It’s that oh-so-special time of year again…
Posted on February 14, 2007 @ 8:11 am
My wife hates Valentine’s Day. I mean, she hates it. As I’m reminded on an annual basis, she feels that it’s a contrived, overly commercialized holiday manufactured by the evil triumvirate of the greeting card, candy, and floral industries that only serves to perpetuate the idea that romance should be confined to one day per year. I should note that she doesn’t reject the notion of Valentine’s Day in that all-too-common way where she tells me not to buy her anything or take her out to dinner, only to get upset when I don’t take the iniative to do so of my own accord. Trust me — if I were to walk into the house tomorrow carrying a stuffed bear with little red hearts on its paws, the consequences would be too terrible to mention. Seriously.
Due to my wife’s general distaste for all things Valentine’s Day, we’ve celebrated our own alternative holiday on February 14th for the past six or seven years — a holiday we like to call Isolation Day. To celebrate Isolation Day, we basically just spend as much time apart from one another as possible for the day and carefully avoid doing anything vaguely romantic when we are together. It’s a terrific day to clean out the gutters or grab a bite to eat at Taco Bell instead of buying roses or making dinner reservations at Chez Coûteux. Best of all, it leads to great conversations like this:
Me: “What do you want to do for Isolation Day tomorrow, honey?”
Her: “Nothing.”
Me: “Cool.”
Want to join us — and by “join us” I mean “stay the hell away from us” — in celebrating Isolation Day this year? Just explain to your significant other why you won’t be celebrating Valentine’s Day, make other plans for yourself, and have a great time sticking it to the confectionery-floral-military-industrial complex.*
Happy Isolation Day, one and all!
*Apropos of Something is not responsible for any damages incurred while explaining to your significant other why you won’t be celebrating Valentine’s Day this year.
Posted by Jess | Filed Under Random Musings |
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I do special stuff for The Wife every day, all year ’round. Yet *still* on Valenguilt Day she expects something extra special.
Can’t live with ‘em…
My wife and I will be joining you by not joining you. Have a good Isolation Day. Or not, as long as it is isolated.
We will not be joining you, which in essence is joining you.
I love it. I got so sick of all the women in my office telling me that my wife didn’t mean it when she told me not to buy her anything that last year I had her write me a note.
Personally, I prefer Inappropriate Card Day.
You wife is a wise and learned woman and a compariot in the battle against national consumerism inspired by armed and airborn infants attacking the lovelorn.
Jess, sometimes I think that we may be the same person, but with you on the East coast with interweb skills and having chosen the academic route versus the corporate route I went with. Some of it was just weird coincidence, like Lost and the comics things and the whole karaoke to Right Said Fred. Now, I’m officially creeped out because it appears as though I/we/you are married to the same woman, or at least doubles, because my wife and I will be celebrating our first Valentines as married people by… not seeing each other from 7 AM to 10 PM. This is by her choice because she hates the holiday, and in exactly the same ways that you mention. She even went so far as to take extra work shifts to eliminate all chance of seeing each other. She told me she doesn’t even want a card. Normally, something like this would make people concerned about the welfare of their marriage, but she’s just an interesting person in this respect.
So, since you seem to have more experience with this, I was wondering, how do you deal with it? I’ve always liked Valentine’s day, and holidays in general, but she can’t stand them. I understand her concerns, but I don’t see why they should prevent us from doing something fun. Should I try to compromise or just let her be happy doing things her way?
Here’s another idea, just spitballin’ here, but once you finish your 100 facts thing, maybe you could start having random advice sessions? Give it a cool name like “Sabiduria de Jess” and dispense your wisdom as needed.
Last thing - your wife wouldn’t happen to be the daughter of an Idaho farmer and an immigrant woman from India, would she?
As a woman who loathes the holiday Ruko, I wonder why you like the holiday. Is it for the romance? For seeing her smile when you give her some thoughful gift and then wrap her in a hug and tell her you love her?
A better question to answer is: Why do you have to do it on February 14th? Wait until March 8th and do it. All the same gestures and effect. Hell, you can get the gifts on the cheap starting tomorrow.
My boyfriend forgot Valentine’s Day. Boy, am I pissed off! He called to thank me for the gift I sent him today. Then, he told me that he’d made plans to meet with his accountant to do his taxes tonight!
He’s promised to take me out to dinner tomorrow. I’m going to order the most expensive thing on the menu.
I’m a couple days late, but I just wanted to let everyone know that my wife and I had a lovely February 14th. We even managed to get into a little argument before bed — the perfect Isolation Day activity!
Ruko: It’s always good to know I have a West Coast twin out there. What’s your blood type, and what kind of shape are your kidneys in?
I’ll take the advice column idea under advisement; I pity any poor souls who choose to take my advice on anything, though.
I love the clever twists everyone comes up with for Valentine’s Day. I think people truly do have a love/hate feeling with this holiday more than any other. In a way, I suppose that’s fitting. LOL
Way late here, but just found your blog and am loving it way over here in Istanbul where I am an academic editor. Husband and I do not celebrate Valentine’s Day. Or anniversaries. On Valentine’s Day it was “Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you just as much as I love you all the other days of the year. Tonight let’s eat salads and watch separate TVs and not talk to each other!” “Okay!” (kiss-kiss). A marriage of the minds is bliss.