How I Valentine’s

 

 

This is how I feel everyday.

Happy Valentine’s Day FabNerds! Hope you are all enjoying the magic of Feb 14 that I have waxed poetic on several times in the two years this blog has been around. In case you’ve missed it, here’s a quick recap of my thoughts on the holiday:

Valentine’s Day is awesome. It is not just a day for couples and commercialism (though what’s so bad about that, really?) it’s about remembering to be kind to those around you and treat everyone with love. And it’s about wearing lots of pink and red.

So without another V-Day Tirade I thought I’d share a little bit about some of the ways I have enjoyed today in chronological order…

2:03 AM: In the early hours of Valentine’s Day I finally finished Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter – a book that I have been reading off and on since May. It’s a scrumptious read and the only reason it took me so long to get through was because each chapter is like a full three-course meal and you need to break for a few weeks before indulging again. I don’t want to give anything away, but the last chapter opens with this epic, subversive, valentine that I think was a perfect start to the day.

 10:00 AM: Time to get all pink and red out! This year it was a pink lace blazer with my “Love Conquers Hate” (in Russian) protest tee. This is the only time of year where my wardrobe is not considered totally tacky. Or is at least is encouraged to be tacky.

 

11:42 AM: I texted everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day (separately, of course) including my brother who sent me a very sweet message back.

2:00 PM: Went out to lunch with former Valentine’s-Hater friend. We went to a little Italian bakery and if my enthusiasm for 2-14-14 didn’t change her mind, these cookies certainly did.

4:35 PM: Because this day is not just about me, I donated a Valentine’s Day meal to a person in need via God’s Love We Deliver – an organization that makes and delivers meals to people living HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses in New York City. $10 provided a full dinner plus two Valentine’s-themed desserts. Very lovely.

5:00 PM: Hey! I’m not heartless! I like to indulge in the occasional couple-y romantic V-Day fare too. This included crying of Google’s homepage and my love of Ira Glass and watching this beautiful version of “Ten Minutes Ago” from Roger’s And Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

7:12 PM: I started to write this blog post, a process which included to my annual google -image search of Valen-pics like this one…

8:30 PM: I’m jumping a bit into my future, but after posting this I’m planning to bake little heart-shaped cakes for some of my nearest and dearest. They will probably not look like this, but let’s stay optimistic.

And that’s my day! Hope your Valentine’s was just a delightful FabNerds. And if it wasn’t, you still have four hours to make it wonderful!

Love the Love,

Jess

 

 

 

V-Day and ONE BILLION RISING

Because V-Day can be about your Valentine or your Vagina or your Valentine’s Vagina or whatever you want it to be.

My Fabulous Nerds – this  2 PM posting time is not working out is it? At least not on Wednesdays as I am about to publish this about 40 minutes before midnight. Oh well, I’m gonna work on it for you. Promise.

ANYWAY, as you may or may not know, Valentine’s Day is one of my top three favorite holidays (along with Groundhog Day and Thanksgiving). Hey! Don’t think I don’t see the doubt in your face FabNerds. I know what you are thinking “But Jessica, you’re SINGLE – how can you love this overly-commercialized, patriarchal, first-world, cheese-fest that is designed to make independent women feel bad about the fact that they don’t have a husband?”

FabNerds, you are getting cynical on me! Here is my quick argument:

1- My favorite colors have and will ALWAYS be Pink and Red. By the end of January, walking into CVS is like walking into my brain.

2- What’s wrong with a little cheesy commercialism? I am known to enjoy the occasional silliness and I think that as long as you observe the world around you with a grain of salt and know that not everything is always going to be sunshine and rainbows for everyone then why can’t you buy the dancing Snoopy if he makes you smile?

Now is that so bad?

3- I’ve never believed that Valentine’s Day was just about being with your significant other. Growing up (with my crazy, awesome feminist parents) it was impressed upon me that Valentine’s Day was about taking stalk of ALL THE LOVE in your life: Love for your family, your friends, your job, your plant, yourself, whatever! It’s not really patriarchal when you thinking about it like that.

AND SPEAKING OF PATRIARCHY! 

This brings me to the other type of V-DAY in this post. Fifteen years ago, Eve Ensler, of Vagina Monologues fame (a play I am very proud to say I have been in twice) started V-Day, an organization to end violence in women in girls across the world. Today (for it is after midnight now and officially February 14th) V-Day asks all of us to stand up for ONE BILLION WOMEN on this planet that are raped and beaten in their lifetime. It is a day to raise awareness, stand together, and demand an end to violence against women. Here’s what the website says:

“What does ONE BILLION look like? On 14 February 2013, it will look like a REVOLUTION.

ONE BILLION RISING IS:

A global strike
An invitation to dance
A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends
An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers
A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given
A new time and a new way of being”

Now, there are lots of ways to participate in this movement today. Many are listed on onebillionrising.org, but the simplest things you can do is to are:

A- Tweet using the hastag #1billionrising. Get it trending people!

B- Sharing it with your friends on Facebook!

C- Change any or all of your profile pictures to the One Billion Rising Logo that is at the top of this post. (I just did on FB and Twitter)

D- Share this blog post or ANY blog post about One Billion Rising on any social media platform of your choice. Or just share the website. Share like the lives of women across the globe depend on it. Because they do.

So, let’s not make Valentine’s Day just about Hallmark cards and chocolate -though I still think those are great things. But this day is more than that. It is about a Global Love and the best way I can think to demonstrate that today is to support women and help bring an end to violence. I’ll let Eve have the final word for today.

Happy Valentines,

Jess