Welcome to one of the silliest "holidays" of the year.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all for romance (although I think it should be renamed "womance" in the Elmer Fudd pronunciation, in order to get both genders included in the word). But I've always thought it was connected to an emotion, a feeling, not a particular date. Should I feel more romantic toward my lovely wife on February 14 than I do on, say, April 26? It seems absurd.
Personally, I resent FTD, Hallmark, 800-FLOWERS and the entire chocolate industry telling me when I should feel romantic. And since, in modern America, Romance=Sex (go ahead, prove me wrong), frankly I think it's my own business. Well, and my wife's.
While not even in the same stratosphere as the pre-Christmas hype, Valentine's noodging is more short-lived but somehow more insulting. "If you don't buy (insert name of product) for HER (they never actually mention a context, just HER; SHE could be your pet ocelot) for Valentine's Day, you're a lousy man," the ads imply. Some of them come right out and say it.
In the past, my wife and I have done our level best to ignore Valentine's day. For one thing, it comes from St. Valentine, (or one of them; apparently there were several) and we're not members of that particular flock. But more to the point, both of us prefer to express our emotions when we have them, and not when the calendar suggests we're remiss if we don't.
This year, though, I think we'll go out to dinner by ourselves. It's been a while--with both kids in college, you'd think we'd have more time by ourselves, but so far, we've been empty-nesters for a grand total of five days. Our son came home for his co-op in New York City just after our daughter left for school (and she's actually only about two miles away), and stayed home for six months. He'll be heading back at the end of next month. And our daughter will show up again for summer break about six weeks later.
So maybe a night out is just the thing. Usually, it would be more our style to go out the night AFTER Valentine's, just to be contrary and avoid the rush, but scheduling makes that more difficult this year. So off we'll go and spend some time just being a couple.
We'll probably talk about the kids.
P.S. Pitchers and catchers report... TODAY!
P.P.S. It is now 50 days until AN UNINVITED GHOST, the second Haunted Guesthouse Mystery, will be published. Sure feels good not to have to do any promotion. I wonder what E.J. Copperman is planning?
