Valentine's Day for Losers

I’m having a little me time. Catching up on blogs that I have not read since after young women’s camp ended in August! After that I put myself into high gear to dejunk the house and prepare to move to Singapore. That’s almost 6 months of not reading blogs and to be fair, not writing much either. Just think of all the funny stories I missed and now forgot because I was too busy. Sad. Today I have been reading and reading and reading. It’s so much fun, but I did notice one thing. I suppose it actually doesn’t come as much as a surprise.

Our kids would kill to be from another family. Have you seen the amazing and cute Valentine's Day things people do for their kids? Seriously? Start blog stalking and you'll know what I mean. Some are darling handmade cutsies, or 14 day countdowns with daily love notes, lots of people did some craft or made a treat and spent time with their kids and still other people gave their kids what I would classify as a mini-Christmas with some SERIOUS toy spreads. Sitting here on the couch side by side with our laptops (romantic, I know) I mentioned to Brian how we were failing our kids. His response? “No way. They need to show us some love. We do stuff for them all the time.” Can you tell we had a knock down drag out miserable day with the kids? I take that back, Ben was great all day. Maddie and Jake were tail spinning into disaster zone by 8:30am. Just ask Grandma and Grandpa how well behaved they were while we tried to Skype. It wasn’t pretty and only got worse.

As far as Valentine’s Day goes, I don’t anticipate a change for next year either. We know who we are. And we’re not cute. One of my favorite stories to tell from my working days proves it. I was asked to prepare a multi-million dollar budget plan for the proposed projects on the radar for prioritization. It would be submitted several levels up to the bosses for review with my research and justifications on which projects are the most important based on timing, safety concerns, environmental impact, etc. I worked for a few weeks and had my spreadsheet well researched and nicely laid out to concisely deliver only the most relevant facts and cost estimates to the big cheese guys in charge.

I submitted it to my direct line boss for approval first. He was less than impressed. I was sent back to tweak it a little and make it look nicer. I added a bit of pastel coloring to color code areas and departments. Nope. Still not good enough. Asking for direction, my boss took me into his office where he showed me an example of what he was looking for. I kid you not, he showed me a spreadsheet that had animations all over it and boxes that had sparkle borders that twinkled and moved. He told me to go make it look more “pretty like this.” Uh huh. And how am I supposed to do that on a printed paper?? Pretty? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?! All the required information is included. What is the point of all that was all I could think.

Beyond frustrated, I returned to my office and let loose my feelings to my cubicle buddy and good friend Jared. He looks me straight in the face and says, “Well, Ang. We all know you’re just not a pretty person.” I can still hear his voice and see his mannerisms as he said it too. It’s crystal clear in my memory. Instantly I couldn’t stop laughing. He realized what he said the second it came out of his mouth. It was priceless. And I can’t argue with him whether the comment was meant to have a double meaning or not. I don’t wear make-up, get my nails done OR put sparkles on my spreadsheets. I’m Angie and on most days I’m basically pretty happy with what I am.

In summary:

Valentine’s Day will continue to be a mediocre affair at our house for a long time to come. I do hope to reinstitute the tradition Brian and I had since we were dating of making sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day. The kids have loved it in years past. And that, folks, is the size of a “pretty” goal that I can handle.