Happy St. Val . . .

Ah, February 14th! Happy Valentine's Day to all my friends and loved ones, especially my beautiful wife.

Does anyone else remember being in Grade School and getting those boxes of Valentine's cards that came wrapped 20 to a box, all with puppies and ducks and other little furry creatures? You'd spill them out on the kitchen table and agonize over who got the best cards.

It was fun . . . sort of. I remember one year somebody sent one little girl a skunk card. I never saw the offending card, and I don't know if it said something rude, or whether the printer of those cards just thought that skunks were cute furry creatures and never gave it another thought. I DO remember it raised quite a stink with the teacher, and that an investigation ensued. If the culprit was ever found, it was all settled behind closed doors, and subsequent years included a warning issued pre-February 14 about mean cards not being tolerated.

I do still like the holiday, even if Hallmark invented it (an unsubstantiated rumor, I suppose) but now I don't get to buy those fun packs of cards any more. I like the chocolate, I guess, and roses are pretty on the dining room table. But I really like that we set aside a day that is all about telling those we love that . . . well . . . we love them. That's actually pretty cool, that we have a love day.

Maybe we should have a peace day too, where we can send little notes to all those people we don't deal well with, telling them that no matter what, today of all days we are not going to fight with you about anything. Nothing. Nada.

If it worked, we could expand it to a week . . ..

Kind of a postscript . . . I just heard one of the women at work say that she hadn't gotten her husband a card yet. Another woman told her that she could stop after work and get one, that she had time. I wondered if she were to forget, would her husband freak out on her for forgetting Valentine's Day. I discussed this with another co-worker and we decided that he probably wouldn't, that in the back of his mind he'd figure . . . "Cool, now I have a card credit . . . in case I forget one someday." But we also decided that there is a statute of limitations on that credit, so our profound judgment to any man out there whose significant other forgets to get them a card today . . . be understanding, but be vigilant. Safer to remember the card days than foolishly pin your hope of amnesty on some stupid idea like a card credit.

Only a man would even come up with that idea!