Valentines Day

Seriously... what has this holiday come to? before you even have a chance to send flowers to your valentine, you're getting not so subtle hints about it. what makes people think that being told/required to be romantic on a certain day makes it romantic? It's really hard to show you care when you don't get the chance to make it your idea. if someone asks you about sending them something for valentines day before you get a chance to even carry out plans you already made to do so, then that at least partially discounts the whole "this was my own initiative and i love you" idea. it turns into "I know you want and expect this on this day so i guess i'll buy these flowers, and this pre-printed card". It kills the idea that you did it all on your own... or at least shots it in the foot.

There is nothing romantic about this "holiday" to me. Its very hard to make something genuine and special when 1. Its required of you, 2. its expected (as in not a surprise), and 3. everybody else is doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. On top of that, if you want to go out to dinner you have to deal with the mass of people that are all trying to get a nice dinner at the same time.

On a much more lighter note: a buddy i know from riding motorcycles got fantastic news this week about his battle with cancer. quote: "there are undetectable levels of the cancer byproducts/components appearing in my blood. It means we can assume there is very little cancer in my body."

I've been following the whole process over the past 9 months or so through his blog. I've learned a lot about what it takes to get through something like this. I can only hope that if I find myself in the same situation i can hold it together as well as he seems to be. Congrats Andre. well done.