First post-Aimee Valentine's Day

Thankfully, I was not bombarded with
this image all day.

A lot of single people hate Valentine's Day. I get that. I've been single on Valentine's Day, and it can be nauseating. But for someone who's lost their Valentine, I think this can be much worse. So yesterday I decided I was going to avoid the holiday as much as possible.

The first step in this was to avoid Facebook for the most part. I knew there'd be lots of sappy messages posted from cupid-stricken lovers to their equally smitten partners. Yeah, I had no desire to be inundated with any of that. I did get quite a few messages of support both through Facebook and through Twitter, which I found really nice. People I didn't even really know sent encouraging notes letting me know they were thinking of me on a day they knew might be difficult. I am still blown away at how lucky I am to have so many people supporting me through this.

When I left work, it got a lot harder to avoid, but it still wasn't too bad. First off, Donna loves Valentine's Day, and she's without a Valentine as well, so I bought her a card and some flowers. When I got home, I also gave Rowan a card and some stickers I had bought for her last week. And she'd made me a Valentine as well, which I thought was INCREDIBLY sweet.

Next up, I headed to club in Tacoma where a friend had organized a breast cancer benefit in honor of an aunt of hers who's battling the disease. I'd been a bit wary of being in a club/bar on Valentine's Day, but I need not have worried.

The bands were pretty hardcore heavy metal (at least the ones who played while I was there). There were couples, but not sappy, kissy-faced couples. No, not a lot of Hallmark romance in the room. Instead, a lot of dreadlocks, camouflage, and music so loud my ears rang for hours. And I didn't stay that long. Just long enough to show my support, win some tickets to a minor league baseball game (sweet!), and get home early enough to still get some things done and get my high-school aged sitter home at a decent hour on a school night.

I spent a lot of the last part of the evening cleaning out the filing cabinet where Aimee had kept a lot of her work and personal paperwork (student loan and mortgage papers, etc). Very unromantic. And I finished the internationally recognized day of romance by filling out some tax forms in preparation for filing my taxes. Nothing says 'oh baby' like IRS forms, right?

So all in all, Valentine's Day without Aimee went as well as I could have hoped. Yes, there were moments of sadness, like there are every day. But the added emphasis on love didn't really get to me.

Now April, on the other hand. That's going to be brutal (April 11, Aimee's birthday - April 29, our anniversary - and don't forget Mothers Day in May). But I'll wait to cross that bridge until I get there.