Valentine's Day – 2012

I hate Valentine’s Day, there’s just too much pressure.  You have to buy a gift, and I’m not very good at buying gifts.  You can’t buy just any gift, it has to be a thoughtful gift.  The only person I can buy a gift for without obsessing is my father, and that’s only because we like reading the same books.  All I have to do is find something I want to read and send it to him.  Now he’s made it even easier, he just want’s his kids to send money, he matches it and donates it all to a food kitchen.

My wife, Kellie, is much more difficult to shop for; she doesn’t wear gold or silver (I guess I should be thankful for that), and she doesn’t like roses.  With all the old standards ruled out, every holiday just turns me into a stress ball. I’m so bad at selecting gifts that Kellie revoked my gift giving privileges long ago.  She usually gets whatever she desires, and when she arrives home with her present, she calls out, “Joey, come see what you got me for Valentine’s Day."  

Valentine’s Day is just the start of the annual gift giving madness.  There is also our anniversary, Mother’s Day, Easter, Kellie’s Birthday, and Christmas.  I’m not sure why Easter and Christmas are even on the list given that we’re both heathens.  It’s crazy, six separate gift giving occasions per year.  Every special occasion calls for another gift.  How much we care about another person is now denominated in dollars; love is reduced to a transaction.

I use this blog as a vehicle to examine life, marriage, and relationships through humor, but maybe today Kellie will see it for what it really is: a gift, an expression of love.

Happy Valentine’s Day GFL.