Nevertheless, we Americans like to celebrate, even if we’ve forgotten what it is we’re actually celebrating. And so, my extended weekend likely mirrored that of yours and yours and yours. Cookouts. And fireworks. And time spent with family and friends. Am I right? =)

Saturday, a few couples in our building had a little garden party-cookout. We brought down my old kitchen table (which is dismantled and stored under a bed) and set it up in the front yard. Our neighbors brought down their grill. And we pulled out chairs for everyone. One neighbor and I went shopping for burgers, brats, salads, chips and all the fixins. Another neighbor made a homemade apple pie. We gathered in the shade on a beautiful 80-something degree day. Let the dogs (all four of them) play together and in parallel. And just enjoyed the day.

Sunday, Sweets went off to work (he’s required to work one holiday a year, so he chose July 4th, which works well for us, because we don’t usually plan travel at this time of year). I went to the gym with my neighbor. Did about 5 loads of laundry. Unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. And made myself useful around the house. Until I took a nap after lunch. When Sweets got off work, we jumped in the car and drove to the suburbs for a cookout with a bunch of his family’s friends. I brought homemade potato salad, which actually turned out to be a duplicate to Sweets’ mother’s potato salad (thankfully, she was willing to share the potato salad spotlight and both salads were a hit!). We stayed until just before the fireworks began and then headed home. It had been a long day for Sweets and it wasn’t the end of the world to miss the actual show.

Monday was a much-needed day off for both of us. We set the alarm early, but wound up turning it off to sleep in a bit. Sweets went for a long bike ride, while I took SoMi for a long walk. We ate breakfast together and then I left for a few hours to spend with my family.  I brought a taste of my potato salad for my uncle, because I was following his recipe. Of course, his recipe has no measurements (a little of this, a dash of that), so I was nervous about what he’d think of my version. In fact, he liked it. He thought it might need a little more salt & pepper and more Hungarian paprika (his secret ingredient), but otherwise, it tasted great. Phew! Mid-afternoon, I picked up Sweets and we went on a whirlwind of errands – PetSmart for dog food, Target for paper towels (and somehow a million other things – typical!) and Jewel for some food stuffs. We came home and did nothing for the rest of the day. Rested up, because we’re all too aware that work weeks after a long weekend feel more like a 6-day work week instead of a 4-day week. Sigh.

Did any of you do anything fun or exciting or unexpected over your weekends?!

Friday afternoon, I met a childhood friend from St. Louis. She secured special tickets to see the Cardinals play the Cubs. Special tickets because the buildings surrounding the local ballpark have worked out a deal where they’ve built extensive rooftops where spectators can watch the game (live, not on TV). Tickets are stupid expensive, because they offer an all you can eat, all you can drink experience. So, I met my friend and Sweets met up with us a bit later for a great afternoon. It was sunny and in the high 70s and my favorite team, the Cardinals, trounced the hometown team 7-1. Happy me.

Saturday, Sweets went for his first long cycling ride of the season and I took SoMi for an extra long walk. Then, we headed out to the suburbs to spend the day with Sweets’ family. A long walk in the leash-free park with the dogs followed up by a late afternoon birthday celebration. Again, a beautiful day, albeit a helluva lot warmer in the suburbs than it was in the city. We returned to the city, went to our neighbor’s place and watched the Blackhawks win their first Stanley Cup Finals game against the Flyers. Good times.

Sunday, Sweets’ parents were in the city for Bike the Drive … a cycling event where the city closes off a major thoroughfare along the lake so cyclists can take over. They do this ride every year. After they were done, Sweets and I biked to a relatively new breakfast spot to meet them for a hearty late-morning meal. Afterward, we biked over to a local fabric shop, so I could pick out some fabric to make a sundress in a class later this week. Sunday afternoon, I might have joined a friend for some retail therapy – she needed it, not me. Ahem. =)

And finally, there was the holiday Monday, another day off work. Thunderstorms were supposed to roll through around midday, so Sweets and I took SoMi on a long, morning walk. When we got home, he went to work finishing up the grouting for our backsplash (before & after photos soon!) and I spent some time with my aunt. I came home to do lots of laundry and finished out the weekend relaxing with my honey.

This weekend was pretty darn close to perfect. Did you do anything to make your weekend particularly great?

• Giving or receiving flowers
• Opening a box of chocolates
• Writing sweet nothings in a card
• Making reservations for two
• Wearing sexy lingerie
• Being any more doted on than I am any other weekend of the year

You know why? Because neither Sweets nor I really care about Valentine’s Day. It’s a poor excuse for a holiday that makes people feel ridiculously inadequate. Over the years, I’ve seen it bring out the worst in people.

This whole nonchalance towards Valentine’s Day, well, it’s been around for a while; I’ve never really been into it. For most years of my adult life, when this holiday rolled around, I usually wasn’t dating anyone (hard to believe for those of you who think I’ve been with Sweets forever!). I never dreaded this day. I never met this day with anticipation. I just didn’t care. It was sweet when my parents would send a card. Or a box of chocolates. But, I didn’t miss those things in the years they forgot.

One year, some friends wanted me to go on an Anti-Cupid Pub Crawl. A bunch of bars participated. Offered shuttle service from one bar to the next. We squared ourselves away in one bar. One unbelievably crowded bar. I got my one drink of the night and proceeded to be horrified by the behavior of women. Women behaving badly. I won’t ever forget that one woman, so desperately drunk, that she was literally begging a guy to take her home with him. He refused and I might have seen her cry.

Another story for ya: a friend of my cousin’s was in town around this time of year for business. Since he didn’t really know anyone else, I agreed to go out to dinner with him. This was not a romantical dinner. There was no chance of romance. Just a simple dinner. Well, the restaurant didn’t get that message. Because, apparently they had teamed up with HBO (if I remember correctly) and were giving every *couple* a special gift. It arrived to our table in the form of a box. Before opening said box, we kind of joked about what could be inside. I was sure it was a condom. Which then sent the conversation southbound fast. I finally opened it up, only to find a couple harmless chocolates with the HBO logo (or maybe it was a TV show they were promoting?).

Again, a Valentine’s Day gone wrong. This time, a little at my own expense, though thankfully, it wasn’t a huge deal.

Which brings me to the time I started dating Sweets. I was a happy girl when I was single. And I was (and still am) a happy girl now that Sweets has become a more permanent fixture in my life. I don’t need one day of the year to recognize what he means to me. I don’t need one day of the year to feel validated. I don’t want him only expressing his love for me on this one day. That would be just ridiculous.

You know what else? I don’t want this one day to be exclusively about us. I don’t want single people scrapping around in the weeks leading up to this day feeling like they need someone on this day. I don’t want anyone feeling on the spot about what they do or don’t have. I really don’t want anyone to feel left out. And, I don’t want Hallmark to win the lottery because they deem this day worthy.

Why on earth does Valentine’s Day have to just be about couples? Because, if we’re going to go there, then I’m going to go to that place where I remind you that we don’t allow all couples the same rights, which I find uncivil, ludicrous and just flat out ridiculous. But, aside from my political and cultural views, why can’t this one day be about loving the world around us? Sure, it can be about loving your significant other. But, it should equally be about loving your friends. Your family. Your neighbors. The people who share your commute. Your work colleagues or school mates. And what about all those people whose absolute last thought in the world is this holiday – the people of Haiti, the Sudan and the Middle East? It can be about loving our similarities and our differences. Acceptance. Unity.

Because seriously? This world needs a whole lot less of those horrifically ugly pinkish-red boxes of chocolates and a helluva lot more effort towards peace and simple decency to others.

ANYWAY, since I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen, not this year at least … this weekend? I think Sweets and I will skip the whole Valentine’s Day thing. And instead, we’ll grab dinner with some friends and watch the season premier to The Amazing Race.

How do you plan to spend this weekend?

It should therefore come as no surprise that Sweets and I dragged our feet making plans for New Year’s Eve. A month ago, there was interesting talk about going to a cabin in Wisconsin with a few other couples. When it was clear that wasn’t going to be organized, Sweets and I liked the idea of doing absolutely nothing more than sitting on our couch with SoMi and watching hours of DVDs. That also didn’t happen.

Instead, we wound up organizing a night with neighbors. Next door neighbors who share a floor with us. Next door neighbors who live in the building next to us. A dog-friendly night. I started the night by putting together a few displays of colorful flowers. The leftovers wound up in the bathroom, looking something like this:

Once the friends arrived, we ate crap and artichoke dip (yes, that’s right, I accidentally wrote crap instead of crab when putting a list together for one neighbor; it was a humorous mistake I was not allowed to forget), moved onto a scallop and corn chowder that I made from scratch (it was a big hit) and then landed in the living room taking a break for games. The table looked a little something like this:

Ever played the Game of Things? If not, you should try it. It’s a great and potentially hilarious game to play with a group of friends. Alcohol consumption encouraged. Around 11:00, we decided we were ready for our next and main course of dinner: crab legs accompanied by cheesy potatoes. Oh yeah, and our neighbor who hunts brought over a venison steak, which we threw on the grill. The group moved back into the kitchen and organized ourselves to begin eating. The kitchen island looked something like this:

When the bell struck midnight, we stopped eating momentarily to clink our glasses and kiss loved ones, but then returned to our meal. Dessert of brownies and cookies were consumed, too, however we skipped making the planned fondue. Our stomachs hurt a little too much.

At the end of the night, we had so much food left over, we decided to do it all over again two nights later. That’s right, on Saturday night, we changed venues to our neighbors in the building next door, brought over lots of left overs and played more games. This time, Mad Gab and Apples to Apples. Lots of laughs and only a few dirty looks ensued.

Overall, it was a great holiday weekend. I continued to be on the mend (BTW, I spent a lot of hours sleeping last week, so I was unable to respond to your comments, though I did read all of them – thank you). Though, I still required lots of sleep and probably didn’t drink as much as I might have had I been feeling better, it was a nice balance of socializing close to home and trying to be good to my body.

How did you spend your New Year’s Eve and would you have changed anything about it?

How’s that for an opening line for a blog post? Well, that’s kind of what’s taken over my world this week. December was a busy and mostly fun month. But, it caught up with me by the end of the weekend. And Monday, I was sick as a dog. Tuesday, I woke up at 6AM and was back in bed from 7:30 through 12:30. I’m feeling better today, but still not 100%.

Our New Years Eve plans were solidified over the weekend. We decided to get together with our neighbors and possibly some mutual friends. No travel. No going outside if we don’t want to. Just crab legs and chowder and other yummy delicacies. Prosecco and champagne. Games. Dogs. Good times, for sure.

Here’s hoping your New Year’s Eve and the upcoming year are everything you want them to be.