Valentine's Day

Yes, I'm a day late.  But do you know why?  I was actually really busy yesterday!

I've always been somewhat indifferent to Valentin'es Day only because it was a rare occurence when I actually had a boyfriend during that time (and said ex would ruin the magic by buying his gifts for me right in front of me after asking if this was what I wanted...).  But I'm not one of those people who hate Valentine's Day or is bitter because it's just a reminder to all us single people we're still single.  I don't particularly care because I don't mind being single.  Most of the time.

Valentine's Day, nevertheless, has always been special to me because it is the holiday I used to share with my Papa.  I mean, we celebrated all holidays together, but this one was special.  Every Valentine's Day, we always exchanged Valentines, and we were always each other's Valentine.  I remember he would buy a whole box of those cards and only end up using two - one for me and one for my brother.  Sometimes he would buy two boxes in order to make sure our genders weren't threatened one way or the other.  And he would always give us a five dollar bill in the Valentine.  I thought I was the coolest kid on the block.  On my end, I normally hand-made my Valentines for him, and after looking through my grandparents' things years later, I saw that they kept a lot of them.

We got Bingo when I was in  first grade, and you can tell by his unique name that I was creative even then.  Of course, after a couple of years, I was unsatisfied with simply just naming him.  Bingo had to have a birthday too.  So Papa told me I could pick any day, and that would be Bingo's birthday.  So I picked Valentine's Day, because it would make the holiday even more special than it already was for us.

When Papa was in the hospital, I went out of my way to make him the best Valentine ever - I drew a heart and wrote him a poem, and then I taped candy hearts on it that had messages I wanted him to read.  The one that went right in the center was 'You're my hero.'  And he kept those up too.  He died a week and a day later, and though we couldn't be together for our holiday, at least I got to send him my Valentine.

Even though Papa's gone, we're still each other's Valentine.  Simple as that.

But Valentine's isn't about loving someone else who also happens to be your partner.  Valentine's Day is about love in general.  My brother signed a Valentine card with all of our inside jokes in it, making me laugh at seven o'clock in the morning.  Mom and I ran errands and sang to Phil Collins and Rod Stewart.  I even visited my old park that Papa would take my to every weekend just so I could swing.  Yeah, I was the oldest person actually using the equipment, but I didn't care.  I took an online Administration of Justice quiz, and I think I kicked ass on it.  I read and I wrote.  And then me and my other Valentine, my best friend in the entire world, Jessie, went out for Tai food and then laughed our asses off at the movie Valentine's Day.  It was one of the best Valentine's Days I've had in a while because I felt loved and I felt special.

But I loved myself too.  I wanted to have fun, boy or no boy, so I did.  And it was one of the best nights of my life.

And when I got home to find the boy I liked commented on one of my Facebook pictures?  Well that, my friends, was just icing on an already delicious cake.