Test 2

Uteruses before Duderes

I've always had quite an affinity for Valentine's Day.

I realize the old trope is that Valentine's Day is a commercial Holiday that forces couples to be romantic and those not in a relationship to want to faceplant into the nearest snowbank or swan dive into an oversized bottle of Pinot Noir. I mean it's red wine at least, right?!.

Drinking red means you're celebrating Valentine's right?

For me, I've never identified with either of those camps. I have mostly been in one of the two scenarios on previous February 14th's. We do nice stuff for each other all the time so let's just have a normal day on Valentine's or 2. I'm single and just kinda run around and have a normal day and do some nice stuff for my family/friends.

I've never expected jewelry or flowers, not saying that I didn't have boyfriends who didn't deliver on both these fronts, and that's fine. That was their language and the way they expressed themselves, but I can tell you I've had many February 14th's where I was both single and in relationships and honestly it never felt like a huge difference to me.

The only thing I will admit is that if I had recently broken up with someone then I probably would avoid social media around VDay at all costs.

And I will vehemently recommend that for you as well if you happen to be reading this and find yourself in that situation. And if you have a few glasses of wine and find your resolve weakening and wind up trolling Instagram, just remember that people don't post the bad shit. Everything is curated on social media. Even the posts that try to make it look like they are being open and honest and vulnerable and without makeup and messy - that shit is just as curated, if not more.

On the un-single Holidays, I would probably have dinner and a movie and some smooching and on single ones, I might do a little of the same.

I've had couples massages and I've also treated myself to solo pedicures. Now I'm a gift-giver, so I've used V-Day in the past as a way to buy my sister a gift, treat my niece and nephew to a dessert or spoil my friends.

But, It never felt quite right to use the word Valentine in connection to these things.

I just never had the words to express it any other way. Now, this next part is a little confusing, especially for those of you that might have been born in the last two decades. I was watching Television on February 11, 2010, and children gather round, let me weave you a tale of a time ago. A time that Netflix only existed as a weird blockbuster rental type service, a time where Blackberries were fancier than iPhones, a time where Bitcoin was less than a dollar, and where people still rode in Taxis. We had to watch tv in real-time. A time when little single-camera shows like The Office, 30 Rock, and The beloved Parks & Recreation were kings. It was on this fateful Thursday night where our beloved Leslie Knope uttered a phrase that leaped straight from her lips and directly into my heart; Galentine's Day.

Galentine's Day, as Leslie states, "is only the best day of the year!"

Celebrated on February 13th, it is succinctly a day where you tell all the amazing women in your life just how badass and smart and beautiful and kind and lucky you are to have them in your life. So yeah, it is the most important holiday that we celebrate. At long last, I had a name and focus to attribute to the thing that brought me happiness and gave me a chance to lift the women in my life.