What a mixed bag of chocolates...

Let's get this part out of the way: I've usually hated Valentines' Day with a passion. I've read a number of posts from people talking about how they got damned few cards in school. I'm better off than the ones who would get insults written in the few they got, but as far as sheer lack of quantity goes, I was usually right there in the same boat with them. The fact that I just plain couldn't fit in with my classmates didn't help me close the card gap with the rest of them any, either. Add in the fact that I've had a relationship going when the holiday hit on a grand total of four VDays out of thirty-two, and out of those I can only remember one that was really good (with only one pretty good one out of the remaining three,) and it's not much wonder that I call the holiday VD. Most years, I just go to work (if it falls on a workday,) then go home and mope.

This year was both bad and good, but some of the good was really good, and thankfully pretty much all of the bad was just annoying. If anybody is still reading at this point, I'll recap the highs and lows that I feel like sharing (with names shortened to initials, just because I can):

Good: Made diner plans for next week with D.
Bad: C wasn't home when I called, and I have no way yet of knowing whether she got the message I left her.
Annoying: Looks like while I was trying to find the best time to ask K out, somebody beat me to the punch. Hmph.

Good: I finally got my review done at work, and met with my manager yesterday to discuss it.
Better: I exceeded the results I expected to get by so much it scared me.
Bad: I got a chance to start going over all the bills that, thanks to my money management skills being . . . well, "pathetic" is the best word I can come up with, I've managed to pile up.
What makes it not so Bad: Thanks to the extra money I racked up in today's paycheck, I should be able to get them all current.

Good: Got to have dinner with the friend who'd been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition last night after I left the bar the cast and crew of the show I'm working on all went to following the end of the show.
Even Better: It turns out that it's a much less serious condition that was misdiagnosed. Not having to wonder when I'm going to get the invitation for her funeral will make this summer a lot better than it would have otherwise been.
Pretty Cool: She and her husband have bought a house, which looked pretty awesome in the pictures I saw.

Really Good: One of the other crew members on the show I'm working propmonkey duty on asked me during one scene if she could braid my hair. I LOVE having my hair braided - having a woman running her fingers through my hair just relaxes the Hel out of me. :)

There's more on both sides, but them's the high- and lowlights. Happy VD, everybody.

Grrr...

I now officially hate staples.com - I wanted to see what sort of prices they had on CD-burners (since I think it's a law that you have to spend at least part of every bonus check on frivolous stuff,) but it kept asking me for my zip code.

At least the store itself is nowhere nearly as difficult to work with...