A Boring Holiday

Welp, we are now past Valentine's Day. For me, Valentine's Day is just a holiday to be tolerated until the actual fun holidays of St. Patrick's Day and Easter begin.

There's just not a lot to do for Valentine's Day. I will tell you the things I did this week in the context of Valentine's Day, and you can see what I mean. 

On Monday, I went to cash a check at America First Credit Union inside Lee's MarketPlace. Lee's has donuts of the month, and this month was chocolate raspberry. The seasonal flavors are literally my favorite thing about Valentine's Day, and I'm not exaggerating. But the problem is that most of them are only available in February (and not in January), but I don't consume them after Valentine's Day, which means there isn't enough time or calories to eat them all.

After I bought the donut, I also stopped at a new taco truck in North Salt Lake. There are suddenly tons of taco trucks, some of them just a few blocks away from each other. I try to go to every restaurant in North Salt Lake, and it also seems especially important to support immigrants right now.

That evening my ward had an activity decorating sugar cookies, because how else are you going to have a Valentine's party for single adults? I took my own knife so I wouldn't have to use the plastic ones they would provide. But they set knives out at every table, so they probably got thrown away anyway. Why is single-use plastic still a thing?!

On Tuesdays I work in the office, and there's a cupcake shop just down the road that has different flavors every day. They have both mini sizes and regular sizes, and for Valentine's flavors they had the chocolate-covered berry correspond to the size, so of course I had one of each. 

On Wednesday I made carrot soup, and in the background I watched Valentine's episodes of sitcoms on TV.

My favorite flavor of Pop-Tarts is sugar cookie, which they usually bring out for Christmas. This year, though, they bring them out for "Spring Thaw," and they have images of Christmas characters in tropical settings. It is very bizarre. But I associate sugar cookies with Valentine's Day almost as much as Christmas, so I got them for this time of year. And on Thursday I tried them with a Valentine's-adjacent flavor of ice cream. But I'm coming to realize that I just don't like Pop-Tarts that much. (The berry ones are especially unappealing to me.)

For Valentine's Day, my mom made a Black Forest cake using the cherries we (mostly I) pick from my sister's tree. 

I got my mom a Valentine's gift. She collects salt and pepper shakers, and I collect holiday-themed Squishmallows, so I got her salt and pepper Squishmallows.

Back in 2014, when Valentine's Day was also a Friday, I visited home from college, and we got Papa Murphy's pizza. My mom was carrying a pizza downstairs, and she missed a step and destroyed her leg. It was also the same day my dad fainted at work because of a heart issue. To remember that day, we have gotten pizza every year since then. And I have noticed that heart-shaped pizza has become very common, with different pizza places offering it. I even saw an advertisement for yeast with a recipe for heart-shaped pizza. It's almost becoming as iconic as corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day and hot dogs on the Fourth of July!

Papa Murphy's heart is less pronounced than that of other pizzerias

But Valentine's Day was just boring (which is better than it was in 2014). I worked from home, wearing my heart shirt, and I proofread an article for Wayfare. I considered going on a short run, but it was rainy. In the evening, I watched Valentine's episodes of various sitcoms, accompanied by the love of my life. The romantic, heteronormative emphasis of the holiday just doesn't speak to me. I fully support emphasizing other forms of love, but it still doesn't make it a very interesting day.

Then yesterday, February 15, I fully moved on to the season of green and shamrocks. 

And I ran on the Jordan River Trail. I don't recall seeing the mud island there before. 

And here are this week's dreams. (The airport ones are all from the same dream.)

a woman almost drives her car down a boat ramp into a lake because she thinks it's a road

a fish tank without sides is installed in a bathroom

Mark wants to see Imagine Dragons with his friends, but the tickets are all gone

Mark is confused as he drives through Ogden, Utah (the AI generator loves the phrase "ethnically ambiguous," or maybe it's supposed to be "ethically ambiguous")

Mark keeps looking through the peephole to see if the baby elephant is still outside his apartment door

a man dressed like a beatnik interrupts a meeting by beautifully playing the violin outside

Linus from Peanuts has a heart-shaped pizza in a heart-shaped box

a family has a Liberty Bell decoration from 1904

a cookbook has different recipes for fruit breads, including cranberry orange

Mario throws a magic star into space, which creates a line of new cities (this is one of the most accurate images I've had in a while!)

Mark's friend comes to stay at his house, even though Mark's relatives are also staying

Mark helps a kindergarten class with their painting, and a girl paints black over pink

at the airport, five-year-old Franklin proudly shows off hopping on one foot

at the airport, a restaurant sells carrot-flavored water and chocolate cherry tarts

at the airport, a restaurant sells green caramel apples called "Ireland's Ire"

Rick shows Mark a catalog of seasonal food, including cranberry bacon pizza

Mark takes a bag of raw chicken through airport security