Yesterday on the radio I heard Rita Celli say that Valentine's Day takes as much effort to ignore as to acknowledge. I think I will remember that quote for the rest of my life. I've always been ambivalent about Valentine's Day, mostly because I've had partners who refused to acknowledge it. No compromise, no asking me what I thought about the whole thing, just a steadfast refusal to do anything romantic in the slightest. I was never really able to come to a solid conclusion about what I thought about it, because there was no use. But it sure took effort to ignore it.

The thing is, I don't need big fancy Valentine's Day hoopla. I'm not really that kind of girl. So when the Man of Science confessed that V Day had kind of snuck up on him and all he could pull together was dinner out at a nice restaurant, I was delighted. Elated in fact. What? You asked me to do something with you? Something nice and different from our usual routine? And you're totally okay with having a drink at the Manx with a posse of my crazy friends before we go out for dinner? Jackpot!

So, for the first time in my 13 years of serial monogamy, I celebrated Valentine's Day for real. It wasn't flashy, but it was fun. No pressure, so we didn't get annoyed when our cab took forever to arrive or when the MoS forgot his wallet and we had to direct the cab back to the house to get it. We had a quick drink at the Manx with Megan, Evey, Andrea, Michael and many more. Then we had a lovely meal and a bottle of wine at A'roma, and end-of-the-night martinis at The Buzz. And it's none of your business what we did when we got home.

It was really the perfect evening of low key romance with minimal pressure and lots of laughing. And now I have a big long weekend stretching out ahead of me and lots of writing to get done.

J.