Valentine's Day

It's February 14th.  You know what that means!  You need to buy flowers that will die, before eating at a restaurant you don't want to go to that will be too crowded and overcharge you for a special Prix Fixe menu that is really just smaller portions from their regular menu set to candlelight.  That's right!  It's Valentine's Day!  But what is that, really?

Waste.  Of.  Money.

Let me start by saying, I am a happily married man.  I am not bitter and single, nor am I alone in the sentiment I expressed above.  My wife agrees.

Valentine's Day has become a Hallmark holiday which means it has been commercialized to the nth degree and we're kind of over it.  It wasn't always that way though.

Valentine's Day is actually Saint Valentine's Day.  But who is Saint Valentine and what does he have to do with that flying baby shooting everyone with arrows?

The common legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome and performed marriages for young lovers in secret after the emperor outlawed marriage.

It is often believed that we celebrate the day honoring this saint in February because the Christian church wanted to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival.

Here we are, in 2017, and somehow the Roman priest and the Roman God of Love got together with Hallmark to create the second largest card buying holiday.

My wife and I don't typically go out for Valentine's day because we hate crowds and wasting money and we usually both work that day.  Instead, we celebrate our love year round and surprise each other with little gifts here and there.

No matter how you celebrate, I wish you a Happy Valentine's Day, and if you don't celebrate, Happy February 14th.