craftgrrl | Patterns and Valentines Day

Sooooo...I bought these patterns from WalMart about 6 months ago, and I've never really done anything with them. They're patterns for Spaghetti Strap tank tops. New Look *Easy 6873 size A 6-16 , for juniors. Now, I am a size XS-S in regular clothes that you would buy from the store. So now I come to my question about patterns..
How the heck do you figure out what size to use?
My friend suggested just holding the pattern up to you to figure out what size to use..so is it possible I could do that instead of going through the hassle of figuring out measurements on the chart? I tried taking my measurements and when I compared them to the chart I got like a size 8 for bust, size 6 for back-neck to waist, size 6 for hips, and size 14 for wasit. Needless to say, Im totally confused.

Secondly..
My boyfriend is in the Army and currently deployed over seas (again) ..So what are some V-Day gifts I could send him? Right now Im baking him some heart shaped short bread cookies for him. Any suggestions?

Thanks!