My Favorite Valentine’s Day

For your Friday entertainment, I thought you would like to hear a story of my favorite Valentine’s Day celebration. Now before you go running for the hills, trust me, this isn’t lovey-dovey, and I hope it makes you smile.

In college, there were four of us who were roommates, and we used to call ourselves the Golden Girls. Our personalities matched each of the characters, almost unnaturally. In addition to having our nicknames, we did girlie things like celebrate Valentine’s together because we thought it’d be more fun that trying to find dates in the school’s minimal male population.

One year, we decided that we’d have dinner at Sal’s. Sal’s is awesome. Old school Italian atmosphere: you imagine a mother yelling from the back of the kitchen about the cannoli. It’s a great place for friends, and we figured it wouldn’t be crazy with couples out on Valentine’s dates. Well…no. The place was packed. We couldn’t even wait because so many people were in line.

Where did we end up? Wendy’s. Yup, hanging with our Frosties. No wait either, not overbooked on Valentine’s. While we’re out, we decide to hit up Wallyworld. They hadn’t built the movie theater in town yet, so yeah, Wallyworld was a big social outing for the weekend. Plus, we were hoping the Valentine’s candy was already marked down.

What I haven’t told you yet is that I had a cold. Most people think this isn’t a big deal, but they don’t know me. I can’t take anything over-the-counter, even the children’s stuff is too much for me. If it comes from the cold/allergy aisle (even with caffeine), I turn into a zombie. And not one of those crazy, screaming, running ones. Nope, the slow, mumbly ones.

If you can imagine, my decongestant has kicked in, I’m full of Frosty, and we’re at Wallyworld. Once we get inside, apparently I wander away. When I’m in zombie-mode, I like color, patterns, and soft items. I probably went in search of those items because naturally, the frozen foods section wasn’t going to hold my interest. I guess after about 30 minutes (I’ve had to be told the rest of this story), my friends realized I hadn’t just wandered to another nearby aisle…I had wandered clear across the store. After lots of searching and pages over the loudspeakers, they eventually found me.

I was in the fabrics hanging out with the fleece.

The icing on the cake was of course the next year, my roommate got me a kiddie leash for my birthday to keep me from wandering away again. What I love about this story is that we tell it all the time. At every wedding, birthday, party, and alumnae event, my sorority sisters like to bring up this story. It’s a great reminder of having a good night out with the girls and finding things can still get a little silly.

Happy Valentine’s weekend everyone!

Photo from clipart.

Tagged as: girlfriends, Valentine's Day, Wallyworld