I don’t care much about Valentine’s Day. A commercially-driven imperative to inflate your expression of love for your significant other on a specific day of the year sounds like a wrong concept to me. I am not counting, but I am pretty sure that I tell Natasha that I love her every day of the year.
Natasha often accuses me of not being a romantic, but she is on-board with more or less ignoring Valentine’s Day. No romantic candle-lit dinners (although, we are going out tonight with friends), no candy, jewelry or other gift exchanges (although, she bought me a little addition to my model houses collection the other day for 20p and presented it to me as a Valentine Day’s gift). Just a regular weekend at Casa Burlak.
Some of my readers, I am sure, have an entirely different attitude towards the occasion. To all of you, have a happy Lovers’ Day!
My attitude is in line with yours, although I am definitely a romantic. But most of the women in my life have not felt the same, so over the years I’ve had to participate. Since I am currently in a relationship with someone who feels that the day is important, I am participating again by doing my part to help stimulate the economy.
The up side is that I spent a majority of the money at a small business owned by a friend. I got the flowers and gift and gave them ahead of time, as she has to work today. The flowers and gift were a big hit – she even took pictures she was so impressed with what I got her. So I made two women very happy, which ultimately made it worthwhile for me.
That’s a good way to do it, Vince!
I agree, V-Day is largely a sham perpetrated by the Hallmark company. That said, it’s probably the only thing that prods many men to ever give their significant other flowers, so I suppose there’s some social value there. Like all other gift-giving holidays, though, it’s been turned into a retail engine, and I find that extremely distasteful.
I am intrigued, though, Ilya… a collection of model houses? Do tell…
As soon as I decided to mention the new house, I thought it would be a good idea to make a whole post about my collection, Jason. I would need a slideshow to illustrate, though. Stay tuned 🙂
I’m with Jason on this. I tell Sherry I love her everyday as well, but I don’t buy her flowers and chocolates every day. So I submit to the will of the great & mighty Hallmark, and use it as an excuse to do a nice thing.
That said, I bought mine on Thursday, rather than Friday. Check this out: A dozen carnations (Sherry’s favorite flower), a card and a small box of chocolates on Thursday: $32. On Friday (the last weekday before the holiday), the flowers alone were $36 (this being at the train station through which I commute). And the line to buy them was a mile long (virtually no line on Thursday). I didn’t go into the Hallmark store to see if they bumped up the price of the cards and chocolates, but even if they didn’t the gift would have run me $50 on Friday.
That’s the shameful, commercial part of it right there…
You may be surprised to know that as a woman, I too am of the “Meh” variety when it comes to the Valentine’s Day ming-mong. I feel I need no prompting in this area, but my husband and I have been known to take the mickey out of the day with the occasional equivalent of a car boot sale “gift”. Giggles all around. 🙂