Happy Monday/ V-Day.

Happy Valentine’s Day! And more importantly, happy Baseball Season!  In general, I am in all support of any holidays with color themes, flowers, chocolate and wine and greeting cards. That being said, I do find the day to still be a cliché Hallmark Holiday. I have nothing against love and greeting cards (and certainly nothing against chocolate) but more the idea that we need an excuse to celebrate love.  Isn’t it more meaningful to get a card simply because? This could just be my cynical single self talking, but in general I think celebrating on the off days is so much more personal and significant than one giant national love-fest of a holiday. Not that I would turn down any flowers, cards, or candy that came my way today… it just seems a little impersonal.

Sure today is Valentine’s Day, but it is also Monday… Sure I am drinking wine & eating chocolate while writing this (and yes it is 2:30 in the afternoon) but frankly, this isn’t out of the ordinary, in fact it is pretty on-par with my normal Monday activities… Some might argue that indulging on a regular basis makes the activity (or the cards, flowers, whatever) seem like less of a luxury/surprise… & I can see that in some cases, but I like getting cards in the mail no matter what month or week it is, and as I mentioned, I need no excuse to eat a few chocolates and have a glass of wine. (It’s my day off people!). And really the only thing that has made today stand out more than any other Monday was the Bulldog cupid e-card that was sent to me by my dad, and the fact that I’ve seen more flower delivery trucks out and about. I haven’t seen anyone wearing red, there haven’t been an overwhelming amount of love songs on the radio, and I haven’t even heard/seen and mushy commercials. It’s been a pretty normal Monday. I’m doing laundry, running errands, blogging, planning class for tomorrow, balancing my checkbook etc. Sure, I drove twenty-minutes out of my way to spend 5 minutes flirting with the cute coffee guy who may or may not be seeing someone else (seriously, I’ve been trying to figure that out for  like a month, I still have no idea, but I figure I shouldn’t stop flirting until I know for sure, right? Regardless the coffee is good…)but that has nothing to do with the fact that it is V day, and everything to do with the fact that it’s what I do every Monday (and sometimes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday… it’s ok, I drive a hybrid).

Gone are the days of making valentines for every single person in your class (ok but I did make a few) stocking up on heart stickers, and making sure at the very least you were wearing valentines themed sox (ok I might have on red underwear, but that is a coincidence having more to do with the fact that it is laundry day than the fact that it is Valentine’s Day). Though I cannot really speak for my married friends/ friends in relationship, I’m pretty sure that to most of the people in my inner circle today is first and fore mostly Monday, and Valentine’s day second. That isn’t to say that we are all dead on the in-side, but we are all pretty practical. It’s a day that is not about the huge romantic gestures, but a day about getting work done, starting the week, finishing up projects, and if there is time, perhaps a romantic dinner or something. Maybe we are all cynical? Maybe we are all realistic? Maybe I am way off base, and all my romantically involved friends really do have spectacular plans, but I like to think that most of us are spending the day/evening pretty much the same way we spend every Monday. And if that involves wine and chocolate and snuggling in, so be it.

 A few of my home-made Valentine's