break out of it. Pick a life coach who has expertise in areas relevant to your loved one’s needs. Your partner might think life coaching is silly, but that’s okay – as long as he accepts it. A good life coach can sometimes make all the difference.

Dinner in the Dark at Opaque • $99 per person, prix fixe

One of the best ways to reinforce a relationship is to share exciting, novel experiences. Instead of another ho-hum Valentine’s Day dinner at your favorite restaurant, why not try something extraordinary? At Opaque in Santa Monica, you and your partner will enjoy a gourmet dinner in absolute darkness, assisted by blind waiters and waitresses. Located in Santa Monica on Wilshire Blvd., Opaque is open from 5:30-10:00 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and you can book reservations at the link above.

Get Thee Out of WeHo •  $ Varies

If you want to have a memorable night out together, look beyond the gay ghetto. L.A. is filled with uniquely themed bars and hidden juke joints, so explore! To find the entrance to Good Times At Davey Waynes, you’ll need to walk past a sidewalk sale and into someone’s cluttered one-car garage. In the back of the garage you’ll find an old refrigerator, which is the bar’s secret entrance. It’s also a time portal. Walk through it and you’ll  find yourself in an authentic 1970’s love shack, complete with backyard. Go early to avoid a crowd if you want to explore in peace – and be sure to try the alcoholic sno-cones, which you can get from the camper van that is parked in the backyard. If you like this place, you might also like Bigfoot Lodge and No Vacancy L.A.. If you’re into video games, be sure to try Eighty Two. If it’s just the classic games you’re after and not the booze, try the Arcade Warehouse in Chatsworth. During the week it’s an arcade game rental company, but the entire warehouse of classic game consoles is free to play on Saturdays only from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.. If you love classic pinball, visit Pins and Needles. 

Personal Genotyping by 23andMe • $200

23andMe is the world’s first FDA-approved consumer genetics service. When you gift someone with this, they’ll receive a kit containing a plastic specimen tube, a postage-paid return package, and instructions. Six to eight weeks after they spit into the tube and mail it back to 23andme, they’ll be notified via email that their personal reports are ready. At the 23andme site they can explore their ancestry (both maternal and paternal), read wellness reports and trait reports, use interactive tools to explore and share genetic information, and discover DNA relatives. The reports are updated as new discoveries are made, so this gift keeps on giving for years. You can also opt to participate in groundbreaking medical research by simply sharing your anonymous genetic information with 23andme and then answering short surveys now and then. More than a million people have shared their information with 23andme so far, which has enabled them to make dozens of important new medical discoveries.

ONLINE BONUS MATERIAL

Cryonic Suspension • $100k-$250k (plus $50/month for life)

If you and your partner truly want to be together forever, your best bet at the moment is cryonics. Otherwise, the show’s basically over when one or both of you kick the bucket. Cryonics has often been the butt of pop culture jokes, but its methodology is actually based on sound science. No one denies that it’s a gamble, but it’s one in which you have little to lose except for a finite amount of money and yet potentially everything to gain. If you can easily afford it and you don’t feel happy about ceasing to exist at age 75 or so, you’d be a fool not to take this particular gamble (until the day that better options become available.)

There are a lot of myths about cryonics, some of which stem from a lack of understanding about death. Contrary to popular notions, death is a process rather than a single event. Legal death is an arbitrary event which facilitates the transfer of property and can help to make difficult decisions a little bit easier. However, declaring someone legally dead does not mean that it is no longer possible to revive them. It simply means that there is no longer any intent to revive them. Once an Alcor patient is declared legally dead, the Alcor team immediately reestablishes artificial life support, thereby halting the dying process. You can read more about Alcor’s procedure here. Rather than being frozen, Alcor’s clients are actually vitrified, which preserves the brain in fine detail. Currently the process is not reversible, but that could eventually change. If it does and if we develop methods of restoring health and/or halting the aging process, the couples who sign up for Alcor’s service today could very well receive a second chance at life together in a future world that today we can only dream about.