A Nightmare On Valentines Day

I woke up in a cold sweat, eyes stinging from the salty perspiration, running from my brow. I sat up quickly. As I wiped my forehead with my bed sheet, a cold chill ran down my spine. I turned, eyes squinting from the light sifting through the blinds. As I’m looking at the clock on my night stand, I felt my stomach drop. “What day is it?”, I thought? OMG! It’s Valentines Day. I flippin forgot Valentines Day! Disoriented, I tried to backtrack in my mind the events leading up to today. Could I have REALLY forgotten V-Day? My wife is going to be one unhappy camper. Scratch that, I’m going to be one unhappy camper. In fact, I might have to pitch a tent, in the back yard!

Panic Time

I scrambled to get out of bed. I had a million thoughts rushing through my head. I need to come up with a good reason to slip out of the house at dark-thirty, Sunday morning. Who am I kidding, no matter what I say it’s going to be totally obvious. “No honey, I’m not going to get your Valentines Day gifts, are you joking?” That’s just not going to fly. As I’m trying to quietly rush around, get dressed and think of a good reason why I’m heading to the store when the rest of the world is sleeping, something dawned on me. What day is it again? I went to work yesterday…wait a minute..today’s Saturday! A calm came over my body, starting at the tip, top of my head, all the way to my toes. It’s SATURDAY! Tomorrow’s V-Day! And then a second thought entered my scrambled brain. I had stopped on the way home Friday night and picked up a card and a heart shaped box of chocolates. Crisis over!

Don’t Mess With Tradition

My wife and I have long standing Valentines Day traditions. I get up, cook breakfast and serve it in bed. I always have a card, flowers and a box of chocolates. We finish the day with a wonderful meal. The key word here though, is chocolate. CHOCOLATE. That was the center of my worries just moments before. My wife wants her box of chocolates, come hell or high water. No excuses. Forget the card, she can pass on the flowers, but by golly there better be a box of chocolates or somebody is going to pay. AND that somebody is me. But it’s all good, John’s got it under control. I breathe a sigh of relief.

So, that’s how my weekend started yesterday. How about you? Are you ready for Valentines Day? Do you have any special traditions?  If you’re sitting down with your first cup of coffee, reading this, just realizing it’s V-Day, I FEEL FOR YOU. Better think of a good reason to run to the store! Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.

I thought it would be fun to research some V-Day facts and some historical events that have taken place on February 14th, so here goes:

Valentines Day Facts:

Valentine’s Day is the No. 1 holiday for florists.

In 2009

• An estimated 187 million roses were produced for Valentine’s Day.
• 58% of males bought flowers for their significant other.
• 42% of flower purchasers were women, of those, 19% get flowers for themselves.
• Consumers purchased more than 58 million pounds of chocolate candy, ringing up $345 million in sales.
• About 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards were exchanged.

Besides Being A Great Day For Lovers, Check Out What Else Has Happened On Valentines Day

• 270 A.D. – Roman Emperor Claudius II, dubbed “Claudius the Cruel,” beheaded a priest named Valentine for performing marriage ceremonies. Claudius II had outlawed marriages when Roman men began refusing to go to war in order to stay with their wives.
• 1778 – The Stars and Stripes was carried to a foreign port, in France, for the first time. It was aboard the American ship Ranger.
• 1779 – Captain James Cook, the great English explorer and navigator, was murdered by natives of Hawaii during his third visit to the Pacific island group.
• 1859 – Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state.
• 1899 – The U.S. Congress approved voting machines for use in federal elections.
• 1912 – Arizona became the 48th state of the Union.
• 1913 – James Riddle “Jimmy” Hoffa born. (Disappeared July 30, 1975, declared legally dead in 1982)
• 1929 – The “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” took place in Chicago, IL. Seven gangsters who were rivals of Al Capone were killed.
• 1932 – The U.S. won the first bobsled competition at the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, NY.
• 1934 – Actress Florence Henderson born (Brady Bunch).
• 1946 – ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was unveiled. The device, built at the University of Pennsylvania, was the world’s first general purpose electronic computer.
• 1971 – Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House
• 1989 – Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses,” a novel Khomeini condemned as blasphemous.
• 1989 – The first Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite was placed into orbit around Earth.
• 2002 – Sylvester Stallone filed a lawsuit against Kenneth Starr. The suit alleged that Starr had given bad advice about selling Planet Hollywood stock.
• 2003 – Dolly the sheep – the first mammal cloned from an adult – was put to death at age 6 due to premature aging and disease.
• 2006 – Iran said it had resumed uranium enrichment; Russia and France immediately called on Iran to halt its work.

Who’d a thunk it?

**Sources:  Nielsen, Onthisday.com, Wikipedia

Tagged as: chocolate • family traditions • marriage • valentines