Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentine's Day....A Sickness

I am a romance junkie. Love hearts, flowers, kisses, all things romantic. My husband, Mark, well he is.....a guy. Therefore, he is not a romance junkie. To add insult to injury, he is extraordinarily practical, so the whole Valentine's Day allure completely escapes him. Thus, the Parker's have a conundrum. Every year, around February 1st, we both start to get antsy. He sweats it out, knowing he will have to do something for V-Day, but not really wanting to, not because he doesn't love me, just because it's not how he is wired. Meanwhile, I am ready to freebase on romance. I picture beautiful roses and candlelit dinner and well, you can guess what else. So, since the two of us are on such different planes, this is clearly a recipe for disaster. So here we sit, on Valentine's day, with all this pressure. (mostly caused by me). This year, Mark sent me beautiful flowers to my office on Friday. A lovely gesture that made my day. Today, I planned a nice dinner, hoping we could put Matty to bed early and have a little grown up time....and a lot of wine! Alas, my husband absently invited a friend of ours over for dinner. Once this friend remembered it was Valentine's day (clearly they have no issues at their house) he politely declined. But, this brought up the whole V-Day issue again. I had told him several times about the dinner, yet he forgot. Even when our friend asked what I was making and I said Steak and Lobster, Mark was still saying to him, "Oh come over, it's gonna be good." Giving the fact that I was planning this for Valentine's day, no thought whatsover.
Now, here's the real problem. I get upset, but end up feeling so stupid because I have become "crazy valentine lady" whose husband bought her flowers and loves her and she's still not happy. What the hell is wrong with me? Maybe I watch too many movies or hallmark card commercials. I don't know. Any ideas?

1 comment:

Andy Gehrisch said...

I don't think you're nuts. My wife and I have given up on buying gifts for each other on all occasions. The one exception is valentines day. Since our anniversary is on a leap year, we do celebrate that as well, but only every 4th year.

So, I mark my calendar starting in November. Every Monday, I try to come up with something really different. Not expensive. But something I can feel good about and can't wait to give her.

Here's a few ideas.....

Named a star after her
Paid for a Wolf to be taken care of for one year.
Had a romantic poem put into a bottle.

Stuff like that. We also do the dinner thing as a way to at least once a year spend a night out together.

However, I will say one thing. Based on your writings and posts on FB, Mark seems to give you a lot of what you seek on Valentines day the whole year around. Just a thought....