February 14, 2007

Happy Hallmark Day!

Happy Hallmark and Florist Day everyone! When I was in college I spent two years working in flower shops and let me tell you that Valentine’s Day only comes with a negative connotation after that experience.

For days leading up to V-Day, I spent hours upon hours slicing thorns off of roses and stabbing my hands endlessly; and on the actual day I spent hours trying to get forlorn looking men in and out of the store in a timely fashion by packing up whatever flowers we had left into a presentable looking box. I was always glad to see the 15th arrive.

In elementary school, Valentine’s Day was fun. I carefully wrote out Valentine’s and delivered them with care to all my friends (and enemies because you have to in elementary school as Big I found out last night).

In Junior High, Valentine’s Day stopped being fun as hoards of girls got called to the office to pick up flowers that their boyfriends had sent to the school for them. Now that I think about it, they were probably flowers from their parents or from themselves, sent to make themselves feel special. How many boys in Junior High really had $50 or $60 to put out on roses?

I rarely had a boyfriend over Valentine’s Day, so it was always dull. High school was more of the same. I had a boyfriend for one year but the teddy bear and rose he brought me left me unimpressed. The feeling that I thought would be there just wasn’t there. It was a relationship that was going down the drain anyway.

But when I got home, it was a different story. Starting in Junior High, I think my Mom realized how tough V-Day can be for a boyfriendless adolescent. Valentine’s Day became a day when my Mom broke out the good dishes. She cooked up a feast, made a pink cake and as a family, we ate dinner by candlelight. My sister and I always got a little wrapped gift-not a lot, just something that made us smile.

It was so nice to know that we could expect a treat at the end of the carnation filled days. So, instead of waiting for Junior High, I started the same tradition in our family when Big I was just one year old.

Tonight, we will dine by candlelight, eat a special dinner and cake and both of the girls will get a little surprise or two. I hope that as they get older, they’ll continue to look forward to our special V-Day celebrations, and that it will make those boyfriend-less school days a little easier on them.

How will you spend Valentine’s Day?

On a different note. . . for my fellow karate-ka, if you have a heavyweight gi, what kind do you have and what do you think of it? Either leave me a comment or shoot me an email.