I don't believe in Valentine's Day.
Correction: I believe the holiday exists. But I don't believe in any overt celebration of it.
Even that's not entirely true. I will indeed wish my husband a happy Valentine's Day today. I'm not, after all, a love-Grinch. I will not, however, be receiving a gift from Paul, nor will he be receiving one from me.
Paul and I mutually agreed to a ban on Valentine's Day gifts several years ago. I'm not even sure when. I asked him this weekend if he could remember one Valentine's Day gift he had either presented to or received from me. He could not. The only one I could remember was the first I had given him, way back in 2002: a DVD of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I'm not sure if he's watched it even three times in nine years.
I do remember several of the Valentine's Day outings we've made -- dinner at Ann & Tony's in West Jefferson, or Cap City in Gahanna. They were restaurants we normally would have gone to anyway, except on those days we dressed up. I couple of years ago we even spent Valentine's Day weekend in Vermont, but that was only because it fell on President's Day weekend, hence the extra day off of work.
Maybe we'll go out to eat tonight, I don't know. I doubt it. There will be no flowers, no piece of jewelry. There will be chocolate, but probably only from my everyday stash in the cupboard.
This time of year I feel a little like I do in December, when I want to wish people happy holidays but I'm not sure of their religion. On that note: Happy Valentine's Day, if you celebrate.
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