My Best and Worst Valentine's Day

I have very mixed emotions when it comes to Valentine's Day. I have experienced both a spectacular and horrific Valentine's Day so I'm not sure if I should love it or hate it. I'm going to go ahead and tell you about the worst Valentine's Day I ever had. I was 16 years old and had just started dating this guy named Sean. I was head over heels excited about him asking me out and we were planning on going to "Night Lights" for some dancing. That day I was excited about our upcoming date especially when I received a bouquet of flowers and some balloons that were delivered to my house. I could hardly hold back my anticipation because the flowers were so unexpected. A short while later he called to tell me that there was a change of plans. He said he no longer wanted to take me out on a date that night because "he had found someone else". Wow, just an hour earlier I got these gorgeous flowers and now I'm getting dumped! A few days later I found out that he was dating another girl who actually had my same name!!! Oh the irony. I got over it but that sure is a blow to the 16 year ego.

Little did I know that 8 years later, Valentine's Day would be a day I would never forget but this time because it was one of the most special days of my life. David and I, along with my family, headed down to Daytona, FL to see the Daytona 500. We arrived at our hotel and had a great dinner and then we decided to take a walk on the beach. David was extremely jittery and wouldn't take his hands out of his pocket - you can probably guess what was next. He proposed and it was one of the exciting moments for us.

Now I should probably confess and let everyone know that the engagement wasn't a total surprise unfortunately due to the jeweler. David picked out the ring but it wasn't going to be ready right away so he gave them very clear directions on how to contact him once it's done since we lived together at the time. There was a mix-up at the jeweler's and a postcard was sent to our apartment stating "your special order is ready". Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that meant. Typically David always got home before me but on this night I got home first and got the mail. I contemplated for a few hours about what I was going to do. There was only 2 choices: tell him or not tell him and keep it a secret forever. I knew I couldn't do that and didn't want to start out on the next phase of our relationship on a lie. I ended up telling him and boy was he upset!

It's been 8 years since our engagement and 16 years since my heart was broken on V day but as I sit here on the eve of another V Day, I know that no matter what, my honey loves me unconditionally. Happy V Day Everyone.