The Valentine Range of Emotions

Happy Valentine's Day. It's almost over now, you can relax. Radio stations here have a love/hate relationship with this holiday. Most callers talk about the pressure put on people to "perform" on this holiday. I feel for the men, I do.

This year, we did not go all out getting each other gifts. The kids each got a cool robot cookie, an inexpensive box of chocolates and a card. David got me roses, chocolates in a heart shaped box and a card, while I got him a card and some inexpensive pair of sunglasses to replace the last inexpensive pair he broke.


Emotion # 1: Tenderness/love. While surfing the web that morning, I read an article profiling the people on the plane that just crashed Thursday. David noticed my reading it, and started to ask me if I read about the lady who was flying to be her nephew's kindergarten date. As he spoke, he stopped talking mid-word and his voice cracked. I asked what was wrong. He cleared his throat and said "Nothing," but I turned to look at him and his eyes were tearing. He saw me looking and explained that thinking about that happening to that kindergartner the day before his Valentine party a school made him think of Isabel, and he felt horrible for that family. I love that my husband is empathetic.

We decided to hit a movie, just the two of us.

Emotion # 2: Frustration. David is not timely. He is not. He sleeps til the last minute and then takes his time getting ready when the rest of us have been ready for hours. He does this for parties, dinners with co-workers, airport trips. It's very frustrating, especially when the running joke is that Hispanics are always late. It's mostly true, we are. Except me. I am very punctual, to the point where when I get to Hispanic parties on time, I end up helping to decorate and set up because no one else is there. With David, I end up perpetuating the cliche'. I find it disrespectful to people, their time and schedules.

We have an hour and a half before the movie starts, but the theatre is about 30-40 minutes away. When it was time to leave, he has to use the rest room, he has to do this and that. The movie started at 2:30. We are in the parking lot at 2:29. This is Valentine's Day, rememeber? Full house. Full. We have to sit in row #2. Second row. My neck hurt. I got dizzy. The movie, Taken, (really good) is an action thriller moving at 100 mph. I had to look down at times because sitting in the second row because we left late was making me nauseous.



Emotion # 3: Gratitude. We came back home and took the kids to dinner. We had a good meal, they were well behaved and we laughed at silly things. We went to the book store to look at the beautiful books, drink coffee and eat cookies. I love that we have what we have, all 4 of us, together.