Despite a weekly high below freezing, sub-zero wind chills and near-blizzards, students and faculty will feel the artificial warmth of February on Valentine's Day.
Signs of the holiday are hard to miss at Notre Dame, with flower sales soaring at Irish Gardens, the florist shop in the basement of LaFortune.
"We have every type of flower in, including orchids, and we have special Valentine's Day packages," general manager Ann Marie Szymanski said. While men dominate the customer base, female students are getting balloons or flowers for their friends, Szymanski said.
For those who don't expect to give or receive flowers this Valentine's Day, students can enjoy the Glee Club's "Singing Valentines," plus a Valentine's Day dessert dinner at both dining halls tonight - and even the opportunity to find love at Legends' speed dating at midnight. Legends will provide students with the opportunity to meet other students.
But the day of love is not only about romance and having that special someone to share a dining hall dessert with. Love comes in all forms, from roommates to sisters, boyfriends and girlfriends to parents and children, fiancés to best friends.
Students on campus are embracing the holiday with acts of kindness; special outings and activities with friends; confessions of love; and, perhaps, engagements.
"My friends and I are going to Yesterdays in Granger for dessert this Valentine's Day," senior Lindsay Poulin said. Sophomore Katrina Peller also said she and some friends were going to see "Enchanted," the SUB movie for the weekend, tonight at 10.
Some students from Farley Hall are enjoying the night with friends, decorating cookies and watching movies. "You don't need a boyfriend to celebrate Valentine's Day," freshman Caitlin Ferraro said. "Taking extra time for your girlfriends is just as important today.
Men at Notre Dame are also stepping up and sometimes employing the holiday in order to confess their interest and hope for a relationship. "I plan on asking the girl I like to be my girlfriend on Valentine's Day," one male student, who asked not to be named, admitted.
Another student had flowers delivered to an unsuspecting student during one of her classes yesterday, along with a note asking her to meet him at the Dome tonight.
And of course, there will be many couples, here and throughout the country, who will get engaged on this day of love. The Diamond Information Center estimates that 10 percent of the 2.3 million couples that get engaged each year, do so on Valentine's Day.
