My Love Note Philosophy

If you are in a relationship then you know what a chore it is to keep things going.  It takes a lot of work and skill to be a good 'significant other'.  For me, the labels that I'm the proudest to wear all have to do with my family, and more particularly my wife.
When I was single, even way back when I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time reading, studying, and pondering how to get and keep a woman like the one I'm married to now.  What's really funny is how many things I had to completely scrap once I got to know Tiffany.  That's because she's her own person and totally unique.  I found that there’s no magic formula or secret method to making a relationship work.
I'd like to share some of the tricks of one of my favorite methods of romancing: Love Notes!
You can't write anything too corny for a love note.  You can't send too many love notes.  You just can't go wrong with love notes.  Used correctly, you can write scores in one sitting and have the romantic goodness last all month long!  Here are some of the keys to making love notes work for you:

1. Keep it fun and casual.
2. Dole them out one at a time.
3. Be creative and don't worry about being corny.

1) Keep it fun and casual. 
Love notes are like dates.  Sometimes you spend a lot of time and effort preparing them, but most of the time just going out and doing some dumb little thing is great!  If you like the person you're spending time with, even doing the same date over and over isn't boring.  In fact, if you think that writing a love note has to be some kind of huge, poetic epic that will leave 'em panting - well that's a good way to get really burned out.  Keep the majority of your day-to-day love notes short and simple.  I tend to write mine on colored paper and cut them out really small, like so:

I love you!

2) Dole them out one at a time.
Life is busy, so make it easy for yourself to get the most impact for the time you spend writing love notes.  Get yourself in the proper mood for writing notes if at all possible and then write a bunch!  Once you've got them, you'll want to arrange that they get delivered over time.  You could do this yourself, by handing them out in person, but I find it more fun for the recipient if you hide them, and then wait for them to be found.  The most important things to remember about hiding love notes are:

• Creative locations are part of the fun of finding a note.
• Hide love notes in places were they won't all be found right away.
• And most importantly - Hide the steamy love notes where NO ONE else will find them!

Need some ideas for hiding places?  Try on some of these for size:

•  Taped to the mirror, windshield, windows, TV remotes, or doors.
• Waterproofed and hidden in the peanut butter jar, honey, butter dish, sour cream, rice, sugar, flour, hot cocoa, or noodles.
• Added to the vitamin or aspirin bottles.
• Inside a purse, wallet, or checkbook.
• In a book they are currently reading.
• And the absolute best place for those red-hot love notes - Inside of each pair of socks in the sock drawer!

3) Be creative and don't worry about being corny.
Most romantic talk sounds really silly written down.  Get over it.  If it bothers you, try not to read what you've written - just fire and forget!  If you get stuck with 'writers block', think about something that you like about the person or something they have done recently that you appreciated and then write about that.  A great hiding place will usually suggest a message to match - for example when hiding a note in the sugar, you could write about how sweet they are.  (Ack - the corniness!)  You can use small stickers or draw little pictures for fun.  The variety in paper and ink colors can help here, too.

Love notes have been a part of romancing my wife ever since I married her.  She has kept every note that she has found in a glass jar and we've had to upgrade the jar twice to make room.  Whenever she finds a note, she saves it for me to read aloud to her and so each note gets a direct double-impact!  (That's the geek in me - trying to be efficient...)  We've spent entire dates at home where we just grab out handfuls and read them to each other - laughing and commenting.
So basically what I am saying is that I'm way into writing love notes as a way of staying connected with my wife.  If you want to give my love note philosophy a try, I just don't see what you have to lose!