Candy Hearts & Ex Boyfriends

For my Facebook status on V-day 2011  I wrote….Roses are red, Violets are blue, Its Valentine’s day, And I have a hangnail.

I don’t really have a hangnail, but the fact was I wasn’t too excited about the romantic holiday without my man, and the other fact is….I think I have had a bad run of this holiday throughout my life.

It all started in second grade and for some reason, we had our Valentine’s bags hanging on the sides of our desks.  The class party was later in the day, but I could actually sneak my hand into the bag and steal some of my own candy.  Obviously I was gifted child.

Hours later, the class party started and everyone was opening their candy and eating it and guess who didn’t have any candy in her Valentine box?

Me.

Fast forward into high school.  It was my Junior year and I had my very first real life boyfriend.  His name was Greg Gerbers and no, I didn’t change his name to protect his identity.  Some of my friends called him King Part. Because of the way he combed his hair.  I probably should have used the nickname as a predictor of how long our relationship would last. (Umm, two months.)

We first kissed while watching The Little Mermaid and we went to the Morp together….you know, the backwards prom.

He gave me a stuffed bear for Valentine’s day and then dumped me three days later, for the girl we double dated with to the Morp.  Turns out, he gave her a rose on Valentine’s Day and had been trading notes with her for a whole week! He was totally a slimy cheater! (Can you see his part?)

Skip ahead about four or five more years and I am sitting in a steakhouse eating a fancy dinner with my boyfriend.  We had been dating for a year now and we had met each other’s parents and everything.  He was a cattle rancher in Southwest Nebraska…..a cowboy.  He had a belt buckle and everything. 

I was in love…..I think.

We had just finished dessert and he pushed the red velvet box towards me.  I opened it and it was a diamond.  I looked at him and he said, “Well……..will ya?” And I said yes.

There I was, engaged.

Happy Valentine’s day right? 

Not really.  We got in a fight on the drive home.  The ring was too big because he didn’t get it sized.  And oh yeah….WHAT THE HELL KIND OF PROPOSAL WAS THAT?

We broke up a little over a year later, just about 4 weeks before the wedding.  And now, I am not a cattle rancher’s wife, living in Beaver City, Nebraska for the rest of my life.  (Dear God, Again I thank you for unanswered prayers. Amen)

So there you have it. Candyless, dumped, and stuck with 200 unusable wedding invitations.  Valentine’s Day…..a big, red, sore, oozing, hangnail of life.  Ouch!

But wait!!!!

Guess what was on my bed last night before I got in it?

Thank you my three girlies.....maybe Valentine’s Day isn’t so bad after all.