Have you ever seen the film, The Big Lebowski? If you haven’t, YOU SHOULD. Jeff Bridges character, “The Dude,” has some awesome lines. One of which is, “I can’t be worried about that sh*t. Life goes on, man.”
I tend to have a type-A, worry-laden personality. Recently I’ve been trying to realize that there are things I shouldn’t be worried about. But it’s hard when you’re so used to obsessing in your head about the tiniest details. About Murphy’s Law.
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One of the things I used to worry about was Valentine’s day. I had to make it be perfect. I would obsess over all the details: the perfect gift for my boyfriend, perfect plans (would we go out to dinner? would I cook?), a perfect outfit, etc.
I used to set very high expectations for Valentine’s day, and would subsequently be let down when the actual day came.
Because Valentine’s day is supposed to have those perfect, fancy things in order to be special, right?
Well, as it turns out, wrong.
This year, Daniel and I took a pretty laid-back, hands-off approach to Valentine’s day. It was great. I didn’t stress over getting the details to be perfect, and as a result I could just enjoy what transpired.
First of all, neither of us were planning on exchanging gifts. I told Daniel he didn’t have to get anything (and I seriously meant it! That wasn’t code speak for really wanting something, haha), and Daniel said the same thing to me. However, I got him a gift anyway. It was more of a cute, inside joke type thing.
Daniel is an avid player of the computer games Portal and Portal 2. So I got him a plush companion cube, which is an object from the game.
Shadow and the companion cube.
He was totally surprised and happy, and saw the humor in the gift.
Then Daniel said he actually had a gift for me, too, and I was surprised. They turned out to be some duct tape roses.
Purple is my favorite color, and all three had some purple element to them. I put them in a mason jar (with coins) on my dresser, and they make a great decoration.
Later that evening, Daniel spontaneously told me he wanted to take me to dinner. So we went to this awesome, delicious restaurant called Greenhouse. It was a spur of the moment decision, so I didn’t dress up or put a heap of makeup on; but Daniel was dressed pretty casually too, so I felt comfortable. We shared a bottle of Cupcake Chardonnay. I put my phone in my purse and we had a great conversation.
Ok, this post might sound a bit corny. But my point is that this is the Valentine’s day that, over the past few years, I stressed the least over, and consequently I enjoyed it very much.
Daniel and I didn’t clear February 14 of obligations weeks in advance. We didn’t get each other expensive gifts. We didn’t dress up in fancy clothes, make reservations and order prime ribs. This Valentine’s day was the least “fancy” one I’ve had in the last few years. It was also the one I have enjoyed the most.
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