vday - hooey!critic

Sometimes he just knows…

So I’ve been having a rather difficult time lately. I’ve been feeling monumentally overwhelmed with, well, everything. I feel unbelievably stretched thin with finishing my dissertation, carpooling the kids to all their activities, and keeping up with the house, the cleaning, and the cooking.

I keep having thoughts like “I should just quit this PhD. Who Needs it?!” Then I get angry with myself because I’m so close. So freaking close to finishing. Then I just break down in tears because there is nothing more frustrating than realizing you can’t do it all or even do all of it only moderately well.

I yelled at my husband the other night. I wasn’t angry with him but I just needed something steady and forgiving to point my frustrations at. And he gets it. Even when I hold it all in he gets it. He’s incredible like that. And today I opened my Valentine’s gift…

The message is simple:

yin yang – symbol of perfect balance

garnet – promotes vitality, courage, passion, love

smoky quartz – calms and helps manifest dreams

With all my emotions running high, my struggles to do it all, and my inability to realize my dreams are a big deal – he knew.

He knew I needed a bit of quiet courage to take with me, to wear around my neck like a warm embrace when I need it most.

Like I said, he really is incredible like that.

Valentine’s Day: Parent Style

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Cards, flowers, candy, and all that crap.

I suppose I could enjoy a day entirely dedicated to showering hubby with oozy, gooey poems and words of love. (Psst! I like you ass, Andy!) But, this holiday lost all enjoyment the day my children entered school and brought with them…

Class valentine cards.

Instead of enjoying this day, parents around the world are spending their time signing 47 million cards to their children’s classmates – kids their own children have never mentioned and happen to have names with the weirdest freaking spellings known to man!

Madisyne? Seriously?!

Of course the cards are too small to let the kids fill them out themselves – especially when they get 2 letters in, mess up, and cry that they don’t have enough cards for do-overs. Then comes the crying, the fussing, and the worry that OMG! Someone might give me a girl card and I’m a boy! I don’t want race cars – I like princesses!

So, we sit at the table complaining that we really should have bought a bottle of wine and Why the hell doesn’t Georgia sell alcohol on Sundays?! shoving teeny little Barbie tattoos into barely cut slots in the most commercialized valentines ever created because God forbid they make a simple card anymore! Everything comes with pencils, little erasers, stickers, and the bound to give you cancer because it contains red dye #5 and high fructose corn syrup candy that the rest of the parents are going to pitch as soon as it arrive home tomorrow anyway.

Because, seriously, nobody cares to find heart stickers and glitter all over the kitchen three months later when were in the midst of preparing whatever is required for the Easter/Spring/Resurrection/Vacation party up next on the agenda.

So, tonight I raise my glass (of coffee) to all the parents sitting at their kitchen tables suffering like me to assemble enough Valentines to not leave anyone out, but still make everyone feel like they are special. And, tomorrow we’ll all raise our glasses again, in unity, as we throw away all the crap they bring home in the freaking trash!

Happy Valentine’s Day. *Smooches*

Now, where are my flowers, bitches?