Valentines Day and.....my brother

We don't really even like Valentines Day. My husband says it's just a day for lame-o husbands who don't buy their wives flowers for anything else during the year to pull their act together for once and buy them some to make up for it. And very very overpriced flowers at that! And I hate the jewelry ads that either imply or just outright say something to the effect of how the guy will be in the "dog-house" if he doesn't buy his lady some bling. Sad. Very sad.

We got married in January 2009 and celebrated our first Valentines together very, very low key just days before our 1 month anniversary :) Since we dated and got engaged so quickly it meant we hadn't even known each other on Valentines Day that previous year! So while I hate how Valentines is super cheesy and commercialized, it is ridiculously fun to have someone to kiss and snuggle on Valentines now ;) Because I had seriously never had a Valentine in my life before my husband. Never.

Except my brother, although obviously a different sort of Valentine (very different!!). My dear little brother is three years younger than I and a great friend. (He's not really "little" though since he measures in at 6'3".) Before I got married my brother and I were each others Valentines dates (then I went and got a husband and ruined it all! jk) We both did not have a significant other for many, many (many, many, many....ok you get the point) years and we didn't want to sit home alone and be mopey. So we'd make the best of it and go out together!

Those were great memories- especially the year a guy (who I didn't even know) sent me flowers as a joke trying to make it look like another guy that I knew had sent them to me- they were delivered to me AT work....ON Valentines Day....with a romantic poem written on the card.....and it was all a joke...ON Valentines Day. There were tears and angry phone calls and lots of drama. The guy I didn't know who sent the flowers apologized and amazingly admitted he hadn't thought through how it would affect me and that he just thought it would be funny to embarrass his friend. Oh dear. Lesson learned for that guy I hope. So in the end my brother was there and we went out anyway (a yummy pizza place in Scottsdale I remember) and he was a great consolation to my sad little heart and was patient with my craziness about the mean flower guy.

So on Valentines Day yes I think of my hubby and how much I love him. And we did celebrate in our own way with homemade fish tacos and a lovely time at a little coffee shop down the road (THE creamiest, frothiest cappuccino I've EVER had, in one of those big mugs you need two hands to hold- so yummy!) where we couldn't help but talk about the new house ;) . But I also thought of my wonderful bro and how thankful I am to have had a man like him around to take me out and hear my sob stories and laugh and be goofy with me and show me how a girl is really supposed to be treated. I love you bwotha!