Valentine's Day. . .a few days late

I have to say that I've had my ups and downs with good ol' V-Day. I used to love the excuse for a party in elementary school. Everybody had to give everybody else a Valentine, so nobody felt left out. And you'd try to remember which of the conversation hearts were yummy and which tasted like dish soap.

Then in middle school came the Carnation Sale. There are many reasons for me to despise this event:
1) I was terrified of flowers
2) Nobody ever sent me any. Not even girl friends. Nobody.
3) You saw the one girl who had like a full bouquet and wanted the fear of flowers to be founded and have one turn into Audrey II and eat her.

Upper School was a bit better - I actually got some (flowers, not ass). . .still didn't like flowers though. By then I was too stuck on the fact that there was no boy to celebrate the holiday with. In college, I always managed to break up with boys right around that time, so my pledge mom Jennifer and I would take Anita (her truck) to the CPK at the mall and talk about how we were strong independent women and this is how we'd rather spend the evening anyway. Meanwhile, during XMas Break, my mom would buy me a nice outfit and would say, "Maybe this year you'll be able to wear it on a nice Valentine's Day date. . ." I just wanted the day to be over, really.

My mom is super cool about V-Day. . my brother always had a card and candy from her waiting on our placement in the morning, growing up. Sometimes even the dogs would get us a card. Somehow I enjoyed that more than all the romantic crap that was supposed to take place.

This year, with my bf and me both a bit low on cashola (and me staring down a couple grand in dental bills by the end of the week), we decided to forego the nice dinner of last year for something a little more casual - but still yummy! It was a fun evening, but not the hooplah that Valentine's Day has been built up to be.

On V-Day, I checked my mail and had 2 pink envelopes. Each of my parents had seperately sent me a card. Somehow, more than anything, that made my day. So for me, Valentine's Day isn't about cheesy gifts or exaggerated romantic gestures. It's just about simple, unconditional love. And cards with monkeys on them.