Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day. I always have, even when I was quite homely and had no hope of a Valentine. Why? I had this guy-

who assured me that one day a nice man would think I was beautiful. He was right. Now back to Valentine's Day and my dad. He totally did this holiday right. My mother, sister, brother and I would all get our own boxes from Fannie May. There was a Fannie May store in our mall, and we each got our own box! This was awesome as a child. He started by getting all 3 of his children the pre-selected red heart box. Leave it to his sassy middle child to let him know that she preferred peppermint ice, milk chocolate mays, and mint meltaways, none of which were included in the pre-made box. She also elaborated by voicing her disdain for caramels, which weighed down most of the heart box. From that year on, Dad hand picked the chocolates that went in all of our boxes. I'm telling you, the man is a sport. And I am an embarrassment.

So because of my dear dad, I have always loved the holiday. A day that celebrates love, chocolate and pink is easy for me to adore. The first V Day that I celebrated with Mr. T delivered this in the mail:

a wonderful book of poems by former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. I want to be a Poet Laureate. It sounds awesome. I am doing poetry for the next few weeks with first graders. I write a mean haiku. Note to self: figure out how to become a laureate and make it happen. I remember getting this in the mail, 2 months after we met. I was touched, and thought it was very romantic.

Valentine's Day 2009 was a hoot. I was training to be a literacy coach, so I traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas once a month. I was flying out the Sunday of V Day weekend, so T and I met up for one night in Elizabethtown, KY at a very classy Days Inn. I got some pretty roses.

Valentine's weekend 2010 takes the cake. I got a very pretty sparkly.

I glowed at the thought of becoming a Mrs.

So now here we are, V Day 2011. Ironically, I'm currently in Little Rock, for more training. Yuck. T and I celebrated with a very low key Saturday evening.

I brought him cupcakes from here

and chocolate from here

and tried to act like those weren't totally gifts for me. I am tricky that way, but he's figured me out. He knows that dark chocolate truffles and Razzmatazz cupcakes don't float his boat like they do mine.

We picked up a pizza from here

and had our usual order. Whole wheat crust, 1/2 pepperoni, 1/2 garden, no black olives. Olives are narsty.

We then headed home to watch When Harry Met Sally on Netflix. This was a great suggestion from his parents, and I shamefully had never seen it. I loved Billy Crystal's character. He was totally snarky like me.

Happy Valentine's Day. I hope your plans are as awesome as mine. If you need me, I'll be eating Bang Bang Shrimp tacos solo at the Little Rock Bonefish Grill.