Valentine's Day

It's that time of year again! Time for my annual Valentine's Day post. I hope it makes an impression on you ladies.

I'll start by saying I don't celebrate it. I haven't in years. I think it's maybe the most silly, useless "holiday" we have.

Exchanging Spiderman and Superman valentine's is cute when you're in school. It's fun to spend a week making yourself one of those "mailboxes" to put on your desk for all your friends to send letters too. That was always a good time ... and someone's mom would always bring in the pink and red cupcakes. Good times, simple times.

Sometime around the time I got my first job, things changed. Suddenly all the baracudas in the office are watching EVERYONE and sniffing around everyone's desk to see who got flowers or candy, etc ... and to see who didn't ... watching to see who has a good husband and who doesn't have a boyfriend. They compared their bouquets to everyone else's and I'm SURE there was more than one ungrateful woman that went home and gave her husband hell that night for not sending a bigger one. That was SO stressful for me. I can't imgine I'm the only one who feels that way ...

I hated Valentine's Day when I had a boyfriend because what if he didn't do anything for me at work? What would the snakes in the office have to say about THAT? He doesn't really like me? And I hated it when I didn't have a boyfriend either because then I felt like the most unloved person on the earth. It's a no win situation.

The straw that broke the camels back was the boyfriend I had right before Conrad. He sent flowers to my office. Mostly because I made him and I reminded him and I tried to casually tell him that if I didn't get anything everyone would think he was a jerk. The flowers arrived and on the card was one word- his NAME. Idiot. He thought it was hilarious. I thought it was mean. I already had my suspicisions regarding him anyway and his exgirlfriend. They were WAY too chummy and he defended her like I have never seen before. I was so upset and so insecure when it came to her, after I got the flowers I actually called the florist to see how many flowers he had sent out that day, just hoping to bust him sending me a set and her a set. They said he came in, bought mine with cash and that was it. I still don't believe it - she probably got dinner that night or something- but the fact was I had sunken SO LOW ...

From then on I declared Valentine's stupid and it really is. To me. It's also not man friendly. There is nothing out there I can get for $20 during this time that Conrad would like. He doesn't care about chocolate and what man likes to get flowers? It's incredibly stressful for all those involved. I stopped celebrating maybe four or five years ago and I've never been more happy.

Conrad is off the hook too and we treat it like any other day. We rarely even go to dinner, I hate fighting those crowds and paying those "special menu" prices ... if I don't cook, we order a pizza. I just think the entire day is ridiculous ... Conrad loves it. He tells guys all the time "how lucky am I?" when the subject comes up and I feel no stress when the girls walk by my cube and see no flowers. I just tell them I don't celebrate and that's that ... it feels good to take control.

Not to mention these days - it's not really the smartest bang for your buck ... I'd skip it this year if I were you.

Kah