Valentine’s Day was pretty uneventful this year, as stark contrast from prior years. When my husband and I were dating, we would make it into a special day or evening. He would bring home flowers, a card, chocolates…. We would brave the traffic on the streets and the crowds in the restaurants, have a nice meal and end the evening with a nice movie.

I did not put in as much work on Valentine’s Day as my husband. A couple of times I made homemade Valentine’s Day cards for him, but I didn’t see the point in buying a commercial one. They just… piled up. One year, when he gave me a Valentine’s Day card and I didn’t have one for him, I could see that he was hurt. I told him he didn’t need to buy me a Valentine’s Day card anymore. It just went in a box to collect dust anyway. So from then on, Valentine’s Day became less and less “celebratory.”

This year, though, took it to another level. At 2 am on Valentine’s, I awoke to my husband heaving into a Home Depot bucket. (This follows me heaving a few days earlier and Polina a few days before that.)

So it was a bug that affected the family, not the “food that you leave out” that my husband claims, since he doesn’t eat food that has been left out. (A cultural difference if there ever was one but that’s a topic for another story.)

I had a scheduled Word Press training that afternoon. How romantic. Who schedules a training on Valentine’s Day?  I know it is organized by techies, but… have a heart!

I came home three hours later to find my husband in the living room, eyes closed, his head propped by his arm resting at a right angle on an armchair. Polina was watching a movie, but it was clear my husband wasn’t engaged. He looked awful.

I was chipper after coming home from an informative training. I don’t think he even noticed me come home. I could have been a robber.

After about 10 minutes, he awoke.

“I’m going to bed,” he said as he meandered his way to the bedroom.

He slept for five hours. It was a good thing I wished him a Happy Valentine’s Day in the morning before I left for the training.

Since Polina hadn’t taken a nap and indulged in games and videos during my time away, she was tired too. She went to sleep not long after. I cleaned up the toys, made myself some miso soup, and enjoyed the evening by myself.  I really did.

The next day, Sunday, was a glorious day. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, which we haven’t had a lot of recently. I was eager to get outside. Desperate, actually, like a school kid at 3 o’clock. My husband felt much better and we went to our weekly Indian buffet for brunch.

Afterward, we took a walk in the park. My husband held my daughter’s right hand and I her left, and we periodically lifted her off her feet. She loved that.  Polina noticed all the dogs, as she normally does, and demanded I allow her to engage with some of them by saying “Hi ah ah.” This put me in a position of walking up to people and asking if my daughter could pet their dog. In reality, Polina was too unsure of the dogs to pet them and just wanted to say, “hi” to them. I ended up petting the dogs more than her.

The three of us spent good quality time together at the park. It wasn’t what I would call romantic, but I wouldn’t change that time we spent together one bit.

My romance came at 9 pm with Downton Abbey. I put on my headphones and went into my world.  This imaginary world filled my spirit, and it was a perfect compliment to a beautiful day.