Worst Valentine's Day Ever

I'm not entirely sure what to say about this, except to lay out the facts. A friend who worked with Mr. Chandler and who was important and very dear to both of us died on Monday evening. Later the same night, my grandmother in California died.

As a rule, I don't believe in Valentine's Day. I was never left out of the valentine-giving as a kid, and I don't have some traumatic experience that made me hate the holiday... If anything, you can blame Safeway for my negative perspective about this stupid holiday. Safeway, where you can normally buy a dozen lovely roses for the unbelieveable price of $9.99, jacks up their flower prices around Valentine's Day and suddenly charges $29.99 for the same dozen roses. I vehemently object to this.

In the early years of our marriage, Mr. Chandler used to buy me Valentine's Day gifts anyway, perhaps thinking I was one of those girls who protests, but really does want to be recognized. HA! Fortunately, he's older and wiser now. It's kind of a waste, too, because he's quite good at gifts and valentines. The nicest Valentine's Day I think I've ever had included a couple hours playing Grand Turismo 3 on a PS2 with Mr. Chandler's brother, interrupted briefly by a singing telegram via telephone that Mr. Chandler had ordered (and paid for) from the choir at his college, and finished by 99 cent Happy Meals at McDonalds with a group of friends and a bouquet of yellow flowers (my favorite flower color) ordered by Mr. Chandler even though he was multiple states away at the time.

So my students asked me the next day how my Valentine's Day was, and I told them it wasn't my favorite holiday and that I generally don't celebrate it. I don't need to distract them with the particulars of friends and family members dying. They're young and hormonal and have other things to worry about -- like plastering pink hearts all over each other's lockers and trying to sneak in a little PDA before class without getting caught by a teacher. I let them have their fun (although I didn't let them have their PDA). They'll grow up and face real life soon enough.