Happy Valentine's Day to you, too

Whatever happened to the days of a chocolate heart and a single red rose? I've never had expensive wants when it came to Valentine's Day, but just a rose...just ONE FRIGGIN' ROSE might be nice to look at for a few days. When's the last time I got roses or flowers or even a nice little plant anyway? Oh, wait, sorry...::AHEM::...let's start again.

So while I could have my reasons to HATE this holiday 'o luv when it comes around each and every year, some things you just have to let go of after 10 years.

With that being said, it's a darn good thing I won our Valentine's dinner, because every last penny of our money is spoken for. We got each other a card and nothing more. Well, I got HIM a card...I don't know if HE has gotten ME one yet.

So while we're still on the subject, I have a couple of funny/weird/stupid Valentine memories I'd like to share:

In 6th grade, I was probably the biggest dork in my class. Glasses, braces, bad haircut, a little chubby, made straight A's, you name it. So for Valentine's Day, everyone always exchanged little Valentine's with everyone. Well there were several kids that made a point of telling me that they gave EVERYONE else one but ME. So I sat at my desk, but my head down, and cried. Depressing.

In 7th grade, there was this guy named Ben who said he was "in love" with me. This guy would never leave me alone. He'd call me. He'd follow me around the school campus. He whittled small objects out of wood and gave them to me as presents. (Interestingly enough, he also said he was "in love" with my best friend, her sister, and God knows who else.) So anyway, on Valentine's Day that year, I was feeling kinda bummed out because I didn't have a boyfriend. Seems like everyone got a rose or some candy or something from somebody! Well I got this little note from one of the office workers, telling me to go to room such and such in the highschool to pick up something. Strange. I had never stepped foot into the highschool before, and the place was HUGE and I thought for sure I would get trampled. I was so skinny and scrawny, and those kids were like GIANTS. As luck would have it, this classroom I was looking for was upstairs, at the OTHER end of the building. I found this classroom, finally, and I told the people in there my name, and they handed me a heart shaped helium balloon with the words "I love you" on it. I was thrilled!! I GOT A VALENTINE!! There was a small piece of paper attached to the ribbon that was tied to the balloon, and it said something like "Happy Valentine's Day, Love Ben" and at first, I was like "UGH!" but then it was more like "I don't CARE who it's from! I got a Valentine!" So I carried the dumb balloon around school all day with a smile on my face.

And then there was 8th grade. (Trust me, I'm not going to sit here and reminisce about EVERY Valentine's since then.) Me and this guy had been talking and knew we liked each other, blah, blah, blah, and I was wondering for days, "Okay, is he like going to ask me out now?" So on Valentine's night, he came over, brought me some V-day goodies, to which I was completely giddy over, we hung out for awhile, and STILL...he left without asking me!! So was I supposed to just ASSUME that we were together or what? So as soon as he got home, he called me on the phone and asked me. And I was thrilled. Heck, I still remember what time it was...it was 9:47 p.m.!!!

And then of course throughout highschool there was Marc. He was always good at remembering Valentine's Day, even when we WEREN'T dating. And he always spent money on me. Of course, those were the days when kids were actually old enough to have jobs. We were together for several years, so he took me to places like Red Lobster or Olive Garden for the grand event, always sent me roses, usually gave me a teddy bear, blah blah blah.

Then I got to thinking that today is mine and Michael's 6th Valentine's Day together. For our first, we had only been dating for 2 weeks, but he took me downtown, bought me dinner, and took me on a carriage ride. It was very sweet. And on that carriage ride (after only being together 2 weeks) we talked about marriage and kids and everything else. It was freezing cold, too, but who knew?

Now once I joined the work force, Valentine's Day became a competition. Not between me and Michael, but between the women I worked with. I would sit at my desk, slumped over in disbelief, as I saw the huge bouquets some of my co-workers received. They would always have this surprised look on their faces, AS IF they didn't know they were getting roses for V-day. I would walk around the office, in total awe at the red and pink and white. The whole office wreaked of roses. The day was more than half over and I had none. NONE. Even my closest friend at work had gotten roses from her boyfriend, and my husband hadn't sent me any yet. So I, being the mean, devious person that I can be sometimes, called up Michael at work and said, "Oh, Michael, thank you for the roses!! Or wait, are these from you? There's no card with it." Well, this really backfired in my face and made me feel really dumb. I really had not received any roses yet, but Michael had ordered them already...and they hadn't gotten to me yet. Because after I said "There's no card with it", he covered the phone and I heard him saying to his mom "Candy just said she got her roses and there was no card with it." And then Michael came back to the phone and said, "Are you sure there was no card?" or something to that effect, giving it away that he HAD sent me roses and I just hadn't received them yet. I started cracking up laughing at that point, but I felt really bad afterwards. Actually, I'm not sure who felt dumber...me or him. But either way, that was really mean of me, and I admit it, but when the day was more than half over, and every desk, office and cubicle on my floor had roses except for mine, I was seriously about to cry!

Now I'm starting the think the longer you are married and the more kids you have, the less you get for Valentine's Day. Last year we didn't go anywhere at all. We just sat at home. Sad. So yeah, thank goodness we won dinner this year.

ANYWAY, we watched Freddy v. Jason last night, and it was STUPID!! Just plain STUPID!!! Well, the first half of it was kinda freaky, but the end was retarded. I haven't had a good quote for a long time, so here it is:

"Aw, it's just ketchup." --Michael, referring to the blood in the lake when Freddy gets his head chopped off. I was sitting there like "GROSSSS" and that is when Michael said the aforementioned quote.