Happy Valentine’s Day…Blah, Blah, Blah!

I’ll probably have to turn in my girl card for this…though if you knew how much damage I can do at Nordstrom you’d give it right back…so, I’ll put my girl card (and my Nordstrom card for that matter) back in my wallet for now and issue the following true statement:  I’m not really a fan of Valentine’s Day.  There, I said it…whew!

Why not, you ask?  Well, it just seems a tad bit too contrived for me.  Like here’s this one day we’re supposed to be really nice and loving to each other, but the other 364 days of the year? Eh, who cares?  No, I don’t like that at all. 

And what’s with all the gift giving?   Don’t get me wrong, I love a good gift and all, but really, what is an appropriate Valentine’s Day gift?  I mean, it’s Valentine’s Day for crying out loud.  If ever there were a fake holiday, it’s Valentine’s Day.  Just look up the history of Valentine’s Day…it’s totally obscure and, at times, even gruesome.  Yet, it’s second only to Christmas in card-giving.  If you ask me, Valentine's Day is nothing more than a fake, greeting-card-company holiday, that's for sure! 

Even Apple is vying for its share of the Valentine's Day gift-giving pie (like that company needs any more business).  A couple of weeks ago I received an email from them about “An iPad for your sweetheart” or some other such nonsense, and I thought, Seriously?  Do people really give each other such extravagant (and totally unromantic) gifts like iPads for Valentine’s Day?  I mean, an iPad out the door is probably, what, like $700?  For Valentine’s Day?!  That just seems weird to me…and really, nothing says romance like a gadget, especially a gadget that you won’t be able to drag your loved one away from, right?  Nah, I think I’ll pass on that.

Then there’s all the usual stuff:  Cards, flowers, and candy.  Those are all okay, I guess.  But really, I can do without them.  Every year I try to tell my husband not to bother with Valentine’s Day, that I truly think it’s the lamest holiday ever invented, and his response is always the same:  “There’s no way I’m going to be the guy not getting his wife anything for Valentine’s Day.”  So, in reality, he’s not getting me something out of his deep love and affection for me (though I know he loves me…good grief, he’s put up with me for close to 20 years now…if that’s not love then I don’t know what is), but really, the real reason he gets me a gift is so that he can save face.  How romantic!

To me, the real romance happens with the day-to-day, ho-hum ness of life.  When my husband looks at me at the end of the day, sees how tired I am, and says, “I’m making dinner.”  When he says, “Hey, let’s go for a walk.”  When he looks around and sees that the kids are occupied and says, “Meet me in the hot tub.”  Those are the things that make me happy, and really, they’re not things at all now, are they?  They’re small gestures that come from having built a life together, and I’ll take them any day over the traditional fare that the greeting card companies, along with everyone else it seems, are peddling these days in the name of love.

So for those of you who really enjoy Valentine’s Day, I hope you have a wonderful day, truly I do, and I hope I haven’t rained on all your lace and doilies.  And for those of you cynics out there like me who thinks it’s a waste, join me in pretending it’s just February 14, the day between February 13 and February 15, a day of no significance whatsoever…except for the fact that it just so happens to be almost exactly a month away from St. Patrick’s Day…now that’s a holiday I can get into!