Last-Minute Cupids Hit Price Center in Search of Perfect Gift
By Ioana Patringenaru | February 21, 2006
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| Balloons and flowers were popular items at the Price Center on Valentine's Day. |
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Brownies and poems, flowers and balloons: Those hunting for last-minute Valentine’s Day presents had plenty of choices Tuesday at the Price Center. And, apparently, many were taking advantage of the opportunity to get a last-minute gift for their loved one.
By noon, the UCSD chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society had sold about 40 heart-shaped balloons at its booth on Library Walk, student Alex Davi said. The pink and red balloons were covered with Valentine’s Day sayings, such as “I love you” and “Be mine.” Sales benefited the American Heart Association.
At a nearby table, a booth for UCSD’s arts journal, The Temper, offered brownies, truffles, macaroons and other goodies. To complete their Valentine’s Day gifts, buyers could also get poems by well-known authors, including Marlowe and Shakespeare, as well as sayings by Winnie the Pooh. Most people seemed to be buying to indulge their own sweet tooth, rather than their loved one’s, said art history student Sarah Ware. She offered samples for passers-by. “Don’t eat healthy, eat baked goods,” she called out.
Biology student Ani Bagdasarian had bought macaroons, almond rocca, and a “love cup cake” to share with her roommates. They are unattached and celebrate Valentine’s Day together, she explained.
“We call it singles awareness day,” she joked.
A consistent line also had formed at the La Jolla Rose Company by the UCSD bookstore.
Physics graduate student Neil Bushong had bought carnations for his wife. “She’s evidently not a rose fan,” he explained. Bushong said the bouquet was a last-minute purchase, as the couple had already celebrated Valentine’s Day during the weekend, when he baked his wife a chocolate cake.
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