Valentine's Day

It baffles me how worked up people get over this day. This doesn't happen during St. Patrick's Day; perhaps because beer, and not jewelry is expected. Still though, whether you love it or hate it, I just can't see getting emotional about Valentine's Day. I do remember being single and feeling vaguely sad about not having someone to share it with, but I certainly wasn't ripping my hair out and bemoaning my sad fate to every passing person.

Even now that I do have someone to share it with, I don't have a tantrum if I don't get flowers, candy or dinner. I think its nice to experience some of these things, but I will never make a big deal about it. If it happens, it happens. Frankly, my favorite part of this day is getting (and writing) a sweet card from my husband, telling me all sorts of wonderful things including how much he likes my legs (I always giggle at this, I can't help it).

Of course, having said all of that, this day does have extra significance in this household. It is our anniversary. Now, I almost hate to admit to that. Often, I will mention this to someone and their eyes get all big as they coo "Oh, how romantic!" BARF! If there is anything worse then over exaggerating the importance of this day, it is being a cliche on this day. And that, apparently that is what I have become: a cliche. After admitting my anniversary date, I usually feel compelled to explain further: "You see, we had to do a church wedding and went to the Church in December to pick out a date. The church won't marry anyone between Lent (which was the last weekend of February) and Easter, so that only left 3 weekends available and the priest was busy on two of them. HE picked Valentine's Day, NOT me!" Sigh. Immediately upon saying this, I feel ashamed of making a big deal of not making a big deal about Valentine's Day because I am SOOOO cool . . . NOT!

This year, I decided that I am not going to let this bother me anymore. We had no control over the date, and really, this is a positive. There is no way either of us is ever going to forget our anniversary as TV, grocery stores, billboards, news articles and virtually every information source out there, will never let us forget that this all important day approacheth. In fact, we have already completed our celebrations for this year. We made a kind of pact, to never, never try to brave the traffic, crowded restaurants and cheesy music along with the million other people trying to celebrate this day. We are perfectly happy having a nice, low-key, quiet dinner on the weekend before or after Valentine's Day.

This year, we went to the Met and had some awesome steak. Afterward, we drove to a grocery store, picked out some cards for each other and Michael picked out some flowers. The element of surprise might not be there, but the gestures are just as sweet as ever. I loved our celebration and am glad that this day is not a deal breaker in our house. The important thing is that we have someone to come home to at the end of the day who loves us despite all of our faults.