Hmmmm, Valentine's Day

It is not that I am opposed to celebrating Valentine's Day. For those who have a difficult time expressing emotions, or for those who need a mark on the calendar to remind them that they are in love with someone, it serves a great purpose. For me...I don't need a reminder. I am in love and the best I can, I show my love every single day. No, I am not a great romantic. Far too practical I guess for great romance, but I am a romantic darn it - just that my view of romance is more practical. When I cook supper, all your favorite things, and do the dishes, and make your coffe and prepare your lunch - this is romance. This is love, the day in and day out love that brings us to tears with laughter and to ecstacy with love. This is the bag of hot chips you buy me because I have had a bad day - or being extra quiet on Sunday so I can sleep in. This is the matinee movies, because we can afford that - and the home we have purchased and the way you look at me that makes me smile. Romance, from my pragmatic viewpoint, does not come on a single day in a grandiose gesture of monetary proportions - it is in the countertops, and the carpet, and turning the heat on so the bathroom is hot. It is making breakfast, and paying the mortage on our home, and dreaming of the day we can buy that RV and leave this all behind. It is the quiet dreams I see in you while you sleep. OK, I am not a great romantic...not in the make believe made for television Hallmark hall of fame Meg Ryan movie kind of way - Maybe more in the "Were in this together, lets have a BBQ, can we cuddle, I'll vacumn, do you need me to stop at the store, don't worry I got it...let me vent - I love you every moment of every day kind of way" - that isn't so bad is it?