I keep trolling the internet and reading cliche after cliche about How to celebrate Valentine’s Day, How to have the perfect day, How to find the perfect gift, etc.  Let me ask you this?  WHY?  Why does life have to be perfect and wrapped up in a little red bow?  How is it humanly possible year after year to keep topping the last Valentine’s Day?  Why do you want to?  I learned from Steve Martin in Parenthood that life is a roller coaster, so don’t we want the lows to help us appreciate the highs?

Here is what Valentine’s Day means to me:

 It’s a great day to show your love for someone, but it also can be a horrible day for people who are single, or stuck with a crappy partner who doesn’t give gifts or appreciate them.  I think people should treat it the way they want to.  I know people who don’t celebrate it at all, and I’m glad for them for standing up & not trying to follow what society dictates to them.

When I was a kid, I just loved Valentine’s day.  I always had a lot of little elementary school romances, so a few times I got the big Valentine’s Day card in the box that was meant for the teacher.

 

Nowadays, I get flowers, and a nice date.  I love flowers, just LOVE them.  Flowers, just like a vacation, make me very happy.  I’ve had some mishaps over the years, too: maybe someone’s plane never arrived and I cooked my 1st dinner that went dry while I waited for them to get in.  Perhaps a bouquet of flowers was delivered to me, and it was all ghetto (NEVER EVER ORDER FROM 1-800-FLOWERS) and then perhaps that person tried to buy me a gift instead & it turns out I already had the same piece of jewelry.  Ha ha, those moments make me appreciate what I have now – not the actual gifts and dates, but the person to love behind those gifts. 

I hope eveyone has the type of day they want, and remember: IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT!!!