Valentine’s Day. Whether you’re single, married, or are dating someone, there is ample opportunity for this made-up holiday to potentially become one of the year’s more memorable days, for better or worse.  Of course, if a special someone proposes to you on V-Day, you’re going to remember it for the rest of your life, as cliché as it might in all reality be.

But for most people, there is a lot of pressure put on this day, and for what?  After all, it’s just another holiday created by retail giants hoping to get consumers to spend money on greeting cards, candy, and jewelry.  As you can see from an article in the photo above I wrote for the school paper some TEN YEARS AGO (good God, I’m old), I was jaded about Valentine’s Day then, and I’m jaded about it now.  Just think, how lovely and curmudgeonly will I be in another forty or so years? I can’t wait to know me then!

The Boyfriend and I don’t generally ever do anything special for Valentine’s Day.  It has sort of become a tradition to go eat Indian food, then maybe go shopping and try to say “I love you” a little bit more.  But in all honesty, we’ve been doing a lot of that on regular ordinary non-Hallmark days.  So, I wasn’t really putting too much stock into us planning anything romantic for this weekend.

It doesn’t help that my youngest sister’s birthday is also on this day. (She used to date a guy whose birthday was also on Valentine’s Day…can you imagine? It was almost too barf-worthy to be true!).  So, I’m looking at my weekend schedule, and it’s pretty much booked solid.  It starts with a Pure Romance party at a friend’s house on Thursday evening, segues into a female family movie night on Friday, parlays into us getting our taxes done Saturday afternoon, a concert Saturday evening with several friends and coworkers, a Rock Band party at a friend’s house late Saturday night, and concludes with church and birthday cake with the family Sunday afternoon.  And of course the weather is supposed to be terrible Sunday evening.

I just didn’t think there was going to be any need to bother with the fuss of spending money we didn’t have on each other. We already know we love each other, and no amount of paper hearts is going to make it anymore apparent!  And yet, apparently The Boyfriend is kind of sad about this.  “Maybe he was planning a surprise?” my BFF asked.  Doubtful, since it’s the norm for me to say I WANT THIS instead of trying to bother with dropping hints and winding up disappointed.  So, I texted him during work yesterday and bluntly asked him. “Were you planning a surprise for V-day?”

His answer: “Fishing?”

FISHING?  “You want to dig worms and gut fish? Seriously? How romantic,” I texted in reply.  Now, that may be romantic to someone, but it ain’t me!  And I didn’t think The Boyfriend found it particularly seductive, either.

There was a long pause between our two phones before he sent me an answer.

He had been asking if I was fishing for compliments.

So, the jury is still out on whether or not there is an actual surprise in store for me, or if VD (aptly named, in my opinion) will be just another day.  All I know is, if I wind up ever having to gut a fish, there’d better be a damn ring inside it.

Other Gems from Jeb

• The Most Romantic Man on Earth (0)
• Holidays and Hangovers (2)
• Happiness: The Ultimate Writer’s Block (1)
• Letting Bygones be Bygones (0)
• Darlings, Dancing, Dieting, and Doughnuts (4)