Happy Valentine's Day

Before we moved here, Shelly warned me: If I want to give anyone sarcastic greeting cards, I should buy them before leaving home, because Filipino greeting cards are almost uniformly sappy and sweet.

Not being the sappy-and-sweet kind of couple, I stocked up. But, since it's impossible to buy a Valentine's card in October, I relied on Hallmark's Philippines office to get me through the holiday today.

So instead of a slobbery dog with a wise-ass comment, which is what Shelly would usually get from me for Valentine's Day, she got this one, instead:

Between life's
little "have to's"
and the daily stress
of schedules,
I hold on to the
one thought
to get me through--
the thought of moonlit quiet
with your arms
so close around me...
I hold on
to the thought
of holding you...

And each time I do
I fall more
deeply,
madly,
happily
in love with you.

As I wrote on the inside, the sentiment is completely true and accurate. But it's just such a cheesy card that I couldn't resist giving it to Shell.

And that, perhaps, makes it a sarcastic Valentine's Day, after all.

***

Don't get me wrong. I'm not the only one in this marriage who has a sarcastic outlook on things. The only way I can get away with giving her cards with slobbery, wise-ass dogs is that Shelly and I have similar approaches to humor. I'll take a bullet here and say that I'm probably more sarcastic than she is -- she's a polite woman, after all, while I'm a guy.

(And, since I didn't ask before posting this card, Shell, I hope that's okay with you...)

***

I'm finally getting paid back for being out of town on the first Valentine's Day that Shelly and I were a serious couple, way back in 1993. She's in Hong Kong today, getting a taste of sales meetings with two potential clients.

It's pretty cool when you have to use your passport to go on a one day business trip. I wonder if my Uncle Larry in Wisconsin has ever had to do that?