Valentine musings

[Melody]

... and I popped off, mostly to myself, with "Every day should be Valentine's Day".

yellow, this is how my husband and I feel. We don't need a special day just to tell the other that we love them. Instead we say it everyday. Or who knows, maybe it's because we've only been married for a year, but we have been together for 6 or so and in all that time this hasn't changed.

I personally generally am not a Valentine's day person probably because I have not so fond memories of it from growing up. Being the unpopular overweight and (dare I say it) ugly person in class I didn't exactly get any. My parents, unfortunately, weren't the type to tell us that they loved us or was proud of us. Instead we'd get the negatives when we screwed up and not the praise. Bundle the two and you get someone who was pretty screwed up emotionally. I'm just glad I'm over most of it.

I'm also not much of a birthday person either, at least not my birthday. I always look for what will go wrong and just ruin the day.

Mel

PS: I'm just a little down at the moment. I had a friend die a few days ago and found out on a day where I was already having a bad day.

[yellow]

Now if someone wants to give me a box of See's candy for Valentines, I wouldn't complain!

Nuts? Soft centers? Milk or dark?

Ah, but we deserve See's candy EVERY DAY!

[yellow]

Or who knows, maybe it's because we've only been married for a year, but we have been together for 6 or so and in all that time this hasn't changed.

PS: I'm just a little down at the moment. I had a friend die a few days ago and found out on a day where I was already having a bad day.

You're destined for a long life together if you've already figured this out! Lesee...together for 18 yrs, married for 13.5 and I love my DH more every day. I feel very lucky.

Sorry about your friend. Really makes you think about your own mortality, life, and how it all falls out. Any day could be our last...another reason that every day should be Valentines Day (in spirit, at least).

[bcipam]

Nuts? Soft centers? Milk or dark?

Ah, but we deserve See's candy EVERY DAY!

Dark Chocolate Bordeaux.......mmmmmmmmmmmmm

[bcipam]

Melody... so sorry about your friend. My prayers are with you and your friends family.

I was musing the other day about something that happened on my birthday. I turned 55 and it hit me hard. A friend of mine replied, "yes it was an amusing story. My sister died last Friday due to stroke. She was 41. She would have loved to reach 55..."

That shut me up. Makes me realize how fortunate I am and how important it is to let those I love know I love them. I don't need Valentine's Day to do that!

[bikerchick68]

PS: I'm just a little down at the moment. I had a friend die a few days ago and found out on a day where I was already having a bad day.

Melody... sorry to hear you lost a friend... life can be so danged unfair huh? here is a site you may find helpful to work thru your grieving process... it is an online memorial site, with message boards etc... has been OK'd for our use by the Police Dept, so I know it's legit and safe to use... hugs...

www.groww.org

[massbikebabe]

Valentines Day hhhmmmmm,

Don't think we have ever celebrated VDay in the 21 years we have been married. This year is not going to be any different. My Valentine helps me get up every morning, puts my braces on, sets up my toothbrush, blow dries my hair, helps me dress, feeds me and the kids, takes the kids to school, and then comes home to help me stretch stroked out muscles...don't think there is any diamond, gold, or other face out there that can do better than this Valentine...he is tops

I do however buy gifts for the children. Molly is getting the MassArt sweatshirt and Conor is getting a Bianchi multi-tool, and new celeste tape for his bars. I also make them choc. lollipops I'm just a weenie when it comes to my kids


karen
getting ready to play in the da^n snow again

[Lise]

It is fun to get each other gifts when you just love an excuse to spoil each other.

It is gawdawful when you feel you "should" and he/she "should" and... yuch. I was remembering last year...when I was dating someone I should've already broken up with...and looking for a VD card that DIDN'T say "I love you"! Seriously. That should have been a clue! I ended up making a card. Because I was too much of a weenie to say, "Um, I don't like you all that much." Blech.

Today I saw a Circuit City billboard that just said, "HE WANTS ELECTRONICS". There's your answer to the diamond ads!

My online dating saga has been mostly annoying, not even great stories to tell. I did reject one guy who's a cyclist...he started out lunch by telling me stories about 3 women who "done him wrong". You'd better believe I don't plan to be the 4th! He's also a successful, well-dressed lawyer who works in a nice building in downtown Chicago...and wears two "Live Strong" rubber bracelets with his suit. I don't wish to set off a firestorm of protest here on the TE board, just my opinion...but...rubber bracelets with a really nice suit make you look like an escapee from a mental institution! Argh! Running and hiding! Don't throw stuff!

Sooooo....no worries about what card to get this year! Whoo-hoo! L.

[SadieKate]

Today I saw a Circuit City billboard that just said, "HE WANTS ELECTRONICS". There's your answer to the diamond ads!

Great, so long as there is equal opportunity greediness.

[Trekhawk]

Valentines Day hhhmmmmm,

Don't think we have ever celebrated VDay in the 21 years we have been married. This year is not going to be any different. My Valentine helps me get up every morning, puts my braces on, sets up my toothbrush, blow dries my hair, helps me dress, feeds me and the kids, takes the kids to school, and then comes home to help me stretch stroked out muscles...don't think there is any diamond, gold, or other face out there that can do better than this Valentine...he is tops


karen
getting ready to play in the da^n snow again

Karen just reading that makes me smile.
Anyone can buy a gift but being there for the long haul when things are tough really shows how much they love you. He sounds like a wonderful man.

[Lise]

Karen just reading that makes me smile.
Anyone can buy a gift but being there for the long haul when things are tough really shows how much they love you. He sounds like a wonderful man.

YES! Thank you for telling us about him. That lifted my spirits. Your loving care of each other blesses us all. L.

[carimail]

I think VD day is a great family thing. I usually make a card for DH that the kids are free to read. I like them to know how their dad and I feel about each other and how committed we are. I realize the importance of showing that on a day to day basis, but Valentines Day is kind of a symbol of "summing it all up".

I don't get too much for the kids because they're grandma beats me to it which I really resented until I remembered how grateful i should be that they actually have a grandma - so she can spoil away.

I still love Valentines Parties at school, though. The kids work so hard and it's nice for them to get a fun break from time to time. As long as my kids have been in school, everyone in the class has brought valentines for everyone else (as far as i could tell).

This year I have to write and present a love poem for my creative writing class, though - YIKES! I'm having a hard time with this one!

[Trekhawk]

I don't get too much for the kids because they're grandma beats me to it which I really resented until I remembered how grateful i should be that they actually have a grandma - so she can spoil away.

I still love Valentines Parties at school, though. The kids work so hard and it's nice for them to get a fun break from time to time. As long as my kids have been in school, everyone in the class has brought valentines for everyone else (as far as i could tell).

This year I have to write and present a love poem for my creative writing class, though - YIKES! I'm having a hard time with this one!

See maybe its because Im Australian that I just dont get Valentines day for kids its not something we really pay much attention to back home.
For all you lovers of Valentines day I hope you have a wonderful time with your special friends or family.

[Trek420]

I loved this from an interview with Dan Savage in the Onion:

The A.V. Club: What's your take on Valentine's Day? Corporate exercise, or meaningful reminder of romance?

DS: It is a corporate exercise; it's also a holy day of romantic obligation. It's also a day of torment. Mother's Day is a torment if your mother is dead. Valentine's Day is a torment if you don't got one. And at some point in our lives, we will be tormented by Valentine's Day even if we're relatively lucky in love. It's just like Christmas. Christmas can have a real melancholy aspect, 'cause it packages itself as this idea of perfect family cohesion and love, and you're always going to come up short when you measure your personal life against the idealized personal lives that are constantly thrust in our faces, primarily by TV commercials. I find, though, that if you avoid TV, you don't succumb to the despair. I wouldn't say that holidays are manufactured by corporations, but they're certainly exploited and mined by them. If you're not a big consumer of television, I don't think it's too much of a torment even if you don't have a love interest.

AVC: Do you and Terry celebrate Valentine's Day?

DS: No. [Laughs.] But we're not sentimental weirdoes. We barely acknowledge our anniversary. It took us 11 years to get married. Our anniversary will come and go, and we'll both realize it about a month later and say, "Oh, ****. Yeah, happy anniversary." But we're both guys, and that helps with avoiding Valentine's Day as a holy day of obligation. Valentine's Day is much more of a holy day of obligation for a guy in a relationship with a woman, because a woman has certain emotional expectations. Even if she doesn't value Valentine's Day, or views it as a corporate exercise, she still often wants her boyfriend or husband to go through the motions, just in case she values it. I get letters every year from women who think Valentine's Day is an empty exercise, but are ironically pretty exercised when their boyfriends neglect or forget it. There's this movement to form a day called Steak And A Blowjob Day, which would be the male version of Valentine's Day, where women would come through with a steak and a blowjob in return for the chocolate and flowers that guys come through with, and I support that holiday.

AVC: It would be interesting to see Hallmark try to take advantage of that.

DS: That's one of the great things about it. It's probably one of the reasons it hasn't really taken off in the few years people have been trying to promote it. How do you make a card for Steak And A Blowjob Day?

[Melody]

Thanks everyone. The only thing that sucks is since he isn't local to me I won't be able to go to his funeral. GP was an interesting guy and we'd go get lunch whenever I was able to get out to Phoenix visiting friends. Plus we'd sit there and gripe about a another mutual friend of ours and his ability to get into the worse relationships.

He'll really be missed.

Mel