Happy Valentine's Day!

I looooooove Valentine's Day. I was getting coffee with a co-worker this week and we both read our horoscopes. Mine said "You're too romantic ..." and some other stuff that I can't remember. I just looked at her and said "Too romantic? That's like saying you're too rich, too good in bed or too good of a cook, there is no such thing!" She just looked at me and said: "maybe it's because you're the only person ANY of us know that actually likes Valentine's Day."

Oh.

Seriously? Folks, what is there not to like? The whole month of February is full of pink and red, sweets and treats, hearts and flowers and um ... can we say CHOCOLATE?! Everyday should be Valentine's Day! I know, I know, us girls can be kind of hard to read and if you're a guy there probably is a certain amount of pressure built up around this holiday. I get it.

So everyone take a deep breath and calm down. I promise it's going to be okay (and this is coming from a single person who still loves the holiday, so it IS actually possible). I learned this from a group of people we should listen to more ... first graders, they're pretty wise little suckers.

So I do some volunteer work in a first grade classroom. Once a month me and some stuffy finance peeps go and hang out with a bunch of precocious six year olds in a local low income neighborhood. The idea is to expose the kids to more one on one adult time and hopefully inspire them to become cool and happy adults with jobs that make them feel as though they have a sense of purpose. In a nutshell, we try and inspire them to become the exact opposite of us. Not surprisingly, I've found that most of the time I leave wishing I could be more like a six year old.

So today went a little something like this: Enter classroom. Dole out treat bags full of candy and Fantastic Four Valentine's Day cards. Watch kids read said cards and then promptly dive into the candy bags for the Tounge Tattoo Fruit Roll Ups. Spend the next five minutes having six year olds stick their blue tounges out at you. Watch sugar filled kids as they bounce around the classroom. Get a little touched when one offers you his chair. Realize said chair was offered so you would read his favorite book to him. Read his favorite book to him. Smile when he says thank you for coming. Melt a little. Tear up when he says thank you for being so fun. Melt a lot. Hug.

So break out your #2 pencils, here's a little Valentine's Day Primer:

1) Know your audience.
2) Bring said audience something they like.
3) Find something you can do together.
4) Thank them for being so fun.
5) Hug.

Happy Valentine's Day!

"Too" Romantically Your's,
Sometimes Serendipitous Girl