Oh good morning! It is February! Didn’t it seem as if all the jokes about January were absolutely true? I missed half of it by being sick and it still felt as if there was another six weeks left to get through before it was done!

February 1st is a good opportunity for me to remind those of you in the We Cheerfully Repurpose Valentine’s Day To Be About Friends and the Kids and Ourselves Club to make sure you make some sort of arrangements. At the very minimum, let’s get some candy/cupcakes/cookies in the house and pick up some grocery-store tulips/mums/roses before the prices go bonkers. I pre-ordered some See’s to be delivered a few days before Valentine’s Day, and when I saw the order notification in my email the next morning I felt elation and joy. I used to order the heart-shaped box, but I feel like they are overcharging for it now; fortunately I find it difficult to throw away heart-shaped boxes, so I can transfer the chocolates over to a saved heart box when they arrive. Do you sometimes feel like your silly fool heart is the most ridiculous thing that ever was? Do you other times feel as if your silly fool heart is not actually asking for much? Don’t forget to put flowers on the grocery list! Trader Joe’s had some $5 pots of planted tulip bulbs.

I am drinking coffee this morning out of the cute heartsy mug I got for my wine-and-appetizers group members for Galentine’s Day a number of years ago, and I am so glad I thought to get one for myself as well, because I think of my friends every single time I use the mug, and also because I haven’t seen such cute heartsy mugs since that year. I am trying to decide if I am going to do anything for Galentine’s Day this year, either for the wine-and-appetizers group or for other friends. Some years I feel like it, and some years I do not, and it is not yet clear which kind of year this will be. I know, we are running out of time to decide.

Similarly, I am trying to decide about co-worker gifties. A year or two ago I got a classroom pack of Fun Dip packets, on the assumption that we were all about the right age to appreciate the retro fun of that, and it did seem to go over well.

(image from Target.com)

Except for one coworker who said “Wow, Swistle, THANK YOU so much; gosh, you just ALWAYS, just, I mean, EVERY holiday, you’re just ALWAYS…with the…wow, thanks!,” in a way that made me feel like I was vastly overdoing it and should please knock it off. But, like, only Christmas, plus Valentine’s Day, that’s it! And it’s not like I’m getting everyone a dozen roses and a heart-shaped box of chocolates and making it super awkward! The Fun Dip pack was $5 and there was enough in it to cover almost 20 co-workers with a few extra for me to eat! Like twenty cents each, that doesn’t feel too over-the-top! And several other co-workers do small things for Valentine’s Day, too! Anyway, nothing is standing out to me this year as being the equivalent of the Fun Dip.

I like wearing seasonal shirts to work, so I bought a new shirt to wear to work during the first half of February, along with the big rose shirt (I have it in pink) and the rainbow heart shirt (I have it in Heather Charcoal) I already own:

(image from Amazon.com)

I ordered an attempt at some little heart-shaped ornaments to hang on the little lighted birch trees that significantly improve my winter low-daylight hours and have looked a little sad and bare since I took off the Christmas ornaments (those little lighted birch trees are on sale right now for $19.99 if this might be your buying moment).

(image from Amazon.com)

I have the usual giant Hershey’s Kisses for the kids.

(image from Target.com)

I bought four, originally, because Rob has been so clear about not wanting THINGS and not wanting GIFTS and not wanting TREATS; and because what used to be the U.S. postal SERVICE is now being run like a court-the-big-corporations-but-strip-the-citizens-for-profit business, so it now costs almost $20 to mail a small box to where Rob is, and so maybe we’d all be happier if I didn’t. But then I thought, even with Rob’s stated preferences IN GENERAL, it still seems like it would be erring on the wrong side of things to withdraw childhood/sentimental traditions without CHECKING. It was Young Rob himself, after all, who started the Giant Hershey Kiss Valentine’s Tradition, and kept it going for many years, and was NOT interested in discussing alternatives. So I emailed, asking if he felt warm sentimental feelings about the tradition or if he’d just as soon skip it, and he emailed back saying he could go either way—which seems pretty tepid from an outside point of view, I agree, but given previous answers to gift-giving options was the relative equivalent of a vigorous thumbs-up, so I am sending it.