Lucky in Love

I love Valentine's Day. I know it can be kind of fun to be one of those "I hate Valentine's Day" single girls, but even when I find myself "unattached" as February 14th rolls around, I still can't drum up anything but love for a day that's all about love. Even when I was a kid I remember my crafty mother and I having so much fun going way overboard decorating my Valentine's shoebox. Finding the perfect cards to hand out to classmates was always a fun challenge and the "everyone gets one" mentality of school Valentines always soothed my fear of being left out.

I have very specific feelings about the meanings and celebrations of different holidays, and for me Valentine's Day has always been about thoughtfulness. While expensive gifts are always appreciated, I think the real goal of the holiday (and any other day, really) should be to make sure the people you love really know how you feel about them. Yes, Valentine's Day has become incredibly commercial and contrived, but is there really anything wrong with reminding people how much they mean to you — something all of us should probably do a little bit more frequently.

Last night my friends Jim and Katie hosted a Valenfriends Day party (I'm the only one calling it that) and it was such a great time. We all exchanged cheesy, (mostly) store-bought cards, drank grapefruit margaritas and basically ate nothing but desserts and candy (my contribution was two plates of chocolate-covered strawberries). It was a great group of wonderful people — some are married, some have children, others have boyfriends, girlfriends or fiances and some of us are single — but none of that really mattered.

I brought Little Mermaid valentines (with stickers!), which the four-year-old in me was thrilled to find at Duane Reade, especially 25 years (!) after the movie came out. My haul included a Disney Princess (with bookmark ruler!), a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sticker, a super adorable gray cat, a wrestler, a beautiful hand-painted card (for once I wasn't the one to go overboard in this department) and a very funny, very 90s valentine. I can't remember the last time I actually participated in a valentine exchange, but it was so fun and easy that I don't see why I shouldn't organize one every year.

Earlier in the day I had eaten Chinese for lunch, and got the fortune "You will be lucky in love," and I can't help but think that that has always, and continues to be, very true. No matter what my relationship status has been, currently is or will be in the future, all that really matters is that I'm surrounded by people that I love and adore. I have amazing friends, caring family and so many people in my life that I love and are loved by in return.

Very lucky indeed.