Love Actually

 

Exactly.

Also the title of one of my favorite movies, this is a good title for my post.  Some people say Valentine's Day is the Hallmark Holiday.  So many people I know dislike Valentine's Day because they say it was created to put pressure on people to spend money.  You're certainly the asshole in the relationship if you ignore it.  Every year people buy crappy presents such as balloons and teddy bears and drop loads of cash on short-lived items like flowers or dinner. They fret over the card or whether or not the gift might be misconstrued to mean something different like "you're fat" or "the house is filthy".   But if your significant other is especially sensitive, he or she will purchase a thoughtful gift like the butt/face towel.  Nothing means I love you more than saying, "I don't want you to wipe your face where your stinky butt was."  Certainly this would surely guarantee some V-day nookie.  But I like Valentine's Day.  I like it a lot.  For me to be a tom-boy you'd think I'd get nauseous at the site of all the pink and hearts, flowers and balloons, but I don't.  You see, Valentine's Day means something different for me.  I've always looked forward to it.  My parents also always chose to give my sister and me a little something for Valentine's Day.  Sometimes it would be a little box of chocolates and sometimes it'd be a necklace.  And there's always the elementary joy of exchanging very cool Scooby Doo Valentines with your classmates.  Regardless, Valentine's Day to me is about taking the time out from everyday life to stop and say, "I love you."  My husband will not be so stupid that he picks February 14th to work late.  There will be no "Weekday Wagon" (we attempt to save money by trying not to deplete our booze supply on

"Awww, so thoughtful!  You shouldn't have."

 weekdays) and it won't be a regular old night.  He may or may not purchase flowers (if he did I'd love it as I always do) and we won't rush into the restaurant scene to blow tons of money on prix fixe menus and a sitter.   What we will do is have dinner together as a family, have wine together after the kids are asleep, possibly go to bed early, and hopefully have sex.  That, my dear people, is romance in a can these days and I LOVE IT.  Yes, that occurs on days that aren't Valentine's Day and No, we don't have to have Valentine's Day to make it happen, but February 14th is a holiday that we treat like a holiday and for that I am grateful.