Friday’s Tune: Valentine Edition

Tags

Friday's Tune, humour, Valentine's Day

It’s Valentine’s Day. That holiday between Christmas chocolate and Easter chocolate. A day for lovers to espouse the traits that bind them together for eternity…yadda-yadda-yadda!

If you can’t tell, I’m not a fan. I could say it’s because we should show our love and appreciation to our sweethearts, family and friends every day of the week, not just once a year. But that wouldn’t be the whole truth. There’s a reason I wear black, and certainly I’ve had enough tragic childhood tales of unrequited love and crappy happenstances to make this a dark day on the calendar. I acknowledge that it’s been far worse for others.

I don’t deny the “lovers” their foolishness. They can spend their hard-earned money on rocks and red roses, and gush over each other like I will over my pizza tonight. I’m a hopeless romantic at heart (or just hopeless), but I prefer to poke fun. In fact, had I known this song existed, it would have been my theme song in high school:

J. Geils Band. Written by Peter Wolf / Seth Justman © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Go ahead and call me a curmudgeon, a wet blanket or a cranky old lady. I’ll just smile sweetly. I’m not heartless. In fact, I prayed for a lot of people today – people who have recently lost love and people who are longing for love – because I love them. Some of them love me back! Hubby even brought me flowers and O Henry (Oh Henry!). It must be love!

Happy Friday!

 

We Did It!

Tags

cookies, humour, Valentine's Day

We are Valentine’s Day survivors. It’s that one holiday between Christmas chocolate and Easter chocolate, that I tend to despise. Too many bad experiences that make me want to cry out “Bah…humbug!”

Yesterday I did the same things I do every year. I wore black to honour my funny valentine. I mocked the sappy songs on the radio with gusto. And I ate pizza…with extra cheese and bacon!

But I had decided, in a last ditch effort to not totally destroy my teenager’s faith in all things lovey-dovey, I would try to have a better attitude. Or at least, not make sarcastic comments and gagging sounds. Also, I  baked cookies.

Pink, heart-shaped, fru-fru shortbread cookies. And then I showered him with effusive hugs and kisses, and melodramatic expression of affection, until he begged me to stop.

To all the lovers out there – good for you! To the rest of us…celebrate! It’s over for another year and it’s the weekend. Make it a good one! 😉

 

 

 

Bah, Humbug

Tags

humour, love, Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner…that glorious holiday when we’re supposed to celebrate love…

It arrives exactly 52 days after Christmas (which means if you disappointed your partner with your Christmas gift, this is a great way to remind them of that disappointment, or to just disappoint them again!) It also arrives in the middle of frigid February…just weeks before the suicide rate starts to climb. We’re surrounded by cute matching couples with cute matching expressions, an Ikea-type of love. A heart-shaped minefield.

There have just been too many bad Valentine’s Days. For example:

February 14, 1980-something. My “best” friend, handed me a paper valentine and told me that she was only giving me one because her mother was making her.

February 14, 1980-something. S. asked me to be his girlfriend, and when I told my friends, they didn’t believe me. And then he denied he had asked me and said I made it all up.

Photo courtesy of http://www.guy-sports.com

February 14, 1990  Friends brought me chocolate cake to help me get over a break up. Big Guy was 19 days old.

February 14, 1991 – my guy friend offered to call me on Valentine’s Day to cheer me up (and I had a huge crush on him), but I knew he was hanging out with his girlfriend that night, and while I appreciated his offer, I didn’t want to come between them. So I told him not to call. They are married now with 3 teenagers!

February  14, 1992 – my mother bribed me with a new red dress so I wouldn’t wear black…plus I had a date. And I was actually excited…until he cancelled because his parents had just moved and he had to drive to his hometown to find them.

February 14, 1994 – I called my new boyfriend after 11 p.m., cheap time, to wish him a Happy Valentine’s Day, and found out he had no intention of calling me or sending a card, because I would “expect that”. Huh?

February 1997 – I was fixing a special dinner to celebrate with new husband when I received a phone call that my best friend had died in a car accident. Ironically, she was on her way to a Bereavement Group meeting.

February 14, 2000 – Big Guy and I had the flu and Hubby was recovering from having his wisdom teeth removed.

If only I could have feasted “upon the unicorn enchilada” to “gain its enchilada power”. I could have saved myself so much grief…

Photo Courtesy of http://www.keengamer.com

I try not to let the hype get to me, nor do I let the pendulum swing so far that I’m completely cynical about love about romance. Afterall, it’s my favourite holiday – right between Christmas chocolate and Easter chocolate. It’s a holiday when I wear black and blast the song “Love Stinks” in my car. It’s that time of year when I roll my eyes at all sappy the diamond commercials and sweet “nothings” whispered publicly on  Facebook.  And I eat pizza…with extra cheese.

Celebrate your way…and I’ll celebrate mine! Happy Weekend!

My Funny Valentine (Weekly Writing Challenge)

Tags

BFFs, DP, DP Challenge, DPchallenge, friends, Valentine's Day, Weekly Writing Challenge

I will be wearing black today because it’s a time honoured tradition. Valentine’s Day has sucked in the past – disappointments, break-ups, cancelled dates, lonely nights, harsh words, bitter tears…you get the picture! I’m certainly not alone here. But I have another “good” reason to dislike Valentine’s Day – I miss my best friend!

My dear friend, D.J., and I became inseparable BFFs in Grade 5. In Grade 6, we had to band together to survive our 6^th grade teacher (she was a scary, menopausal mess!) In Grade 7 we sang “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” at the tops of our lungs, and danced “as if no one was watching”. In Grade 8, she told me why she wasn’t a virgin; she also told me that just before we became friends, she had planned her suicide, right down to the note…and it was only a matter of days. In Grade 10, she went with me to buy a pregnancy test. We shared everything (except boyfriends) and I could trust her to be honest with me, without being brutal.

Even when I went to college, and she moved away, even though we didn’t speak for months at a time, it was if no time had passed; we could pick up right where we left off! I mailed her fictitious stories of life in our “hick town” (complete with a cast of stereotypical “small town” characters), and she would mail back advice on surviving big city life (e.g., how to pick out the hooker in a crowd). We just got each other in all our weird and wonderful ways!

My wedding took place 2 months after D.J. lost her parents (their truck collided with 2 passenger trains), and although I hadn’t receive a reply from her, I included her in my guest list. The day before the wedding, I got a call from my Mom at the Reception Hall to say D.J. had just phoned and she was coming! I imagine it was difficult for her to come, but she was best wedding present!

My “Funny Valentine” died in a single car accident on Valentine’s Day, 1997. Her car slipped on the ice and went over the overpass. Ironically, she was on her way to a bereavement group meeting. She had spent the day at her parents’ house with her siblings, sorting through her stuff. Her brother told me at the funeral that she had talked about me that day, how we had met at a mall the previous Christmas and I had made her laugh…and how good it had felt to laugh! A few weeks later, he passed on some pictures and things she had set aside to take home with her – pictures of us being the goofy girls that we were.

D.J. and I agreed in high school many (many) years ago, that we would “rebel” every Valentine’s Day by wearing black, and with the exception of one year in college when my Mom bribed me with a gorgeous red dress (which was the same year my date stood me up), I have always worn black. Without a doubt, if my dear friend was still alive, she would be wearing black too…and we would laugh and laugh…and it would feel so good!

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To read more Funny Valentine Stories from participants of the Weekly Writing Challenge, click here!