Valentine's...aka my classroom looks like Cupid threw up in it.....

Good 'ole Valentine's Day. I think it's stupid. I mean I can remember when I was younger and we were supposed to bring cards to exchange with everybody in the class, which we did. However, there were always those "cool" girls that got EXTRA Valentine cards from the boys that liked them.
What about the nasty chocolates? YUCK! I'm all about chocolate these days, but seriously? The ones with the pink crap in them? Gag me with a silver spoon! Do people actually even like these chocolates or do they just pretend that they do so that the idiot that bought them will be pleased.
In my classroom, I just paused for a moment and looked around the other day and thought "OH MY GOD!!!!!! There is pink, red, and purple EVERYWHEREEEEE!" One thing I love about Valentine's Day in PreK...I take it as a good time to talk about writing letters. Yes, even with my 4-year old babies! We read several books (one of my favorites being I Wanna Iguana in which a young boy and his mother write letters back and forth discussing the boys desire and his mom's non-desire for a pet iguana...) and I make my writing center into a post office. I laminated lots of envelopes and printed some stamps from the internet and then placed velcro on the envelopes and stamps so that they can be used over and over. The students have a Postman outfit in which they can deliver the letters, etc. It's really fun to see how excited the kids get when they get mail. I try to make sure everybody gets mail, even if I'm the one sending it.
This makes me think about one particular girl in my class, we'll call her Jane. She is very smart, very sweet, and a great student. She shows no favoritism to any students. She would seriously probably play with any kid from any grade level. For some reason, every kid in my class is OBSESSED with her. They always want what Jane has, they want to sit by Jane...one kid even brought their Valentine mailbox to school and it said "Jane" on the side of it. When I asked if it was Jane's, the little girl who made it said, "No it's mine, I just wanted her name on it too....." Weird...
So I've come full circle back to Valentine's Day. It's dumb. Hallmark sucks. I actually don't buy greeting cards anymore. If I ever want to give somebody a card, I just write them a note on blank stationery. Fun!

Me being mean...

Okay, first, I’m late posting, so I’m sorry! Now, on to my thoughts. First, I question the idea of “true lover’s holiday” because I’m not sure that “true love” exists. I guess I’m growing cynical in my old age, but I think it is a load of crap. Women get their hopes up for perfect gifts, and they get a clothes folder like clothing stores use. Yes, I got that one year because my husband said he thought I might like to improve the way I fold clothes. HELLO!! That was the LAST time I folded any of his clothes. Women, I say women because I don’t think men are this way, build up this day and expect their husbands, boyfriends, or whomever to send the perfect gift, flowers, or some other thing that is usually dead or eaten in a few days. If you are really in love with someone, every day should be Valentine ’s Day. Why wait until one day a year to say, “Oh, by the way honey, I know I haven’t told you all year, but I love you.” What is up with that? So, to answer the questions, load of crap if you don’t live it every day!

V-Day!

I have never really been someone to make a big deal out of Valentine's Day. Although, I do like to acknowledge it. I think I would get a little upset if my boyfriend let it go by unnoticed, even though I always tell him it is no big deal to me. Mind games, I guess. I always love browsing the V-day card isle. I stood in Target today laughing hysterically at some of the "Hot and Steamy" cards...seriously, that was their label. I realized I should probably quit when a little girl in my class waved at me. The mushy cards are never fun to read, and I would feel outrageously cheesy if I gave one away. When it comes to cards, I have a tendency to make my own. They seem more special...

Army of one!

I'm glad I waited to post. I was going to join the bandwagon and post about how much I don't like Valentine's Day, but apparently it needs someone to defend it. But now how do I defend it?

Well, I started by doing a little research on it. Of course, like most religious holidays (yes, SAINT Valentine's Day) it was originally a pagan celebration. Did you know it started with sacrificing a bull and then whiping women with bloody pieces of skin (thank you History.com). Yikes! I'm glad we don't celebrate it that way. Then the Catholic church grabbed and ran with it to make a non pagan holiday. According to History.com, one theory behind who St. Valentine is, is that he was a priest who was arrested because he opposed a sanction against marriage. So lovers would go to him in prison for a secret wedding. So it's really a day for unrequited lovers, which is actually kinda sweet (chocolate sweet, that is).


So then I learned these that it's the most celebrated holiday of the year with:
200,000,000 (for the mathematically challenged, that's 200 million) cards are exchanged each year
36,000,000 (million) boxes of candy sold
180,000,000 (million) red roses given
and generally
$14 million spent.

So who we should really dislike is just Hallmark/1800flowers/and chocolate companies and not unrequited lovers. So actually, Valentine's Day really is for singles.

V-Day

Total scam. I'm not sure why we need to set aside one day to tell someone we love them. Shouldn't this be an everyday event? I think measuring love by big gestures is a way to miss all the little things that make up love. It's a Tuesday where my favorite dinner is already prepared when I get home. It's automatically turning to Greek on Monday nights. I wonder if we would be this cynical about the holiday if Hallmark had not put its two cents in. If we could walk in Walmart and not disappear under a downpour of red, would we want to celebrate the holiday of love? If we were forced to discover our own clever ways to express our love, would we still heave a huge sigh of disgust at the sight of tacky heart shaped boxes?

Ugh...after reading this I want to regurgitate. My post is cliche and cheesy itself.

One year, I decided to make my own Valentine's Day cards. As much as I love pink, there wasn't a speck of pink or red on those cards. They were orange, blue, green, and even camouflage. I was pretty impressed with my non traditional cards. My friends became worried about my disgust for all things mushy and gushy. They weren't as pleased with my efforts as I had been after making them. I got alot of, "Um...this is nice. I think?" Maybe I shouldn't have made the black card.

Just in case you're wondering (And why wouldn't you be? Because I'm sure you stay up nights wondering about my personal life.) Austin and I stopped celebrating Valentine's Day for a while now. We don't even get each other presents for Christmas. Come to think of it, he's lucky if I remember his birthday.

Valentine's Day

Or Single's Awareness Day. That's how I refer to it. Have you noticed that there seems to be a plethora of romantic comedies/dramas that have hit the theaters of late? Leap Year, Dear John, and of course the aptly named Valentine's Day. And yes, I want to see them all. But since I have put myself on a food and financial diet, I refuse to go see them. In reality, I'm just bitter.

As someone who has never has a Valentine on Valentine's Day, I feel totally qualified to say that every day should be Valentine's Day. (Do you remember exchanging Valentines in school. What a cruel tradition that was!) Why should you wait for a holiday to profess your love to someone, especially in such a unoriginal way like buying a dozen overpriced roses which are going to die in a week? Why not wash my car? Cook me dinner? Leave me an e.e. cummings or Pablo Neruda poem in my backpack? Yes, Rebecca the cynic can be a hopeless romantic.

This Valentine's Day I will be headed back from Jekyll with Lindsi, Donna, and Shane after spending the weekend planning the 2010 ISI, and Gallagher will be in North Carolina with one of my students.

Sometime between now and then I need to get something for Lorelai. :)

I have to agree with Donna. I am competely anti-Valentine's Day. In past years, I've "celebrated" this day by wearing all black. Yes, bitter party of one, but really??? Do we really have to wear pink and smile and hug all day?? Anyone who knows me, knows how anti-social I am and how much I love my personal space. Which leads me to wonder what in the world I'm doing teaching elementary school - the one job where I am actually forced to celebrate this holiday. I've even bought the silly V-cards to hand out to my kids at our, yes, Valentine's Day Party where we will eat heart shaped candy, watch Valentine's cartoons, and make bags with hearts all over them to drop our cards into. I know, such a dedicated teacher.

Oh well, it is an excuse to get flowers and presents ... always a fabulous thing in my book so maybe not all bad. :)

Love . . . Actually?

Well, everyone who knows me knows where I stand on Valentine's Day. Hate it! It's not a real holiday to me; it's an attempt to boost card, candy, and flower sales. Of course, I'm not anti-love, just anti-public displays, particularly ones that turn into attempts to one-up others. People raise their expectations so high that it's easy to get disappointed. Plus, I have too many single friends who feel singled out on this day. Yuck. Valentine's Day is one of the games I refuse to play.

Wes knows I love him. I know he loves me. But we don't celebrate this day because love goes far beyond this day. Love is Wes's taking out the trash and the recycling when I'm busy grading. Love is my mowing the grass when he's swamped out work. Love is taking a break from our professional lives to spend time together. Love is laughing until I struggle for breath over really dumb stuff like doorbells. Love is when I stopped grading last night to watch Two and a Half Men with Wes because the show is more funny when you share it with someone else.

I know lots of people share Valentine's Day cards with friends and family, but I don't get that. I hope everyone has a good Valentine's Day, but I'm not comfortable reminding people of the day. I'm glad it's on a Sunday this year. Maybe it will be a bit calmer. I definitely won't be going out to eat Sunday. In fact, Lindsi, Rebecca, Shane, and I will be returning from a planning retreat on that day, where we will have completely redesigned the Invitational Summer Institute. (So if you have any suggestions for what should go and what should stay, let me hear them? Any assignments that didn't work for you? Any assignments we should add? Keep Gallagher? Move the ISI off campus? We're open to suggestions, and we'll have email access over the weekend.)

Love actually consists of far more than one day. It's an ongoing commitment to put someone else first whenever possible.

Yeah, I don't really want to talk about love, so I'll talk about something else. What? I don't know. Maybe Superbowl ads? I didn't understand the Jay Leno, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey spot. What was the significance? Jay Leno was going to talk about it last night, but we turned off the television before he did. (A fabulous decision since I am well-rested today despite having graded eighteen English 1102 papers yesterday and fifteen reading responses plus having read a new chapter for English 4640)

I missed the new E-Trade commercial. I'll have to watch that on YouTube. In fact, I need to look up all the Superbowl ads since I missed most of them, but I did get to play with Baby Simon at the Superbowl party. I know all the 2009 Fellows are jealous! When I swung him in the air, he giggled, so of course I had to do it again.

Hmm, Superbowl ads isn't working for me as a topic. What else can I try? Maybe I'll just wait and write more when I see what other people write. Responding . . . it's the new writing.