It's That Day

February 14th.

So many of these days in the last 45 years.  As a kid in school, I remember the boxes we made, the cards we filled out for ALL our classmates.

I was a romantic.

I picked the best card for the girl I had a crush on at the moment.

I always had a crush on someone.  I learned the word "unrequited" at an early age.

I rarely had a girlfriend on Valentine's Day in high school.  I just wasn't good at keeping a girlfriend.  Usually my fault.  I wasn't really good at keeping a girlfriend ever.

Then I met my wife, and it just seemed right.  I was 29.

Over the last sixteen years of Valentine's Days, we've never really had a very romantic one.  For fifteen of those years, she's worked as an accountant.  Eighty hour work weeks during tax season don't lend themselves to big Valentine's Day plans.  We've bought cards for each other and forgotten to give them to each other.

But that doesn't bother me or her.

We still kiss every time we say good-bye.  Every morning, and other times, too.  We hug a lot in passing.

Flowers will wilt.  Chocolate is eaten.  Gifts are nice, but even nicer are the nights when she comes home at nine or ten in the evening, eats the meal I've kept warm for her, sits at the table and tells me about her day.

Then she sits next to me on the couch and falls asleep with her legs across my lap.

Happy Valentine's Day.