This Hallmark holiday has never been particularly enojoyable for people like myself. It started back in 2nd grade when we were required to give Valentine cards to every kid in class. I remember my Snow White Valentine Cards from the Walgreens Collection like it was yesterday...excitedly assigning my favorite cards to my favorite people, yet doing little more than scribbling in the TO and FROM section. My favorites list consisted of all my little girl besties, while it took much more time and effort in assigning the others. There were only so many "Friend/Platonic Relationship" cards, and once those were used up, boy was I in trouble. I had managed to assign all the appropriate cards to the appropriate people, sans two, Larry and Brian - who both smelled like poo. Brian smelled more than Larry, but my strong sense of smell dates back to these two boys. (Before you feel any remorse for these two, I must let you know that I remember them being very mean kids who probably tortured animals in lieu of doing homework.) With my back against a wall, I had few options, so the only reasonable one my 8 year old brain came up with was to scratch out the lovey dovey poem on the card. Yes, that is correct, the next day I delivered two Snow White Valentine Cards with the words crossed out, and that did not go unnoticed. I remember those two bullies saying something about it, but have probably locked those words far in the recesses of my painful memories.
Luckily, today I have put all of that behind me, and have been able to focus on making sure that my own students bring me gifts. My best gift of the day came from my Mom and Pops in the form of a beautiful bouquet of flowers! I also received some chocolates and a cute note from some students.
I saved the best picture for last. This was taken by my Korean co-worker Christine, who appropritately entitled it "Beauty and the Beast."
Overall, it was a great Vday, with hopefully more to come...God bless us every one. (Tiny Tim reference calling back to Scrooge in the title, and it rhymed...)
