The Tornadoes got on the bus this morning, armed with a box each of those little valentine's day cards for their friends. Remember handing out valentine's day cards in school? Some years the teachers were really into it and had us all make these elaborate "mailboxes" to receive our fond wishes. Other years - when teacher woke up on the cynical side of the bed - we simply walked around the room and dropped our cards on each other's desks. Then we ate a cookie and quickly rifled through our piles to see if the cute boy we liked had thought of us. Preferably not with a Hot Wheels valentine, but if so, with some kind of hint that he had set aside the most special of the Hot Wheels design just for us.
Or was that just me?
I seem to recall this whole "girls and boys liking each other" thing starting much younger for us. Fifth Grader has alluded to liking a particular boy since the beginning of fourth grade, but she's certainly not all moon eyed about it. Today's V-day party doesn't appear to mean anything more to each of them than that they get to eat sugary snacks when they would normally be doing math. I should be relieved, I suppose.
I'm kind of conflicted on the whole Valentine's Day thing. I don't really buy into the idea as a rule. I distinctly remember feeling annoyed when my former husband used to present me with some ridiculous box of chocolate or a teddy bear holding a heart. In fact, I wanted to scream. How many years do you have to know someone before it sinks in that this person doesn't like chocolate, nor are they seven years old? Plus, the day has absolutely no relevance to my own personal relationships, so why must it be held up as "special?" The whole thing reeks of corniness.
And yet, I am a romantic. Stop laughing. Seriously. I can't say that I really ever believed in love, or even romance, until not so long ago - which made it a lot easier for me to ridicule this silly made-up "holiday" - but things have happened, and I have more faith in the existence of love than I used to have. And what surprises me the most about that realization is that it doesn't seem to make anything any easier. At least, not always easier.
Anyway, here's my point. I have to pick up a little something for the girls to give to them tomorrow. And I am thinking I may peruse the cards for an appropriate fond wish for Boyfriend. I don't think I have bought a valentine card for anyone of the male gender since the sixth grade, and if memory serves, that didn't go so well. So I'm a bit wound up about doing it right. What if I overplay it? Maybe I should just grab one with a picture of two basset hounds staring into each other's eyes on the cover, with some goofy understated sentiment inside. That just feels all wrong. On second thought, this seems like a bad idea altogether.
I've never wanted it to be February 15 so badly in my life.
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5 comments:
Buy a box of kids valentines and give him one of those. You can't go wrong with a Hello Kitty valentine (or a Transformers one, if you really want to wow him).
The thing I remember most about Valentines Day? Don't ask how I remember this, but there was a boy named Ryan in my 1st grade class, and he was also in my 5th glade class. Both years he wrote "Form Ryan" on the card instead of "From Ryan". Why I've remembered that through a couple decades is beyond me...
I like the ones that play music! There is one in Hallmark that plays "Do you Love Me?" --the song that was in Dirty Dancing...I liked that one and it was fairly normal--not too mooney--or you could buy him a blank card and print out this column and put it inside the card--which would probably say more than any sappy card could...
Though we were already married, I think I sealed the deal with my husband one Valentines Day when we asked me how I wanted to celebrate and I said "lets go to five guys" (a burger chain - with no more atmosphere than McDonalds, but with much better burgers)
I don't know what I would have done if a guy ever gave me a teddy bear with a heart on it! That would definately scream "have you even met me??" The most romantic things are when someone does something that expresses that he's been paying attention to the little things that make you who you are.
I remember in kindergarten we made our own Valentine's Day mailboxes. Why in the world 5 year old need to give Valentine's Day cards is beyond me. Since this was before the days that people we into "self-esteem" we weren't required to give everyone in our class V-Day cards. It was so sad when the less popular kids didn't get many (or in some cases, ANY!) Valentine's Day cards.
Conversation Hearth are the single most over-rated candy known to human-kind.
~Alex
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