As I'm sure you are well aware it is almost Valentine's Day. I don't know if there is another holiday that has as much hate and negative feelings associated with it as Valentine's Day. Funny, since this holiday is all about love, or chocolate, or both? Over the years Valentine's Day has become one of my favorite holidays and I would like to share that with you right now.
The beginning of my love for good old V-Day actually starts with some bitter feelings way back in 2005. My dear friend Shan and I were seniors in high school and bitter about being single. Prom was all anyone talked about, we didn't have dates yet and V-Day was just another day to throw that in our faces. At the time we were both employees at a lovely establishment, Vocelli Pizza. We worked with some dudes who were older, single, and way more bitter about love than we were, so we decided to try to make their V-Day better. We crafted some really sweet Valentine's and made a burned CD entitled "It Sucks to be Single". There were really great songs on there like Love Stinks and Shot Through the Heart. We delivered these treasures to the guys that V-Day 2005. Check out our photo op in the greatness that is Vocelli Pizza Cranberry.
V-Day 2005 is where the magic first began. Since the first volume of "It Sucks to be Single", Shan and I have created a new mix each valentine's day. The next year it became "It Still Sucks to be Single" the CD title grows by one word each year and is getting pretty ridiculous at this point. V-Day 2010 will be our 6th edition and I can not wait.
Along the way I've added another Valentine's Day tradition: chocolate chip pancakes. Sophomore year of college while I was working at Walt Disney World I decided it would be fun if all my roommates and I went to IHOP for chocolate chip pancakes to celebrate the day. Part of the reason for IHOP being the selected destination was because it was walking distance from our apartment complex, Vista Way, and none of us had a car. The other part was because I love chocolate chip pancakes. This was a great way to start off Valentine's day and ended up being one of the few things all of the roomies did together during our program.
Junior year of college to celebrate good old Valentine's day my roomies at P-run and I hosted a Love/Love to Hate Valentine's day party. Our version of jungle juice was creatively named Love Potion #9. We put a Tunnel of Love sign on the bathroom. There were conversation hearts crafted out of paper and hung on the walls. Some were the normal Be Mine, QT, and Hottstuff, but others were broken hearts with phrases like Fugly Slut. The playlist alternated with love songs and break-up/anti-love songs. It was a great way to make everyone happy no matter how they felt about Vday.
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I said that my love for Valentine's Day started in 2005, but I forgot a major Valentine's Day moment. That major moment would be Valentine's Day 1996, third grade, Mrs. Lintelmen's class. My two BFFs at the time, Jacquelyn and Rachel, and I had crushes on these boys in our class. Their names aren't important, but for kicks let's just call them Brian, Justin, and Jake matching up in order with Jacquelyn, Rachel and I. We spent hours crafting them these paper heart pouches filled with candy and glitter. Obviously they were decorated with hearts, kisses and all the other girlie V-Day faves. In school the day of our Valentine's party everyone had their home made boxes ready to be filled with the standard cards from everyone in the class. Jacquelyn, Rachel, and I had drawn hearts with our crushes names on the inside of the lids. A picture of us holding these with the entire class looking/laughing/shocked at them might have made it into the yearbook that year, no big deal. In addition to this public profession of our love for these boys we also teamed up with Mrs. L to sneakily give the guys their V-Day surprises. At the end of the party Mrs. L had all the boys leave our classroom so that the three of us could slip the Valentines into their back packs. Smooth right? Well Brian found his before he got home, Jacquelyn was mortified, and I still love everything about that V-Day in 1996.
There you have it, the story of how Valentine's Day just might be my favorite holiday. Happy Valentine's Day!
