Happy Festivus

Happy Festivus everyone!

Okay, before any of you legalistic type folks start bombarding me with the fact that Festivus is celebrated on Dec 23, allow me to explain. "Festivus" (made part of pop culture by a Seinfeld episode) is celebrated as an alternative to Christmas. But I rather like Christmas. But having been a single gal most of my life I haven't really ever been a fan of Valentine's Day.

Let's be honest, for the majority of people, Valentine's Day just sucks. If you are single, it is a constant reminder that you are single. For people in a relationship, most likely the day will not live up to your expectations or your significant other will feel like you didn't meet expectations. Or if you are having a grand old Valentine's Day, at the end of the day one of you will see that the other put a plate beside the sink instead of in the dishwasher and it will ruin the whole day. (Man, for being an optimist most of the time, I'm pretty pessimistic about this day, huh?)

I've never been "good" at Valentine's Day. My Valentine's Day boxes in grade school were always subpar. In high school I remember always feeling like I wanted to sink into a hole on Valentine's Day when it seemed EVERY other girl in school was called to the office at the end of the day to retrieve balloons or flowers or teddy bears from the office. Sigh. College didn't have quite the reminder, but it did seem to be a popular day for all those couples hanging out in the lobby of the dorms to get engaged. It was at that point in my life that my awesome college roomie Mel and I started celebrating Festivus. And it's stuck for us.

A little over 10 years ago I met this great, awesome, amazing guy. Before falling head over heels for him I should have asked one vital question: When is your birthday? By the time I found out he was born at 11:45 p.m. on February 14, I was too far "in love" to back out due to the knowledge that I would never have a Valentine's Day. I kinda had some expectations the first few years but have decided he shouldn't have to do the whole Valentine's thing on his birthday, so he's pretty much off the hook. So back to celebrating Festivus. And Andrew's birthday.

So to all you happy love birds whose Valentine's Day will meet all your expectations, good for you. (You may not want to flaunt it to the rest of us if you still want to have any friends on February 15).

Happy Festivus to the rest of us. (Feats of strength, airing of grievances, and festivus pole optional.)