Happy Valentine’s Day!

I got to thinking about Valentines I’ve gotten over the years. One year in college when I was expecting something wonderfully romantic from my steady beau, I was presented with a record album entitled “A Child’s Garden of Grass” which was a comedy album with marijuana as the theme. I think he may have given me a chocolate bar, too.  I just looked that album up and apparently it was pretty funny but I don’t think I listened to it more than once.  I was not amused.

Then one year Al gave me an electric boat motor (or was that Mother’s Day?).  I have never used that either but that’s just because of laziness.  I need to get a ready-to-go battery and a way to lug it and get over to the reservoir so I can rent a rowboat and tool around the water on gorgeous days.  The reservoir is almost always windy by the end of the day, which means you can row yourself to the west end, float back to the dam, but then getting 100 yards over to the boat dock takes the strength of ten rowers.  It’s good exercise, I’ll say that.  I think I’d go fishing over there more often though with the motor.

Regardless, for some reason my men have never considered that I would want romantic stuff for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day or my birthday.  Actually, they are right.  I mean, I do like diamonds and flowers and chocolate (no chocolate!  still keeping food journal!) but I’m a practical gal for the most part.  One time Al got me  a “bunk out” for the trailer, that turned the awning into a second room – heavenly and doubled the size of our travelling home.  One year when we were in the thick of child rearing Al got me a real live referee shirt.  I wore it a lot.   There was only one time, again during those crazy years, that Al took my “oh I don’t want anything for Valentine’s Day” line seriously, and there was NOTHING.  Not from the kids, not from him.  NOTHING.   I was crushed and he was confused!  That never happened again, of course.

Al has long since stopped getting me clothing.  He thinks I’m 5’10” and 130 lbs.  I’m not.  Never was.  But when he sees the gorgeous model in the catalog he is sure I will look just-like-that, bless his heart.  The Christmas he got me the winter blue and white sweater from LL Bean with a giant snowflake pattern right across the bosom was when I kindly asked him not to buy any more clothes for me.  I joked that he should stick to diamonds.

Which worked out rather well because, as he knew I wasn’t a diamond bling girl, he was worried that I wouldn’t like the rock that awaited me in my stocking the next morning.  He had even showed it to a few of my girlfriends before Christmas and asked them with concern in his voice if they thought I’d like it.  This made my girlfriends question his sanity.

He’s created a monster now.  I had the pendant made into a ring, and because the wedding ring looked so sparse next to the rock I had a few diamonds put into the wedding ring.  I think I’m done with all that now, which is a good thing because we’re broke and the mechanic told me to “start thinking about” a replacement car for the Subaru.

Wonder what he got me for Valentine’s Day?  He just got home. There might be flowers, but he gets those even on non-obligatory days.  As a matter of fact because flowers are so expensive I tend to get a little peeved when he buys them on V-day.

I bet it’s just him, and that’s just fine!