Yesterday is how Valentine's should be. It was supposed to be hindered by a middle of the day wrestling match to work, or Man Love on the Mat, as I was calling it. But thankfully, my afternoon of sweaty muscles was moved to a location where I wasn't needed, and I was free to be me!
It was nice though, there's so much pressure on people's impressions of Valentine's Day, that no matter how awesome a person's plans are, they feel like they failed. But when you spend the day with your entire family and all of your loved ones, and have no actual plans but to spend the day together, and share meals, then there's no pressure to do anything crazy exotic or impress anyone.
Tim and I had planned to make pancakes for my family in the morning, but it turned into picking up bagels for everyone at Panera and spending the morning at the Nordyke household, eating our bagels and just chilling. My brother got his gift from his girlfriend. Cute puzzle pieces that spelled out a message. Then we all finagled our way into the car and went downtown for mom to do her every Saturday shopping and hunt for the German wine that simply didn't exist. But car rides with the Nordykes are never just car rides, they are giggle fests full of totally inappropriate jokes and very odd stories....and this Saturday was no exception.
After helping mom with her final wine selection at HyVee (buy five bottles, get one free!) we moved on to Best Buy for my brother to get a Valentine's gift. I ended up with Season Two of Veronica Mars. Moving on down the line to Bed Bath and Beyond and Barnes and Noble. My family loves to peruse those kinds of stores....
OH! Great Barnes and Nobles story! Tim comes running up to me, to tell me that there is a 80 year old man in the back chairs, who is looking at Penthouse. Like, sitting, and actually reading Penthouse, not trying to hide the boobs or anything. I know it's Valentines and all, but really? Whoa buddy.
It must have been Kids Day at Carlos O Kellys, because we walked in, and already we saw 6 kids under the age of 10 all with the same white trash couple. 30 seconds later, another family walked out with four young kids. Kids were EVERYWHERE! Thankfully we were seated in a corner near the kitchen, away from the screaming children throwing their chips and salsa at each other.
Back to the house for some more family hang out time, watching my parents get ready for their Heart Ball fundraiser. It's this super decked out gala that they go to every year with crazy gowns and food and music. They always have a blast and its so cute to see them all dressed up! We even got family pictures taken, since my mom is on a family pictures kick. She thinks we don't have enough family pictures taken, so her goal for 2009 is to have our family picture taken once a month. Since we spent Valentines together, and we were all decked out in our red gear, with my parents in their gala attire, we took our February picture!
They headed off to their event, and Tim and I headed to the Waterloo mall to return the ugly sweater his mom got me for Christmas (yup, I got a whole 12 dollars back....) but as long as we were there, we made a stop at the Arcade. The Waterloo arcade is one of very few left that still are home to Area 51 old school arcade games. So we spent a good part of an hour shooting aliens down. I killed those nasty drooling buggers! Kablam!
Back at our house, Tim broke out his gift to me, a crazy barbecue spread from our favorite BBQ place in Kansas Cit that he had shipped.
Jack Stack barbecue is amazing. When I got to see the layout, he had a full picnic in our living room complete with red checkered blanket with our meal of bbq pork, beef, and a smoked turkey. Buns and cheesey corn bake rounded out the awesome meal. With my splendid Little Mermaid movie in the background and chocolate chip muffins for dessert. 
I was ready to puke. Absolutely stuffed. I felt like a rhinopotamus plus a sow. The rest of the evening was pretty much a moot point of wallowing in distended tummies and trying to pick up the house a bit. But I was totally asleep by the end of Valentines Day! A fun day full of loved ones.
2 comments:
'cept your bro is wearing black on V-day... ?????
That's cause Linnea was at a competition...that and mom said he could...something about it matched dad's tux or something...who knows.
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