Today we have a guest column, or in this case, a guest story courtesy of one Ryan Pfister, investigative reporter.
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By Ryan Pfister
Collegian Staff Writer | ryan@psu.edu
When A. J. Smith shows up, the girls go wild -- but not for him.
Smith, a driver for George's Flower Boutique, spends his day delivering flowers on behalf of other people.
Smith graduated from Penn State in December with a degree in kinesiology and is planning on attending graduate school for physical therapy. In the mean time, he's working part time delivering flowers around the State College area. He's held the job since his junior year.
Usually, he said, he works about 20 hours a week, but around Valentine's day he works at least 40. On Feb. 13, he was working from 8 a.m. until past 6 p.m., and he said he planned to be at work early the next day as well.
Some people get "a little crazy" when he delivers the flowers, he said, but the best flower delivery story he's heard comes from one of his fellow drivers: when the driver tried to drop off the flowers, the girl answered the door -- naked. She still accepted the flowers, he said.
Smith said one trend in recent years has been an increase in the number of guys receiving flowers. He said he probably did three or four deliveries to guys on Feb. 13.
Smith said some girls refuse to accept the flowers -- it's happened to him multiple times at dorms, where he calls from the front desk and the girl refuses to come down. He said he's required to deliver the flowers somehow, so he usually leaves them at the commons desk.
"It's kind of funny that guys send these like $100 flowers and girls don't want them," he said.
As for Smith's own Valentine's Day plans, he's had a girlfriend for almost two and a half years. Since he had to work late on Valentine's Day, the two made plans to do something this week.
As for the fact that he spends hours delivering flowers to other people on Valentine's Day, he said, "she doesn't really mind." After all, she gets to benefit from one of his job's perks: he can take home any leftover flowers after work.
