Valentine's Day

It seems like there are two extremes when it comes to Valentine's Day.  Women totally hate it because of years of disappointment, not having someone special on the day or they are in constant state of judging their husband or boyfriend.  Or they totally love it because the husband or boyfriend makes them feel special or does something romantical, comes through after 364 days of letting them down or pissing them off or just isn't stupid in their eyes for one day.

This of course is based on my scientific research of scanning Facebook statuses throughout the day.

Notice how I didn't include men in my V-Day spectrum because we don't really care about it like women do.  And we shouldn't.  Sure it's nice to have a good dinner with your significant other or to get a gift, but this day isn't for us and everyone knows it.  Thusly we have no expectations when it comes to Valentine's Day.  Maybe getting lucky, but beyond that we don't really need to feel special on V Day.

I don't want to toot my own horn, but I look at Valentine's Day as yet another day to show my wife how much I love her.  I like to make it special too, but it isn't just a day to buy flowers because everyone else is doing that or FTD told me to.  I try to put some thought into it.

This year was no different.

I actually had a gift picked out very early on in the process.  I don't know if you're familiar with the traditional wedding anniversary gifts.  Basically there are different materials that serve as symbols for each year.  For example, year one is the paper anniversary.  I gave Erin the lyrics to our first dance song printed out and framed.

This year will be our fifth anniversary, and the theme is wood (I hear you snickering Kim).  I knew exactly what I was going to do.  One of her all-time favorite songs is The Dreaming Tree by Dave Matthews Band.  Dave Matthews started his own winery called Dreaming Tree Wines.  I planned on buying her a few bottles because wood and trees seemed like a good fit.  Not only that, but one of their wines is called Crush (another one of their songs).  It turns out that I couldn't really hold onto that secret for another 5 months, so I decided to do it for a Valentine's Gift.  She loved it.

I also put together a CD for her full of love songs that remind me of her.  I put a lot of thought into stuff like this because, as was covered in High Fidelity, I'm using someone else's poetry to tell a story.  The story of course being how much I love my wife.  It took me a couple of weeks to really hammer out the exact playlist.

Here's the playlist in case you're curious:

1. Faster - Matt Nathanson
2. Just Say Yes - Snow Patrol
3. Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran
4. Count On Me - Bruno Mars
5. These Arms of Mine - Otis Redding
6. Hold You in My Arms - Ray LaMontagne
7. Makin' Out - Pomplamoose
8. I Missed You - Joshua Radin
9. Hey Mama - Mat Kearney
10. I'm the Man Who Loves You - Wilco
11. Science & Faith - The Script
12. The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice
13. Something in the Way She Moves - James Taylor
14. She - Elvis Costello
15. Can't Take My Eyes Off of You - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
16. You Are My Joy - The Reindeer Section
17. I Won't Give Up - Jason Mraz
18. Until I Die - Ben Kweller
19. Ordinary People - John Legend
20. I've Got You Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra

I also hedged my bets a little bit and bought her the new Twilight movie in case she didn't like the other stuff.

I love my wife.  I love showing her how much I love her.  Valentine's Day gives me another excuse to do that, so I appreciate it.  For all the guys out there, that's all your girlfriend or wife wants on February 14th.  Unless she has some crazy, ridiculous standards and is just a judgemental jerk, but the effort isn't worth it if she is.