We have a delivery for you in the lobby...or not.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Or Hallmark Holiday!

Or Make Him Do Something that Says We Do More Than Hook Up Day!

Or Let's Have to Come Up with Some Anti-Love Sentiment to Cover Up that We're Pretty Pissed to Be Alone ANOTHER Valentine's Day.

Or You Really Like Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day!

At least as adults, we can tie one on regardless of our thoughts on the holiday. I have to admit, I'm one of the lucky ones. I have a nice husband who gets the memo regarding gifts and no I never get stuck with whatever Kay Jewelers is shoving down our collective throats. "Journey Pendant", Jane Seymour's "Hearts", or whatever that thing that looks like equestrian equipment with the creepy thunderstorm commercial - "I"ll never let go of you". I can usually expect a little something, thoughtful. I'm lucky now...however it certainly wasn't always that way.

Both the junior high and high school I attended took Valentine's Day as a serious fundraising opportunity. They pushed molded chocolate roses, cheaply made plastic hearts that play Let Me Call You Sweetheart, and hot-pink dyed Carnations. Making sure to drive home the need to have a "special someone" very early in every Warrior's life. Oh, how I coveted those girls called to the office or the front of the room to pick up their tacky trinkets. I was never called.

Valentine's Day became such a huge popularity contest. The popular pretty girls would literally be carrying crap around in garbage bags. Somewhere around Jr. High (when I learned I should probably lie about the balloon bouquet and bear my Dad - c/o Mom - sent me and say it was someone from a nearby town), I was on my own for V-Day. Sure, I had the occasional sweet friend who sent everybody one of the carnations - but the boys...not so much. I once found myself with a boyfriend in high school on 2/14 who gave me perfume and took me out to dinner which was nice - but he was older and didn't go to my school, so nobody really knew about it. I was so sad that no one would see that I actually did have an interested party, that I packed that perfume and card when I went on a ski trip that weekend. (Not exactly the best idea. Ski equipment + cranky bus driver + 50 overzealous youth groupers = one very sweet smelling duffel bag.)

I never got flowers from a boy (except for corsages for dances) until I was in college. And then, they were usually picked along a highway or from a drug store.

Then, when I was 23, I met my husband, and I think he sent me flowers like once a week for months. I was fully getting more than my payback for the humiliating and empty-handed walk to the bus I did every Valentine's Day for years. It was almost embarrassing though, such a showy display of affection...but still, I always remembered how bad it was on Valentine's Day when I was a teenager, and how I felt left out, undesirable, dorky, immature, and somehow less than, so the flowers were always appreciated.

It's a shame that a holiday could make one group of people feel alienated, ashamed, pressured and another feel like they are floating on air. No matter which side of the line you're on, just have a good weekend. Hey, it's President's Day too - most of us won't get anything for that one!

Michelle