Happy Valentine's Day

I was going to say that this was the first time I blogged on Valentine's Day, since it's the first time Valentine's Day has been on a Sunday since 2010, and I didn't start blogging until May 2011. But then I realized that I blogged about my mom's accident two years ago. It's been a better Valentine's Day than that one, but not as fun as last year.

Valentine's Day is my least favorite of the eight or nine holidays I formally celebrate. Now that I'm not in elementary school, there are no class parties, no homemade valentine receptacles, no card exchanges. But let's face it, those were really about the candy, not the valentines. I was always annoyed with people who only gave little cards with no candy. But the beauty is that my mom is a schoolteacher, so we get the benefit of getting valentine candy!

The problem with Valentine's Day is that no one's actually sure what it's about. Some people think it's a day for romance, but do we really want kindergarteners thinking about romance? People say, "It's about having a significant other, so I don't celebrate it." Some say, "It's about loving your friends and family." Some even say it's about loving yourself. For me, it's about loving candy--although I'm getting better at not gorging myself on sugar.

Chaucer said it was the day "whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make," but there's some debate about whether his "seynt Volantynys day" was in February or May. It must have been May, because I certainly didn't see any bryds chesing their makes today, but then again I don't live in England.

(I wish I had taken Middle English. Oh, wait, I took geomorphology instead. Never mind.)

Most of you probably saw that my grandparents' story was featured on the Mormon history blog Keepapitchinin. That was an exciting development, and it happened all because of me! I'm not sure at this point I'm at liberty to say how on the internet, but you can ask me in person, or I might tell you online in June or so. It comes through my connection with Mormon history. (I got a shout-out on the blog comments!) History was generally my worst subject, so I'm surprised that it's now my profession, at least for a time. What's even more surprising is that I'm loving it!

Speaking of my grandparents, last night I had a dream that they were adopting a navy blue cat. I wanted to come up with a sky name for it, so I thought of Midnight, which seemed like a cliché, and then I thought of Twilight, but that's like the books, and then I thought of Dawn. Then I learned that the name given it by the shelter was Don-Don, so I thought Dawn was perfect. Then I woke up and was disappointed to realize that blue cats don't exist.

Happy Valentine's Day!