Valentine’s Day

I typically write Valentine’s Day off as just being a Hallmark holiday designed to generate revenue in the flower, candy and greeting card industries. When I was dating in high school and college it seemed to be more important, but now that I’m married I’ve experienced love in a greater capacity than before, so Valentine’s Day seems somewhat superficial to me. Andy and I try to do something out of the ordinary on the heart-filled day, but I think it has more to do with the expectations of the holiday than anything else.

On Sunday night Andy told me that he wanted to go out for dinner on Monday and he asked if I could be ready to leave by 5:00pm. I didn’t know where we were going, but I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to leave work early. Yesterday I found myself wondering where we might be going. I knew our reservation was at 5:45pm and I couldn’t figure out where we might be going that took 45 minutes to get to. I would go on with stuff at work and suddenly find myself wondering about it again. It was fun to have something mysterious to look forward to. Andy and I frequently eat out, but usually it’s a place that we have mutally decided on. This “not knowing” had its charms.

I left work around 4pm and made it through the door of our apartment just after 4:30pm. Apparently everyone had the same idea to leave work early. A gorgeous array of two dozen red roses sat in my favorite vase on the dining room table and I could smell them the moment I walked through the door. They were some of the most perfect looking red roses I’ve ever seen. I wanted to really take them in, but time was of the essence so I ironed my skirt, fixed my hair and somehow managed to drag myself out of the house by 5pm. My feathers were a little bit ruffled because my time had somehow seemed much shorter than I expected, but I pulled myself together and by the time we sat down at our table I was fine.

We had dinner at the Macaroni Grill across from Lakeside Mall. It was nothing super fancy, but I didn’t know where we were going and I always love Italian food, so it was perfect. We shared a bottle of red wine, nibbled on a yummy plate of Insalata Caprese and then started in on our entrees. Andy got the Mama’s Trio (a combination of lasagna, chicken parmisan and canneloni) and I had the chicken scallopine. Dinner was fantastic and we topped it off with a plate of Dessert Ravioli. We are both huge fans of tiramisu, so branching out was adventurous for us. The ravioli was delicious. It was a buttery pastry wrapped around chocolate ganache and chunks of snickers. It was served with vanilla ice cream and topped with caramel sauce. It was entirely sinful. We each had a cup of coffee and relished the moment.

I think last night was one of the nicest Valentine’s Days I’ve experienced. It wasn’t about the cards, chocolate or greeting cards. We didn’t even exchange cards or gifts. (sorry Hallmark) The evening was actually just a nice excuse to spend time together and remember how much we love one another.