It's early to think about Valentine's Day, unless you're booking a trip to Paris, but in my opinion, most of the time V-day is not a day that ends good. It can't live up to expectations. Restaurants push a dumbed-down, over-priced set menu, knowing that (a) most of the people in the dining room will be people who don't eat in restaurants a lot, and (b) there will be a bad scene at at least one table. I've seen kids come home from school in tears, disappointed girls opening packages that are, um, not small enough - probably the only day in the year when one might think that! You could cut the atmosphere with a knife at concerts (why are we here? Why are we listening to this noise instead of joyfully embracing one another at the top of a building or mountain or something and calling our folks?). I don't even like to shop on or the day before V-day - too many men looking uncomfortable in at least one of its many ways, harried, puzzled, guilty, furtive. Annoyed women trudge through the market: cute dinner for two, my eye, we should be going out. Sitters will not admit to being available. A year's worth of resentments can bubble to the surface in a blink. And as for the way red roses suddenly triple in price, well, it's worse than the way clothing prices bounce up and down on websites.
And yet, as Mr. Webster said of Dartmouth, there are those who love it, who have tender memories, who will smile as they help their kids glue hearts on doilies, who leave the table early for a good reason. So if you're making plans, be careful: it's my heart. And if you think your plans might involve champagne, buy it now and tuck it away, before the price - well, you know.
I've certainly had some "memorable" V Days in my time. I now take pleasure in simply scorning it - yet still secretly marvel and wonder at the remorseless trashiness of it all...
ReplyDeleteHi, SulkyKitten, friends in the restaurant business assure me that next to Mothers' Day, V-day is the single most dreaded night in the industry. Mothers' Day? Yes, the groups are large and the relationships are "fraught," so the disputes are louder, nastier and longer. And Grandma doesn't like the restaurant and Aunt Bessie doesn't eat the food and someone asks why it's only one of 365 days that people remember mom...
ReplyDeleteOh you've nailed it Fred. My biggest peeve: flowers. Every year I tell MrBP not to do it, no v-day flowers please, but he never listens.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to buy my champagne today, I have to go to the Happy Store to stock up for men's book club tonight anyway, so thanks for the good tip!
Cheers, Dani! Is men's book club code for fantasy football/hockey/poker, or do they read stuff?
ReplyDeleteOh they do read it's quite impressive. This month I believe they are reviewing Devil in the White City. Of course they drink and eat manly snacks too but it is a diverse group of lawyers, doctors, scientists, professors and a landscape architect thrown in there too. I listen from upstairs and they are quite entertaining.
ReplyDeleteYou are going to love this! A few years ago DH made reservations at a fondue place on V-day. He tries hard not to disappoint. That day I wasn't feeling well and we tried to cancel the reservation, but would have been charged for the meal, so we went. DH didn't research the Prix Fix menu or he'd have realized that a dinner for 4 (2 children and 2 adults) would run $300 for FONDUE!!!! So ultimately, I'll always remember the $300 Valentine's Day dinner that I had to cook, and we couldn't finish as there were 5 courses. One of the courses was lobster and shrimp-great-but DH doesn't eat seafood and restaurants won't let you take home raw fish in a doggie bag....arrggh! Now we make a really nice fancy dinner at home, save the money and put it towards our anniversary dinner/gifts in May.
ReplyDeleteAh, Fred thou art so wise. Valentine's Day truly illustrates the fact that women are from Venus and men, well, possibly a little farther out, let's say Uranus? Dumbed down menu absoluement! Once, my dearly beloved took me out on the evening in question and we ordered Osso Bucco. We were both quite surprised when it came, more so when we attempted to ingest it. I think even Chef Boyardee would have disowned it. On a previous VD overnight escapade, we found ourselves at Walmart in Louisville, Ky, rustling up some who-forgot-to-pack-it dental hygeine. Lordy, it looked like a tsunami had hit the store, and left complete carnage behind. There were still a few vacant faced young males wandering the aisles with tattered roses and Teddy Bears that resembled roadkill(and this is 10 pm EST mind you) in their hopeless grip. Competing for the worst cameo was the woman in the electronics dept, throwing merch back on the shelves and angrily cursing her boyfriend via cell phone(for everyone's holiday enjoyment), and the woman in front of us in the self check out lane, whose fat apron kept setting off the u-scan device. Definitely not humanity's finest hour. I hope you and your dearly beloved can manage a mutually satisfying, lovely Valentine's.
ReplyDeleteHi, Dani, I stand corrected. Sounds like a good group!
ReplyDeleteHi, JulieSyles, a classic! Although I note that the "Reservationist" really should have warned your DH about the menu.
ReplyDeleteOh, David.
ReplyDeleteUm, are any of those vignettes on the People of Walmart site?
We're with Sulky kitten and consider Valentine's Day a "Hallmark holiday" - one to be skipped. It's much more meaningful to show one's love spontaneously rather than be told to do it on this particular day.
ReplyDeleteWe skip, too, I wish I'd known skipping was an option in 5 th grade! At thebrisk ofmbeing accusednof heresy, I also consider Mother's Day a production of the flower and greeting industries.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on mother's day and father's day too. A few years ago they tried grandparent's day and I think it's still around but all they get from me is an eyeroll.
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