Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day

I was lying in bed this morning, right about when my eyelids just sort of popped open of their own volition and before I had begun to move around, wondering how I feel about Valentine's Day.

On the one hand, it is in fact a fairly outrageous cash grab holiday, a misery amplifier when you're single, a guilt-provoker if you're not, and a sure-fire wallet emptier if you try to eat dinner anywhere other than your own home.

On the other hand, Pynchon and I are romance idealists: we like to do kind and silly things for each other, just to proclaim how much we're in love.

More particularly, now that I'm married, my feelings have changed.

On the one hand, love is so much more than carnations and paper hearts, so much more than red lingerie and gaudily packaged chocolates, so much much more, in fact, that to emblamatize love with these symbols is to do it the strong injustice of cutifying the most powerful force in my adult life.

On the other hand, isn't it nice to have a chance to reconnect with your inner romance idealist, to pretend you're dating your dear love again?

But today is not a day for musing. Soon, I heard Miss Baby stir, and discovered, as I turned my head preparatory to getting out of bed, that I had pretty seriously buggered up my neck and shoulder in my sleep. Yup. I injured myself sleeping. I can't really lift stuff or turn my head or gesture without squeaking in pain. Next, it transpires that a massive snowfall landed in and around our yard last night: it took Pynchon and I together to shove open the backdoor, mired in a snowdrift, so that he could go out and spend an hour shoveling the drive and the walk. Now I'm hobbling gimpily around with Miss Baby, trying not to turn my head. After a nice round of amateur turd catching, I attempt a flush and discover that the toilet is no working. Not clogged, mind: just not working, as no water is entering to refill the tank. Then cold water disappears from all the faucets in the house. Did I mention I'm still in my jammies when I'm usually at work? And that I can't turn my head?

So. I got to work a good solid two hours behind schedule, and teach a graduate seminar in which it seems fairly clear no student actually comprehends what is going on. And I dash off during the break to pump, only to find that the bottles are still in my bag in the classroom in another building. And Pynchon calls to say we have to cancel our dinner plans because the plumber is going to show up between now and never, and he can't leave.

As I say, not a day for musing.

But what I'm left with is this: I'm in love love love, and no neck-pain-broken-toilet-confused-grad-students-late-for-work-plumber-hostage-situation-massive-snow-dump general bad day pissiness can take away from that.

And just thinking about the contrast between my love and my day is making me feel pretty good about life. But I'd still feel better if some serious muscle-relaxant medication was involved.

Happy Valentine's Day, momosphere! May your driveways be shoveled, your toilets operational, and your children well-behaved!

7 comments:

N. said...

Ah, yes, amateur turd catching - the latest Olympic craze.

Happy Valentine's Day to you. Our only ritual is the exchanging of homemade cards. This pre-dates the arrival of children, and get increasingly messy with each passing year since the boys insist upon putting sparkles over every craft project they undertake.

Hope you have a happy V-Day, Pollyanna.

Jenifer said...

Happy Valentine's to you!

I agree wholeheartedly, no amount of "life" can take away the love.

I wouldn't turn down a night off somewhere in a hotel either mind you. Today however, was perfect too. We ended up at my best friends place where the kids played, adults talked and cupcakes were eaten.

Oh how life has changed, and all for the good - really.

Mad said...

This is the year that Valentine's Day has been brought back into my life. Apparently, once your kid is old enough VD is de rigeur.

I too had a painful day: parking ticket, fight with colleague, unbearable physical pain. Unlike you, though, not only do I have love, I've got great pain meds.

Beck said...

One of the things that disgusts me about being in my mid-30s is the way things suddenly start hurting for NO OBVIOUS REASON. It's like, HELLO, lower back! What did I ever do to you?
My VD - hahah - was lovely. My husband brought me a clutch of yellow roses, we went out for a somewhat disappointing but childless dinner and then collapsed platonically into bed, because we're sick. That's luv.

NotSoSage said...

We spent VD, as we did our honeymoon, with friends. Which to some might seem like a sign that we don't really care that much for each other's company. But we really do! We're just not much into the Valentine's Day stuff.

Besides, a week ago yesterday, Joe took me out for lunch to celebrate Mme L's birthday...my BIRTHday. It couldn't have been sweeter.

cinnamon gurl said...

"the plumber is going to show up between now and never"

i'm sorry your day sucked so royally but I love that line!

I'm totally ambivalent about v-day... if I do much for it, I feel like I'm betraying my old single self who railed against the commercialism of the day and Hallmark's profits. I prefer to celebrate groundhog day, which we sadly forgot this year since we were in SA in full on summer and they don't give a rat's ass about when spring will come to north america. What did the fat rodents do this year anyway?

ewe are here said...

Ours was a very low key Valentine's Day due to illness on my part and my boy, but it was also what reminded me what's most important about our family: the love we all have for each other.

Happy Valentine's Day (belatedly, of course, as I'm still catching up on all my reading!) :-)