A Valentine’s Carol

Valentine’s greetings to you!!  This is my first blog post here at SocialSpark and so hello and nice to meet you as well.  I am Jill and I am the Influencer Ecosystems Representative here at SocialSpark.  That tongue twisting title means that I grow our network through my outreach to bloggers.  I have been here since the summer 2012 and I am enjoying every minute.

I was not sure quite how I wanted to commemorate Valentine’s Day for the whole internet to see. Then I began digging into my Valentine memories and was visited by the ghost of Valentine’s past. Now, I am not a saucy little minx who has entertained droves of suitors in my lifetime.  And strangely, the Valentine’s memory that jumped to mind for this post has nothing to do with my actual valentine. Oh no, it has to do with obscure, defunct boy bands.  Picture it…

It’s 1999. A balmy Florida February was upon us (back then we called it “global warming” instead of “climate change”).  And where does a  fine, underage gentleman take his date for Valentine’s Day?  Bahama Breeze, of course!!  So there we sit, weak and famished after the 60-80 minute wait, tucked into a tropical corner table, replete with palm trees and tacky textiles, with a lovely view of…Lou Pearlman. It was exciting. It was epic. It was 1999 and boy bands were huge and Lou Pearlman was still a big deal! A big deal who was surrounded by 4-5 attractive young men with perfect hair and really white teeth (I was trying not to stare, remember I was on a date).  Luckily my date had his back to them so I could easily pretend that I was focused on him while ogling the group behind us.

Thankfully, Lou had his back to me so I could look around him at the beautiful man specimens with perfect coifs. All of them seemed intent on their conversation. And were extremely well lit. And then I realize…they are filming!  The boys are not NSYNC or Backstreet Boys or 98 Degrees….who could they be?!?  It would be months before I would know for sure.

And then one day, sitting in my Valentine’s date’s apartment watching TV (Valentine’s Day went well it seems), I see them!  They are the stars of a new reality show (back when “reality” was not so loose a term) called Making the Band. Now this is not P.Diddy/Sean Combs/PuffDaddy’s Making The Band, this is the original.  The searching and collecting of talented and attractive young men, to be managed/manipulated by the once-mogul Lou, none of who are FROM Orlando, to bring them together and “make” a band aptly called O-Town.  Yes, it was ground breaking television light years ahead of its time.  An album is yet to be forthcoming…I wait.*

So as I ponder Valentine’s Day past, and reminisce on the fact that my most memorable Valentine’s Day date constitutes a C-list boy band and fallen music mogul, I have to ask…What is YOUR most memorable Valentine’s experience?

*I think they actually made an album, they at least made a single. I don’t really wait.

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