Keeping it Simple on Valentine Day
Somebody complained that I did not acknowledge Valentine Day, so here you go.
I was going to write an elaborate post about the things and people we love, even started taking various pictures and everything, but the best laid plans sometimes go awry and I ended up having to spend the week-end away from the computer (which isn't really a bad thing).
This booth (photograph above), located across the Bank of America building in SF, has been empty for the past year or so. It used to house a flower shop, but when the price of flowers went up too much, people stopped buying and the guy had to close shop.
Early on Friday morning, this lady in the red coat showed up with a stack of interesting-looking chocolate boxes and people lined up to buy them for Valentine's Day. This morning, she was gone, and the booth is now empty again.
I always thought Valentine Day was something mostly very young people care about, and/or something that couples or wannabe-couples celebrate in private, with each other... you know, they go out to restaurants, sometimes proposed to each other, sometimes fight...
So I was a little surprised when perfect strangers (people in stores, or in the street) wished me a happy Valentine Day, as if it was an accepted legal holiday. Not that I mind exactly, but what's up with that?!
What about you, did you do anything special for V-Day?
Do you feel that Valentine Day is yet another Hallmark holiday blown out of proportion, or the most romantic day in the year?
Better yet, what was your most memorable Valentine Day?
(Er... keep it clean, uh? ;) :D
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By the way, those of you with Facebook accounts, might be interested in this article in the paper this morning.
Labels: Valentine Day
posted by Tomate Farcie at 12:36 AM
12 Comments:
Happy (late)V-Day to you. Sometimes the best laid plan is to get . . . :D
I have yet to have a V-Day to remember! But at my age that is considered normal.
That FB article is a bit disturbing.
Ah, I should have known, Cali!!! ;)
Can't you even remember ONE Valentine Day that went well?
NOOOOOOOOO! Don't remind me! It's like me asking how the pants shopping is going. Sheesh! ;)
My most memorable Valentine Day was the first time (and last time) I celebrated Valentine’s Day. The restaurant was crowded, the service was bad, the menu was trimmed down to a single “Special Valentine’s Day” entree and the prices were inflated. That day, we decided that Valentine’s Day would be the only day of the year we would not celebrate our Love. ;-) BTW, I have experienced people wishing me “Happy Valentine’s Day”. The cashier at the grocery store… I thought it was weird and that it could be seen as rude for people who are “alone”…
I did write a post about Valentine's Day on my blog (as I have since 2005.) My most memorable Valentine's Day is probably that one in 2005. My current boyfriend and I were in the very first week of our then fledgling relationship, and he came to my place with roses and chocolate, and I had bought champagne. Even though I had been married before for some 23 years, I had never had all those things on Valentine's Day (in fact, no Valentine's Day throughout the entire duration of my marriage is memorable.)
The rest of the evening was as fun as the way it had begun.
This year, I got flowers sent to me, and my boyfriend came all the way from Indianapolis to visit for the weekend (I live in Western Pennsylvania.) We had a great time, a nice dinner at home, and a very relaxing couple of evenings, and a great day on Sunday.
La Saint Valentin est une belle fête puisque c'est celle des Amoureux.
C'est la fête des fleuriste, des chocolatiers, des marchds de petits dessous, enfin c'est un gros marché à faire du fric pour certains.
Moi mon homme qui avait fait des courses dans un supermarch' harddiscount m'a rapporté deux trois branches d'orchidées et deux coeurs déco dans un petit vase. Et bien moi ça me suffit. Il faut dire que le lendemain de la St-Valention c'était la St-Claude.
Je suis à peu près sûr que cette année, les affaitres ont été moins bonnes pour les marchands de bonheur. Crise oblige.
Oh wow -- you know I have a WONDERFUL old photo of that man selling flowers -- I'll have to see if I can find it...
Oh geeezzz, another year, another Valentine's day... Someone told me to give Kitty a big kiss... And my new upstairs neighbor gave me a bar of expensive chocolate (which I can't eat because I just got back on my diet)...
My most memorable Valentine's Day probably was when I was in the fourth-grade -- Susie Fitzsimmons, before she dumped me for an upper-classman, gave me two valentines -- one was the card she HAD to give all her classmates, but she gave me a second one, telling me it was "special" -- just for me...
Per request: my most memorable Valentine was about 10 years ago, when I still lived in Marin County. I had just come home from work, didn't know exactly what I was going to have for dinner. I was just standing in front of the fridge, racking my brain for ideas, when I hear a knock at the door. I open it and find Boyfriend on the other side of the door with a large pizza, a cheesy V-Day card, and a big smile "Happy Valentine Day" he said . The timing was perfect and the gesture was sweet. What more could one hope for?
@Anthony: "...The cashier at the grocery store… I thought it was weird and that it could be seen as rude for people who are “alone”…"
I didn't take it like that. On the contrary. I guess if everybody says "Happy Valentine Day" to everybody else, then nobody is really alone, anymore, no? ;)
Another great photo TF!!! Did you get a new camera?? I really like the "night" shot! Superbe!!
Your V-Day story is sweet. Sometimes the simplest gestures are the most sincere.
@tonton flaneur: same camera, just a lucky shot, I guess.
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