To my Valentine

Neither of us are huge Valentine celebrants. Small gestures each day say much more about our relationship than hearts and flowers once a year.

This year, we shared a heart shaped pizza from Mother Bears with the boys. At home. On Sunday (Chris has to teach tonight). It was a great low-key way to acknowledge the day. I mean, heart shaped pizza! Delivered to our door!

I don't need flowers (the cats would just eat them) or chocolates (my waistline doesn't need any help). I certainly don't need jewelry. Besides not wearing much, I'd rather not run up the credit card bill. Because nothing says "I love you" like going into debt we'll have to pay off for the rest of our lives together. (Hey, you take your romance where you can get it.)

That's not to say people shouldn't celebrate their romance. If you love Valentine's Day, go for it. But if you don't care, it's just another day. And this year, the first day to file federal taxes if you use certain forms. To me, that's a much better reason to celebrate.

Yep, I spent some time this afternoon filing our taxes. To me, that was worth celebrating. And we can celebrate ever more when our refund comes in. If anyone is looking for a free online filing site, try FreeFillableForms.

Ok, I will admit I made a Valentine that I tucked into Chris's laptop bag. I was helping the boys make Valentines; I really couldn't just ignore the crayons and construction paper, could I?

I think maybe Valentine's Day is more for kids than adults. It comes with too much pressure as you get older. The simple joy of a Valentine wears off as we get older. Somehow, the innocent no-strings-attached expression of love and caring gets put aside when we start to actually fall in love.

So here's a little poem for my Valentine.

I waited lots of years
to find my one true love.
You came along
quite by surprise
when I wasn't looking.
You've made my life
quite complete.
You are my best friend.
I can't imagine life
without you by my side.

They're playing our song

I entered a contest on the local (Bedford) oldies station, WQRK Super Oldies, called That's Our Song. The contest involved telling them what you and your significant other's song is and why. Last week and this week, they pick a daily winner who receives a gift certificate for a dozen roses from a local florist and is entered in the grand prize drawing for this Friday. And they read your submission and play your song.

And I won today! While it's exciting to win, I thought the story of our song was kind of fun so here goes.

Our song is "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate. When we met, I was living in the Chicago suburbs and Chris lived here in Bloomington. Living 4 hours apart, it was unlikely we would ever meet.... except we have a mutual friend who lives in West Lafayette. And we both went to her New Year's Eve party.

We dated long distance until we got married, so we spent a lot of time emailing and IMing. Yes, there were phone calls, but that's expensive. So while sitting at the computer, I would inevitably start humming "You Sexy Thing". While it works on the level of the title, there is a line in the song "I believe in miracles since you came along" which really sums things up for us.

So, that's the story of our slightly unusual song, which was played at our wedding. Now we just need to see if it wins us the grand prize (not sure what that is, but I'm sure it will be good.)