Gavin Craig: I’m not really the romantic sort. That said, I’m facing a perfect storm this Valentine’s Day. It’s the ten-year anniversary of my first date with my wife. (Yeah, that’s right. Our first date was on Valentine’s Day. What?) We eloped exactly six months later. And a year after that, we did a ceremony with our families.
So this February 14 is the official start of the year of the ten-year-anniversary. (My wife has already started celebrating unofficially by marking the dates of our first kiss and the day she broke up with her boyfriend of the time.)
My wife and I were housemates before we started dating, and we really started to realize (or admit to ourselves) that we were going to start seeing each other because we’d curl up on the couch every evening and watch Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure on PBS together. So I bought her a copy and we’ll spend Valentine’s Day curled up on the sofa watching it again. (After the kids go to bed, of course.)
So maybe I’m a bit of a romantic after all.
Jill Kolongowski: I’ll probably be avoiding facebook and Twitter, because people will be really gross and mushy or will be whining about how they are SO ALONE and I’d rather not see that. My boyfriend and I don’t get each other gifts for Valentine’s Day; we’d rather spend the day doing something fun. We have a belated date planned for when he comes to visit me in March, and I’ll be sending him some homemade candy. Or crying over videochat. Either one.
Lindsey Malta: Probably using it as an excuse to eat a little candy or two…or ten (not those chalky message hearts, those are gross). Valentine’s Day, for me and Husband, is overshadowed by the “Christmas in February” also known as February 13th, Husband’s Birthday. I happily take the out since I’m not really enthusiastic about Valentine’s Day. Maybe I’m a little jaded, but on the whole I see no point on putting so much pressure on one day in the middle of winter when, let’s face it, everyone in the world is really effing cranky (in Michigan, anyway. –11 degrees with the wind chill making it feel more like I’ll go off my flipping rocker if it takes me longer than one second to get from the front door to my car and I’m supposed to feel romantic all of a sudden? Not happening). I’ve always told Husband I don’t care about it and we are under no obligation to observe it.
That said, I did give him a Valentine one year. I used it as a means to make Husband retire one of his favorite jokes. He had explained to me, in jest, that since Pandas wouldn’t/were too stupid to mate to save themselves from extinction we should be able to eat them because they’re on their way out anyway. Sometimes when I’d ask what he wanted for dinner he’d say “Panda Meat” because he liked to make me mad. Pandas, in my opinion, are not for eating.
It was a turning point for Husband. He would never again be able to think about consuming the meat of a Panda without thinking of chocolate and love and the most pathetic tone I could muster for the voice of the adorable little Beanie Baby. If we do anything on Valentine’s Day it is to remember that we don’t eat Pandas.
Kate Sloan: I’m celebrating Valentine’s Day by not celebrating Valentine’s Day. I’ll be drinking ghetto blasters and writing snarky things on the internet like every other Monday. This is not just because I’m single; my hope is to one day find someone who enjoys these things, too. That way we could do them together on V-day. Last year I celebrated by going to the Dirty Show in Detroit—if it’s running this year (Ed. note: It is) and you’re looking for plans, I highly recommend it: alcohol, cute people, and art. There’s something for everyone.
Mike Vincent: What am I doing for Valentine’s Day? Well, nothing formal. The wife and I will work all day, the kids will do their thing at school and we’ll pick them up and bring them home. Then my wife will go to her ice skating lessons so she will be able to take our son to the skate rink while I stay home with the kids. Hopefully they will both be tired and fall asleep easily so my wife and I can have a little bit of quiet time.
I am looking forward to Valentines from any of my students. The agency where I work doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day in the classroom but we’re not stopping families, especially those with siblings that are celebrating in their schools, from bringing in cards to quietly disperse throughout the day. I hope the kids remember me!