"That" Valentine's Day Girl

I am so grateful again for the wonderful community of bloggers who have graciously taken the time to contribute their writing to my blog!

Today I want to welcome Jo, the fiancee of a sailor currently serving a year-long deployment in Afghanistan, who blogs for her website, Jo, My Gosh! where she shares her adventures during deployment, wedding planning, baking, and crafting. Join her for the ride!

Now...here she is!

This is my last Valentine's Day as a single girl. Wow-- that feels strange (and absolutely thrilling) to write! I'll be getting married in July to a wonderful man, I can't help but feel a tiny, just a tiny, infinitesimal, little pang of remorse.

You see, until John and I started dating, I was that girl.  The one who intentionally wore black on Valentine's Day and who said things like, "What's the big deal? It's just a day created by our consumerist, capitalist, sexist society."  Don't get me wrong, as a kid, I loved, loved, loved Valentine's Day (and I even secretly loved it during my teen and college years of protest). But, Valentine's Day and I have a rocky relationship. Around the time that middle school hit, I began realizing that I was not the kind of girl who could wake up excited for a secret admirer. I was-- am-- a gangly, klutzy glasses-wearing, Hemingway-reading, quirky, late-blooming nerd of epic proportions.  And so, in my 27 years of life, I've only had one romantic date on February 14. And that was last year.

So how have I spent my other Valentine's Days, you ask?  Here are my five favorite memories:

5. At my seventh grade Sadie Hawkins dance, I screwed up all of my courage to ask a boy I had a hopeless crush on to dance. I was so nervous and so excited when shrugged, that I forgot I hadn't ever slow danced with anyone before. I had no clue how to do it. Much to my pubescent embarrassment, I put my hands on his hips. On his hips. I quickly moved them on his shoulders the minute I saw his face, but the damage to my pride had been done. On the plus side, the song was "Butterfly Kisses" which is already a creepy song for a romantic dance. Somehow, I'd like to think that those two egregious things cancelled each other out.

4.  In fourth grade, The New Boy gave me a bracelet. From a vending machine. Still in the plastic bubble container. It was a charm bracelet, and I was terribly excited. I wore it and I was convinced that we'd be together for-ev-er. Of course, our infatuation with each other lasted about as long as the bracelet's aluminum clasp. I may or may not still have said bracelet in my jewelry box.

3. Penn State hardly ever cancels classes. In fact, during my four years, we had just one snow day-- Valentine's Day during my senior year. With the excitement of elementary school students, my friends and I planned the perfect day. We played football in the snow behind The Creamery, after which we got hot chocolate. And found out they were closing early and had to get rid of all of their baked goods. They gave us as many bagels and cookies as we could carry. For dinner, we went to Burger and a Thong Night at a restaurant downtown, where-- you guessed it-- we ordered burgers and got our choice of hilariously gaudy underwear to take home.

2. Every Valentine's Day, my dad makes up a scavenger hunt for everyone in my family. We each get our own rhyming clues that lead us all over my parents' house until we find our candy. Without fail, where does my last clue invariably lead (much to my family's delight)? See if you can figure it out: "On Valentine's Day, you shouldn't be yeller/ If you're brave, you'll find your gift in the _________."(And then, I always make my dad retrieve it from the cellar. I love chocolate, but I'm not crazy-- there are spiders down there!)

1. Because John's deployment to Afghanistan was inevitable, we had to fit the fun of two Valentine's Days into a few hours in the evening last year. We walked through the cutest little town, shopped at an old-fashioned candy store (and of course, bought way too much candy), ate at a beautiful, historic Italian restaurant, sat and talked in a park...and, at the end of the night, got ourselves lost on public transportation. It was one of the most perfect evenings of my life.

Sounds like Jo has had some pretty interesting Valentine's Days in the past, but I am so glad that she finally has someone to share them with now! Stop by her blog and let her know just how awesome she is. And a huge thank you again for being a part of the mess on the blog!