Happy (belated) Valentine's Day

It's way past my bedtime, but having just returned from the late showing of Valentine's Day, I'm a bit wired. And what better thing to do when I'm wide awake than put fingers to keys and make some sense of the crazy machinations of my brain train? It's not as if I should be trying to wind down, in the hopes of getting a sweet hour or two of sleep before rising bright and early to yell at my girl to "GET UP NOW!!! IT'S TIME FOR SCHOOL!!!" So, welcome to my midnight ramblings!

I went to this movie with some girlfriends, which is probably the best, and let's face it, only, way to see this flick. We laughed uproariously at all the funny parts (Taylor Swift/Taylor Lautner characters were particularly side-splitting), 'aaawww'ed at the sweet parts, sighed at the touching parts, and got a little teary-eyed when the movie got good and sappy, as any decent chick flick does! I'm quite sure that none of our husbands would have voluntarily gone to see this movie. We're talking a chick flick, entitled Valentine's Day, which opened on...well, you get the idea. That would just be too much. The combination of the whole scenario might in fact blow a hole in the universe, or render their Man Cards permanently null and void, or gasp!! destroy the space-time continuum!! And we all know that one of their jobs, as men, is to safeguard said continuum. Heck, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd traveled all over time, in THREE movies, doing that very thing. They electrocuted themselves, got in numerous fist fights (mostly because some version of Biff called Marty 'chicken'), got shot at by black market plutonium dealers, and sent a train flying over a cliff. No man worth his salt would risk destroying all of that hard work to go see this movie, no matter what his refusal cost him on the home front!

Before heading out the door to hop into the back seat of Susan's minivan, I gave J and the girl specific instructions. Mostly, I reminded J to put the food away, as I had not had the time to do so before the movie. And to G, I lovingly said, "Remember, you need to study for your math test, and read your book before bed." As we headed to the theater, all giggles and girl chat, the little nagging thought in the back of my mind was, "J is NOT going to put the food away. The two of them are going to get distracted with other things, and then they'll both crash on the bed, with the t.v. on, and I'll come home and have to put the food away, I just know it!" But as soon as the movie started, and all these actors (so many!) started losing love and finding new love, that little thought ran and hid deep in my subconscious. For two hours, I had a blast, laughing it up with my girlfriends. And even when we had to turn around and go back to the theater because Amy forgot her wallet!!!, and sit there and wait for some teenage "I don't care what happened lady, just get your wallet and get out" punk to walk by the doors so she could run in and find her wallet, sitting there waiting for her, I was still having a fabulous time. You know when you really enjoy a movie, you start quoting the best lines as you're walking out of the theater? Well that's what we were doing, and it was a hoot!!

When I got home, the house was pretty dark, and my two beloveds were catching flies on the bed, Food Network blaring from the t.v. I walked into the kitchen, fully expecting to find a mess, and folks, you could've knocked me over with a feather boa! J had put the food away! Well, all except the angel food cakes, which I knew wouldn't get put away, because they were not in the Food Zone; rather, they were hiding on the table. I saw them sitting there before I left, and had the brief thought that I should probably put them away, because no one would notice them sitting there, but I was too excited for the flick to see that inspiration through. But here's the best part: I smiled to myself, standing there in that kitchen, because I knew exactly what the Gruesome Twosome would do, and they did it.

Hollywood does a spectacular job of making love a grand thing, complete with swelling music at the romantic climax, soft lighting, perfect chance encounters, beautiful people, and those scenes when the one person finally realizes who they really love, and they go running after them, and catch them just in time, and when they find them, they breathlessly pour their hearts out, and they kiss, and live happily ever after, and no one ever has morning breath, or funky bed-head hair, or gains a single pound, or loses a single hair from their head. And seeing all that is a great way to spend a few hours on a break from reality, but honestly, I prefer reality. My love is walking into our house, seeing the two people who fill my life with joy, craziness, stress, happiness, tears, laughter, silliness, frustration, worry, peace, hope, kindness and love. My love is suddenly realizing I know them so well, I can predict their moves, right up to the point they do a total 180 on me. It's standing in the kitchen, looking past the sink full of dirty dishes, and seeing the meal we've shared as a family. It's seeing the big smile on my daughter's face as she runs into my arms after school, and seeing my husband walk through the door at the end of the day with a smile on his face and a kiss for me. And Hollywood has nothing on those moments.