Monday, February 09, 2009

Happy V-Day Week

This week is Valentine Week here at Fictionistas, so get ready for some love, love, love. Or really intense like. Or lotsa hearts. Or maybe just some pink. Either way, you'll see a theme in this week's posts, so be prepared.

Speaking of love...have you seen my cover for BITE ME!? No? Yes? Well, either way, I'm posting again, because it is true love on my end.

I ♥ my cover.

I really don't know what to talk about this week. I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. I am a huge gift giver. Always have been. I love sending cards, giving trinkets, doing little things that show people how much I care. And as long as the gifts are appreciated, I am happy. I don't even need anything in return--most of the time. (Every girl likes to know she's thought about and appreciated. Gifts are welcome and encouraged!)

I like to give gifts throughout the year. Holidays like Valentine's Day feel so commercial and forced that oftentimes the meaning of the gift is lost in the forest of all the pink hearts and chocolate candies.

By the way, I do not subscribe to the 'it's the thought that counts' train of thought. It's all about the effort to me. If you're going to bother giving someone a Valentine's gift, (or any gift) make it mean something. Don't just run out to the grocery store and pick up the last available dying bouquet and a box of stale candy. Plan ahead a little. Some of the most appreciated gifts aren't the expensive ones. And sometimes the right card says more than a trinket ever would.

Make your gifts count.

Have a great V-day week!

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:34 AM

    I totally agree with you. I'm a random gift-giver as well, so the idea of getting flowers on Valentine's Day has never excited me. Not only are the flowers way more expensive (for the exact same flowers), but it's just so generic.

    And I COVER your cover. Seriously.

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  2. Anonymous9:34 AM

    That was supposed to say I COVET your cover. I'm an idiot who can't type.

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  3. Truly rockin' cover, Mel!

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  4. thx guys. I do love my cover in a way that's totally unhealthy. :) hehe, Amanda, you can covet or cover my cover all you want.

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  5. After working in retail, the idea of my husband standing in line on Feb 14th buying me all the same stuff the guy in front of him and behind him are buying their wife or girlfriend makes me squick. And dressing up to have a romantic dinner in the middle of a full restaurant is "meh" to me too. Sometimes we go do something--one year we did a red wine and chocolate tour at local wineries and that was fun. But mostly we stay away from the whole thing.

    I kind of think Valentines Day is demeaning to everyone. If you are single, it is designed to make you feel inadequate. If you are a couple, it is designed to make your love generic and overpriced.

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  6. Anonymous1:14 PM

    Yeah, we generally avoid restaurants that night, too. We go out to eat enough as it is...going on Valentine's Day is just crowded and overpriced. Am I to assume that just because my husband doesn't want to pay $50/person for the same dinner that would cost $25/person in that same restaurant the next weekend that this means he doesn't love me as much?

    We're going to the George Washington Birthnight Ball that night at Gadsby's Tavern, an 18th century tavern where GW himself actually celebrated the last two birthdays of his life (at the Birthnight Ball, actually). It just happens that it falls on Valentine's Day this year.

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  7. Okay, call me common, but I have a liking for roses and for chocolates in a red heart-shaped box. Maybe it was because when I was a kid, we never got candy...but my dad would get my mom valentine's chocolates, and we always got to eat some. They were so mysterious! You never knew what was inside... :-)

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  8. I love your cover, too!!! (and I'm never one to turn down chocolates, LOL)

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  9. If I haven't already told you this, love your cover! :)

    I guess it depends on how the "thought" is applied. For example, a friend of mine brought back a book thong from Singapore for me last year. He put some thought into that and it meant a lot. Granted, I like things that say where it came from but I liked knowing he'd taken the time to consider a gift that would be personal to me. So, in that sense, the thought meant a lot. :)

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  10. Oh, and I also like those random gifts as well. They mean a lot more than gifts that are given because someone feels they have to because of the date on the calendar!

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