I’ve always felt a certain amount of disdain for discomfort in Valentine’s Day… The amount of pressure that lies on the head of this day is truly beyond my ability to comprehend.

If you’re single, you do one of two things:

• Option 1: You spend the day having cocktails with your other single girl friends – toasting to being (you guessed it) single.
• Option 2: You eat ice cream from the carton and drink wine from the bottle in front of the TV.

If you’re taken, you spend ages planning for an expensive dinner and buying expensive gifts for a day that, in my opinion, means nothing special.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the colors red and pink, I sign almost everything with an xx or an xo, and there was once a time I signed all my blog pots with “♥”. And I love love. I really do – it’s even in my twitter profile. But I love those things every day, not just once a year on 2/14.

I grappled with how to reconcile my feelings about Valentine’s Day side by side with my having a boyfriend this year. Clearly, as I write this post with a furrowed brow and a confused face, I still haven’t figured it out but I can at least tell you my plans:

Tonight, I’ll spend Valentine’s Day with My Honey, only because I want to see his face and he wants to see mine. We’ll go to a nice restaurant in Queens. I’ll get a little fancy just because, and we’ll toast to what’s to come. I have no interest in heart-shaped boxes filled with chocolates or expensive gifts on this day because for me, that’s not the point. I want for nothing more than him (and perhaps some grocery store flowers) and he wants for nothing more than me (and perhaps a nice cold beverage). And because we’re an imperfect pair, we’ll probably drink one too many beers and stumble home in laughter together – just like we’d do any other day. And that’s what’s important, enjoying each other today and every day.

Happy Valentine’s Day (and every day) to you and yours.

xx, xo, and ♥,
Mai