How I Really Feel About Valentine's Day

When my daughter doesn't like something she says it "can go die in a hole".

Not sure I feel quite that strongly about Valentine's Day, but close.

I haven't always been a V-Day poo-poo-er. Oh no, I I'm usually a hopeless hopeful romantic. When others would contend that couples shouldn't need a special day to express their love for each other, I would think they're just being difficult and contrary. Is there something wrong with buying your love a box of chocolates?

But this year, looking around at all the pink and red, heart-shaped, cutesy, frilly, fluffy sweet shit in every store is....kind of making me what to hurl.

It's similar to how I feel about Easter crap. I appreciate Easter (the day), but the pastels and egg-shaped everything and the stupid Easter Bunny all make me want to vomit too.

It's stupid.

There, I said it. Valentine's stuff is stupid.

Why is it stupid, you ask? Because:

• Nobody actually gives a shit about St. Valentine and that he may have done something romantic (the jury is still out) eons ago.
• I've always thought it was odd that we encourage children to exchange little cards with their classmates. They're not supposed to be thinking about romantic love yet.
• All couples have some kind of anniversary, whether married or not. We can celebrate our love that day.
• In at least 50% of couples (totally making that up), it only serves to cause guilt and strife because some one's expectations weren't met.

I used to think it was super sweet when my husband would pick me up a little somethin'somethin'. Now I'm totally over it. In fact, I don't want him to spend a dime on anything on sale specifically for Valentine's Day.

However....

I don't mind using Valentine's Day as an excuse to do something nice for your significant other. Something thoughtful. We do this sort of thing for our kids for Easter; we haven't bought them Easter baskets for years, but we do give them something.

For example, yesterday at the grocery story I found rib eye steaks on sale (Mark's favorite), so we will have a yummy dinner on Saturday. With how high beef prices have been, this will be a real treat.

And tomorrow, I am surprising Mark with an in-home massage!

I have been thinking about how to do this for him for months. I was lucky enough to have a massage last month, so ever since I've been especially antsy. I asked a friend of mine who knows a lot of business owners in our area and she was able to refer me to someone who not only will come to us, but who is also very affordable.

A massage and a steak dinner? Much better than a heart-shaped box of chocolates, I think.

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This post was inspired by the One Word Blog Challenge word "tomorrow".