ode to st. valentine

st. valentine, for various reasons i have rejected you over the years of my life--first as an awkward teenager who never had a date on your day, never got those special candies or flowers that were sold at school in honor of you (actually i think they were sold to make money for the boosters, but they used your name for it!); and then as an adult grew cynical (thanks to pressure from my hubby) about your day just being a big marketing ploy all about making money and not really much about celebrating love.

this year's valentine's day was different though. it wasn't your typical advertised mushy valentine's day--my husband and i didn't have a date (we will get one tonight instead--thanks angie & warren!) or fancy dinner for two. instead, the day was filled with these things, and together they made them sweeter than any other valentine's day i can remember in a long time:

1. here is gillian in her pjs filling out her own valentine's day cards for her class (notice how she is lining them all up--anal like her mom!):

2. farm fresh eggs, which we drove about 45 minutes to buy yesterday:

3. because we made the trip way out into the country for the fresh eggs, we passed THIS sign:

4. which made me go, "turn the car around!" and so we went back and bought these (for $10 total, in case you didn't notice the sign above--can you believe it?!!):

5. and then last night i attended my first ever elementary school dance, where my daughter acted exactly like i acted at these things when i was little--a wallflower. she wouldn't budge from her chair, even when coaxed by friends to get on the dancefloor and do the chicken or the hokey pokey. i didn't bring my camera inside and then kept kicking myself the entire time, because i could use up 3 blog postings just writing about everything i observed at this dance: 5th-grade boys breakdancing (one slightly pudgy one with sunglasses and a sideways hat--straight out of a Judy Blume book); kindergarten girls (like my daughter) afraid to leave their seats; 3rd-grade girls "sort of dancing" in huge groups but mostly talking and laughing and pointing (boy crazy it seemed to me...i remember those days!).

but the best part for me (and the scariest, simultaneously) was our encounter with a boy named alex, who is in gillian's class. he was wearing a vest (yes, a 5-year-old wearing a vest, hilarious!), white long-sleeved button-down shirt, black pants, and airwalk sneakers. he had a bowl cut, which showed off his sparkly eyes. and he kept coming up to gillian (as in, WOULD NOT LEAVE HER ALONE) and sitting next to her and trying to dance in front of her. really, for the entire hour we were there he did this over and over. his main dance move was running and then sliding onto his knees across the floor (think risky business). i guess he thought this would impress gillian. instead, she mostly scowled, with a beet-red face, the entire time. several times, though, he was so persistent that he managed to make her giggle.

so i watched this with much amusement and a little horror as well, knowing in the back of my mind that one day this will all be for real, and gillian won't be scowling, she'll be enjoying the attention, and THEN it won't be quite so amusing...

so in all, st. valentine, it was a fabulous day--here's to you!