A Conversation. Heart.

I’m wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day, despite arguments that you may want to make about it being a Hallmark holiday created to make us spend money and feel bad about ourselves. I’m wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day even though Dave is away and my Valentine for the day is my friend Jenn and our plans include the mall and the gym, probably two of the least romantic places on the entire Earth, even for platonic love. I’m wishing you a Happy Valentine’s Day because, as we must do with all commercially created days of celebration, I believe in making into something we can all appreciate without actually having to donate a portion of our salaries to Hallmark or some cheesy jeweler. You don’t have to be paired up or in love to enjoy a day where you can get sentimental, tell someone you love them, eat oddly delicious chalky hearts. Celebrate all the love you have in your life, romantic or not, and do something indulgent for goodness sakes!

All that said, I’m lucky this year and the past seven years because I have a standing Valentine’s Day date, whether we’re physically together or not, with the best guy around. Every year we agree to refrain from gift giving, and it still surprises me every single year when he shows up with flowers and a card with a message in his little scrawl that makes me grin like it’s November 2001 all over again. And he never, ever is so unoriginal to bring red roses, he likes to pick out a bouquet of his own making, always so beautiful and unique. Only a hopelessly romantic color-blind man could be so creative. Only a man who really knows what romance is could be so ever-changing and yet truly constant.

I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day. I hope you have a friend, a sister, a husband, a girlfriend, a soul mate who you can look at today with real appreciation. Appreciation for a person who makes a place where you can be yourself, speak your mind, and fart. If you can’t fart in front of each other, I seriously suggest you work on that, you have no idea how liberating that kind of love can be. My husband finds me irresistible, I find him addicting, we laugh every day together. He’s my Valentine. My sister truly knows me, we ask each other the hard questions and remember where we came from. She’s my Valentine. My mom and dad support me, stand as an example of unconditional but real-world-weathered love. They are my Valentine’s. Jess is my yin, I work to be her yang. She’s my Valentine.

Get creative, stop pouting. Make a card, go for a drink, take in a movie that you’ve been meaning to see. Have some drinks and find a pregnant lady to drive you home safely, I know that’s what I did. If you’re moping, stop. If you’re breaking the bank, quit it. Embrace the over-hyped holiday, just like you do at Christmas, and then eat something that you won’t be able to buy in a few days. Hershey kisses in pink and red wrappers DO taste different somehow, I swear.