What's the most Romantic thing you've ever done?

This is going to be one of the posts where I ask you to share your stories in the comments, like back when you all shared your nerdiest moments in life. The idea for the post came to me while I was reading Hector Berlioz’s biography not too long ago. When he was young, he learned that the woman with whom he had been romantically involved had married someone else while he was away, studying music in Rome. Enraged, he set out with a pistol and the intention of a double murder suicide. Now that’s crazy Romantic with a capital R. There's a big difference between capital R Romantic and lowercase romantic. We're not talking candles and mood lighting here. When you listen to Berlioz's music (remember the post about his Symphonie Fantastique?), you hear all that wild Romanticism. Of course, there are other famous artist stories, right? Like the one about Van Gogh cutting off his ear and giving it to the prostitute.

Mine is tame (and maybe even lame) by comparison, but, I’ll get the ball rolling here by telling you the short tale: I was once living on a tiny island in the middle of a small lake in northern New Jersey. To give you an idea of how small the island was, there were only two houses—mine and an older, married couple’s. I had rented it for the summer to get some quiet, away from the armpit that is Manhattan in July. So there I was, two days into the respite, writing away, in the peace and quiet of a little cabin on a little island in the middle of a little lake in the little state of New Jersey.

Suddenly, my girlfriend called me in the middle of the night from Tarrytown, New York, sick as a dog. I could hear how badly she needed some TLC, ASAP (more than I needed my R&R, FYI). So I got in a little paddleboat and made my way to shore. From there, I took a taxi to a bus stop. The bus took me to Port Authority in Manhattan where I took the subway to Grand Central. From there, I took Metro North up the Hudson rail line to Tarrytown and another taxi from the train station to the house where my girlfriend was housesitting for a week. The whole trip took a little longer than four hours, but it was well worth it when I saw the look on her face.

Your turn! Leave your interesting or creative responses in the comments below...