Aimee -- Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day.

Well, the cold has pretty much backed off for now, and saints be praised, it'll be back into the low 70's today. But last night was still a bit on the frigid side, and as I was sitting outside of the Big Bear Brewing Company waiting for dinner, I decided that it's a pity I don't like real shoes because I'd save my poor feet a whole lot of misery if I did. Hey, at least I was wearing a jacket this time.

Anyhow, in my hopelessly sappy way, I've always adored the commercialized trappings of candy hearts, red roses and the over sensationalized promotion of love that represent Valentine's Day, but I have to tell you, with all the other shit going on in my life right now, I wasn't all that thrilled about it this year.I was feeling a mite blah about the whole hearts and flowers thing. But I have some extremely wonderful people in my life who saw to it that the blah attitude I was sporting didn't stick around for too long.

So, I want to say thanks to...

My Cameron, who made me the sweetest little card with his own sweet hands, and showered me with extra hugs and kisses throughout the evening to make me feel extra loved.

The one who makes my heart all aflutter (and I won't put your name here because I'm not thinking you'd want me to, but I'm assuming you know who you are), thank you for the lovely gifts. I'll have you know that since I recieved them, I curl up with them every night before I go to sleep and they help keep me warm. And with every word I read, I think of you. I know that Valentine's Day isn't your thing, and my sappy, romantic heart sighs because you put that aside to make the day special for me.

Drew, who took me to dinner, and bought me the most unique batch of roses I've ever seen, they were all different colors--lavender, peach, white, pink, yellow, red--and an extremely beautiful card.

My warehouse guy, who bought me a heart shaped box of chocolates which was completely unnecessary, but extremely sweet.

My dad, who bought me a plastic shaped heart filled with chocolate covered cherry cordials which happen to be one of my favorite things. And God, they are yummy.

Jeff, my friend, who sent me a super-sweet eCard with these adorible little heart shaped lollipops that I'll confess, tempted me to lean forward and lick the screen.

A blast from my past, who sent a super-cute card that had me laughing like an idiot at an ungodly hour of the morning with the following message attached, "You've always had a natural, unique beauty about you that seperates you from other women, and obviously I'm not the only one that's ever thought that.", which is one of the loveliest compliments I've been given in a long time.

You're all wonderful, and I thank you for not allowing me to wallow in my self-pity for too long, and for making a day I wasn't looking forward to positively lovely.

When I finally laid down last night I was happy and oddly content. I know I shouldn't have been, my sister, who I haven't spoken to since all that shit happened the other night, was upstairs in her room still avoiding the problems between us, and because of that I have so many things I have to figure out by Friday. And God knows I have no idea how I'm going to make it without losing something, but last night I didn't care, I pushed all that shit aside, and just enjoyed being happy. I curled up with another gift (that has a very cool name, btw) that came my way at Christmas time, and together, he and I, drifted off to sleep with my mind blissfully empty.

Today, unfortunately, my mind is mercilessly full, but we won't ruin a good moment by talking about all that.

And I hope whoever happened to celebrate V-Day had as fantastic a day as I did.