Happy Valentimes

On Monday, I had to go to Sandy to take some tests for a job I applied for. It was a very strange experience. But after I was done, I headed down to Thanksgiving Point to pick up the glass roses that some of us made last weekend.

I was just going to show you a picture of the rose, but why do that if I can show you a cute cat too?

 Then, since I was down that far, I decided to have lunch in Eagle Mountain. And then, since I was that far, I took the opportunity to go to Camp Floyd State Park. It's on my bucket list to go to all the state parks, though I don't have a time frame to do that. Most state parks are reservoirs, and it most definitely is not reservoir season, so it seemed like a perfect day to go to Camp Floyd.

Camp Floyd, west of Utah Lake, is where Johnston's Army was sent after they arrived in Utah and found conditions more peaceful than they anticipated. The area became the third most populous area in Utah. But when the Civil War began, the army left.

Today, there is a small museum in the lone remaining army building.

 Across the street from the museum is an inn that was run by a Mormon pioneer.

As I've already been to many historic sites, I didn't find this one very interesting. I'm glad I went, and I didn't realize the whole story of them setting up Camp Floyd. But I knew much of the story of Johnston's Army. I don't feel a need to go back to Camp Floyd anytime soon.

That night, the YSA wards in my building had a Valentine's Day event. It was my last Valentine's Day in a YSA ward. It was very impressively decorated for Valentine's eterans Day.

Good decorating aside, I found it a rather dull party, and I didn't stay too long.

Though I am unemployed, I did work on Tuesday. I helped out for most of the day at This Is the Place: a couple of field trips, rearranging the barbershop after the Christmas season, cleaning a printing press coated with lead paint, talking with my boss, stuff like that. It's good to get some payment to offset all the money I spend.

Of course, Thursday was Valentine's Day. Of the nine holidays I celebrate, the two "St." holidays are my least favorite. I still like them more than the average person, but they're at the bottom. In theory, Valentine's Day is a better holiday, but in practice St. Patrick's Day is funner, so Valentine's Day is my least favorite.

The obvious undesirable element of Valentine's Day is "Single Awareness Day." That's part of why it's not my favorite, but I'm not entirely cynical. I value that other people are in love, and even I can have love for my family, friends, humankind, and my cat. But we should have love all year round.

The best part of Valentine's Day is candy. Yet of the four major candy holidays, Valentine's is the worst. The other three (Halloween, Christmas, Easter) have better candy, and they have other things to do. The biggest Valentine's flavors are red velvet and chocolate strawberry. Red velvet is just watered-down cocoa and buttermilk with red coloring (dumb), and strawberries aren't in season in February (dumb).

And Valentine's Day isn't even a day off! (Except for me, every day is a day off right now.)

So, on this holiday that I like but that isn't my favorite, I went downtown to eat lunch with an old coworker (and his new coworker) and do some research. 

Five years ago on Valentine's Day, my mom broke her leg while carrying pizza downstairs. So naturally, we commemorate the occasion by having the very kind of pizza that destroyed her.

I spent some time watching Hallmark Valentine's Day movies (Valentine in the Vineyard and All Things Valentine last week, The Story of Us this week). I did this not because I care for the genre, but because it seemed like the appropriate thing to do for the holiday. It definitely makes more sense than their Christmas movies (which are no longer Christmas movies because they literally show them all year).

I don't really like February, but I start to get optimistic about the end of winter. And this year I'm trying to find beauty in winter itself.