Valentine’s Day

I have two notes for the day.

One, if you aren’t in the mood, avoid Safeway. It is, I’m not kidding, a forest of heart-shaped balloons.

Two is a short story from my past. When I was in high school, if someone sent you flowers, they were delivered to the main office and you were summoned over the general intercom to pick them up. Valentine’s Day summons were like a stamp in your approval passport. Everyone knew and everyone was jealous.

I was not the kind of girl who got summoned. I wasn’t a band geek or an outcast – even they inter-mated and sent each other flowers. I was generally liked but not specifically liked and specificity is essential to flower giving and receiving. I was too removed (read: busy, moderately arrogant) to be adored by the anonymous masses, too smart for my sports crew and too disdainful for the smart kids. I just wasn’t a real prospect for the average scared adolescent boy. This fact provided me with both satisfaction (mission accomplished) and loneliness (flowers are nice).

There was a girl in our group who was the daughter of a local doctor. She was smart but not in a rebellious way, well-groomed but not in an intimidating way. She was a good, non-scary prospect, and she generally had a tepid, well-behaved, flower-sending boyfriend. One winter evening in the yearbook room, we discussed the absence of flowers in my history. I assume I was funny about it. She was probably sincere. On Valentine’s Day, I was called to the office. I had gotten flowers. It was a small arrangement of roses from the girl. We never got to be the friends that it seemed like we should have been – she was younger and I was focused on getting the hell out of Dodge – but I’ve never forgotten those flowers. What a charming gesture. People should do things like that for each other year round (especially in high school, which sucks).

So Happy Valentine’s Day everybody – do something nice for someone in your life to mark the occasion!