Monday, February 18, 2013

It was not quite the best Valentine’s Day ever

I really thought it was going to be, and had planned that today’s post was going to be titled “Best Valentine’s Day Ever”. There were some departures from the plan.

Last week I was on vacation. We were going to spend Julie and Maria’s birthday and Valentine’s Day in Disneyland as part of our week there. For their birthday we were going to go to Farrell’s that night, and then on Valentine’s Day we were going to see the new Diehard movie in Downtown Disney. Julie had also been wanting to eat at the Rainforest Café, so it made sense to combine that with the movie.

Now, we are not the kind of people who get super depressed around Valentine’s Day, or bitter, nor do we go the other direction by calling it Singles’ Awareness Day, or anything like that. We decorate, we send cards to a few people, and we enjoy it, like we enjoy most holidays, in our own low-key way.

We have been singles for a long time, and we are aware of that, and our feelings have varied on that, as has been well documented. For the most part we are okay with it, but it isn’t necessarily our preference, so the original plan of Disneyland and a movie where they blow stuff up real good seemed like it would be pretty perfect, and a resounding confirmation of our awesomeness.

We were having a pretty good week, and Farrell’s Wednesday night was a lot of fun. There were two problems. One was that I seemed to be coming down with a cold. I always wake up congested in Anaheim, probably due to some allergies and maybe some residual effects of the flight, but on Wednesday I was starting to suspect it was something more, based on that scratchy feeling at the back of my throat when I talked. I was still enjoying myself.

Then, on the way back from Farrells, due to a string of random coincidences, we ran out of gas. This was resolved relatively serendipitously, but it made for a late night, and we were just exhausted. Wednesday night led directly to Thursday morning, Valentine’s Day, which did not get off to a good start.

First of all, we were all very tired, and running later than intended. Also, my voice was completely gone. Still, I got ready for the day, putting on my red shirt, and went to grab my breakfast. Unfortunately, my cup of apple juice leapt out of my hand of its own volition and did a flip, covering me with much more apple juice than the cup could even have held. I had to change, and never even put in my new red earrings, which are now missing a (plastic) stone.

Because we had such a late start, and we were worried about Valentine’s date crowding, we decided to go straight to the Rainforest Café for lunch instead, and maybe do a matinee. Well, we got lunch, which was overpriced and kind of stupid, and ended up skipping the movie all together. Downtown Disney was also disappointing in that I found no comics whatsoever, and also it was too early for there to be any bands, so my comics and music purchase plans were thwarted.

We finally made our way to California Adventure, and we did ride the rides we hadn’t gotten to yet, but there were longer lines that we could have avoided with an early start, we were still tired, and not being able to talk really puts a damper on things for me.

So, it was not the best Valentine’s Day ever. It probably wasn’t the worst, either. We were still on vacation, we rode rides, and Julie did get to try out something she really wanted to try. We are still strong independent women who live life to the fullest and do what we want. It just didn’t live up to expectations, much like Valentine’s Day does not tend to live up to expectations for many of the people in relationships, as was a theme of the episode of Big Bang Theory that we watched.

At least we’re not missing out.

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