Like millions of people, I will be spending the night celebrating this "lover's only" holiday with my girlfriend. We'll be going out to a nice dinner at a restaurant that we haven't checked out before and of course have bought each other some little gifts as the Valentine's tradition has come to be. Now I'm not a huge fan of the holiday for several reasons. While I truly love my girlfriend and celebrating the fact, I am one of the believers that I don't need one specific day of the year to recognize it by spending copious amounts of money. The fact that this tradition has been created by the PR Machine of America's largest greeting card company only makes my opinion of it dip even more. But, as a advertising/marketing student, I have to believe this whole phenomenon would make a pretty damn good case study for one of the college courses I took.
The lady and I have a good practice of setting spending limits for holiday gifts. Of course I like to go above and beyond that sometimes, particularly when I have an awesome gift idea in mind. For this Valentine's Day we decided to keep things on the low end, which I like. I'm not a chocolate fan at all and I really don't need any stuffed animals so my girlfriend's options often fall into more personal things like framed photos or out of the realm of traditional "romantic gifts," which is quite fine with me. As for what I buy her, I bought her flowers on Valentine's two years, but am no longer going that route. I try to stay away from the standard gifts and I think flowers are better given in spontaneity anyway.
A few things outside of V-day that I've been chewing on:
- Is it just me or do people have a slightly different work habit/schedule on Mondays? The last two weeks I've noticed that when I leave for work around 8:00 in the morning (about a 10 min commute, mind you), the roads have been considerably less congested with cars than the rest of the days of the week. On my commute home, the roads are even more wide open. Now as the sole marcomm guy at an industrial design firm I'm almost never busy to the point where I have to put in time outside of my normal work day. But based on the way the Monday drives go for me, I'm led to the conclusion that most Americans trickle into work a bit late on Mondays and put in longer hours than the rest of the week. Is this assumption correct? Friends of mine (who have full-time jobs): how often do you end up putting in a day longer than 9 hours? Even though I'm sometimes unhappy that I'm not working in the exact industry I'd like to be in and don't have the level of passion I've had at previous workplaces I definitely can't complain about my work environment and the culture there. I'm sure a lot of recent grads have some big gripes in that area at their workplace.
- Speaking of commutes, in addition to the low traffic PM commute I enjoyed yesterday, it was great to get home when it's still completely light out. Yes, the dark Minnesota winter is starting to pass. Unlike many people winter doesn't get me down too much, but when you work until 5:00 and it's completely dark out when you get out it can be a little depressing sometimes.
- I'll leave you with just one link today (because everyone already knows the Vice President shot a lawyer): T.O. is getting his own reality show. Yes, everyone's most hated receiver is coming to prime time. Here's a brief synopsis courtesy of Businesswire.com:
"The show will combine T.O.'s passion for working out with his natural curiosity about other people. Guests on the show will come from the worlds of sports, entertainment and even politics -- and no subject will be off limits. The show will rely on T.O.'s witty personality and tendency to speak his mind."
As much as I hate T.O., I have a feeling this is going to be like a bad car crash for me (I won't be able to help but watch). It'll be interesting to see if Drew Rosenhouse ends up on there pretty often. I'm sure he'll end up proving to the two people that don't already know that he's T.O.'s bitch, reminding him that he's the greatest wide receiver in the world as he does his laundry and washes his car. Let's just hope they find a way to work in Ron Arest, Jose Conseco, and the infamous Flava Flav.
Cheers,
EH
CURRENT LISTENING: Rocky Votolato - "White Daisy Passing"
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