boom sha-clack clack.

Happy V-Day everyone.  Hope yours has been a blast.  There are two important days in February, the fifth, which is apparently the day that EVERYONE decided to pop out babies (but most importantly my love Whitney - and maybe even some former loves) and the fourteenth.  Not because of any sort of romantic whim or sentiment, because let's face it, the sweetest thing to happen to me on Valentine's Day has always come from my father..although Amy did give me a cartoon valentine today at work.  Close second.  [side note: favorite valentine memory comes from Junior year of high school.  maybe another time.]

Right, why February 14th is neat to me.  Because I've decided to start my own tradition.  It very possibly could have something to do with love or with pink or with chocolate or with candy confections that have slightly sinister sayings on them.  It also very possibly could have something to do with hate and brown and carrots and stupid M&Ms handed out at weddings as favors.

Go with me.  I'm getting there.

Last year at this time I was in a creative writing class that pushed me a little bit and gave me wonderful excuses and deadlines and oh my gosh I MISS IT.  I was reading essays and writing essays and pretending to write fiction and poetry and terrible haiku and pissing off some kid in the class who didn't like me (but I'm sorry, he just used SO MANY ADJECTIVES EVERY TIME).  It was so grand.  And last valentine's day I sat on my bed while Whitney sat on hers and I read her my new favorite essay about love and marriage and she looked at me as though I were completely insane and oh.  It was wonderful.

So while beaus come and go, my one true love remains and lasts and I love it almost as much as I love my Michael Kors handbag.

The essay.

Sometimes I forget how much I love it.  Sometimes I forget to read it.  Sometimes I forget to write it.  Most times I just prefer watching Dance Moms or Gossip Girl or making monies.  But it seems fitting that on a day when many of your beaus try to convince you to fall in love with them all over again, I remind myself why I love a simple piece of nonfiction so much.

So tonight, I give you another favorite to read.  This isn't so much about love as it is about what we can do for others, mostly just in being more considerate.  Besides, I just googled a song that I liked a lot and found out that it was on the Breaking Dawn soundtrack, so I now need to go bleach my ears with some wit.  Who better to do it than the master of the essay, Mr. Mark Twain?

I love you, and chances are I love some of you quite a bit, but let me tell you... the essay is seriously loyal and loving and never fails to give me a warmth that reminds me I can do this thing we call life.

"Hygiene and sentiment"