It's Valentines Day Y'all!
I'm actually not one to celebrate this day, the day for lovers. Not because I'm a cynical, self loathing, tough-minded, heartless, unromantic kind of girl. It's just because Justin or I have worked 11 out of our 13 Valentines Day's together. Every year we do something different. Some years we ignore the "holiday" all together, other years we try to have a date night the day before or after, sometimes we buy gifts, most times we don't. Occasionally, a chocolate covered strawberry will make it into the house around the 14th, but only because they looked really good at the store.
Valentines Day 1998 involved a dinner at Dan Mckluskys, a restaurant that served steak. I, at the time, was a devout vegetarian. I think I had a dinner salad, minus the bacon while Justin gnawed on the bone of a 20oz Rib eye. He did apologize in between his tasty, bloody bites, claiming that he thought they had "vegetarian" food. BULLSHIT!
Valentines Day 1999 involved a picnic looking over Lake Austin. Problem was, everyone had the same idea. There was no "view" because all the other hopeless romantics were staked out. So Justin and I sat amongst the ants scarfing down our food, shivering, while staring at the shelter the homeless had set up 2 feet away from us. We quickly finished, packed up, and took our ant bitten ass back to the apartment. We then set up our very romantic TV trays in the bedroom so the roommate wouldn't bother us. We had dinner and downed a half bottle of Champagne that I convinced the apartment manager to buy for us, since we weren't of drinking age yet.
I'm not opposed to a day dedicated to love. I just honestly don't really see its point. I know, it has all been said before. "Its just a Hallmark Holiday meant to sell cards and candy." and "Why do you need to be told when to celebrate love, it should be celebrated everyday."Blah, Blah, Blah. Honestly my problem with Valentines Day is all the pressure it creates. You have to be on your best behavior because today, today I must LOVE you with all of my heart and I must prove to you that I love you with cards and candy and sexy bra's. Not to say, I don't enjoy receiving said gifts, its just the pressure to buy buy buy drives me crazy. Then there's the pressure to not bicker. On this one day of the year, GOD forbid you have an argument over if the child should be allowed to play Nintendo DS for 8 hours straight. GOD FORBID! Oh and the pressure to shave, because guess what? Its Valentines Day and because of that you MUST have sex and it better be the best sex EVER (earmuffs Michelle)
So here we are Valentines Day 2010. Justin and I actually have the day off together. I came up with the fantastic idea that we would actually celebrate it this year. Justin went along with my crazy idea, because honestly, did he have a choice? Now today, we celebrate. I'm not going to lie y'all. I think Justin felt the pressure. He asked me if it was ok to do "normal" stuff today. And by "normal" he meant, housework. See what I mean, the expectation that everything we do today must be done while gazing into each others eyes. Seeing as we NEVER celebrate this "holiday" I think he was a little overwhelmed with what my expectations were. Honestly, I had no expectations. I just wanted us to have a nice dinner at home, drink some wine, and buy each other something cool and fun. I wasn't even pressured to buy a Valentine's Day Gift bag for his gift.
We had a great day with the kids, bought some steaks and plan on putting the kids to bed at 8 sharp to enjoy our pressure free night off.
And I did shave...
