Wow, the fifth? I can't believe we've been doing it that long. Anyway, since 2004, I've done the Valentine Fairy thing--or, as in the last few years, deputized y'all to do it for me. Back in the day, kungfumegadevil posted,

If you're feeling down about Valentine's Day, I encourage you to do the same. Send valentines. Any kind; in comments and posts, in e-mail, in letters, by phone, over coffee. Forget those stupid relationships for a few hours and just give someone you love a little attention.

This led to me declaring myself the Valentine Fairy and, as the years (the years!) went on, passing it on to y'all because the internets are a really big place and I am but one tiny fairy:

So I hereby declare everyone reading this to be Valentined, and to be Deputy Valentine Fairies, empowered to take these icons (or any of their own creation) and go Valentine others. I tend to say, "I am the Valentine Fairy! You have been valentined!" and then post the graphic in the comment itself, but you can say anything you want. It's just a way to tag people and say, "I'm thinking about you," and refocus the holiday to anyone we like or care about, instead of just schmoopy-pie couples.

Therefore: You are Valentined! Yea, go forth and Valentine unto others!

As for the icons, I'm doing it a little bit differently this year. You can use the five or six "traditional" Valentined icons, or you can download a zip file and upload whichever ones to your own server space (you know, LJ gallery, Photobucket, ImageShack, wherever) and have tons to choose from: a number of flowers (mostly roses, some tulips and pansies in there for variety), some chocolates, some paper valentines, and a large number of icons I repurposed from >that Marie Antoinette set I made last year, on the grounds that no other movie could possibly be frilly enough and also the icons were already made.




I think the only other movie icons are the ones you see in the sample above, because I just did not have the intestinal fortitude to go through the hundreds of movie folders on my computer. The fonts I used are Stereofidelic, Adine Kirnberg (the swoopy script), and, for a couple, Fiolex Girls (the hearts) with a 2 or 3 point stroke outline, I can't remember which--my point is, you are perfectly welcome to make your own for any movies (or anything else) you'd rather see; I've included most of the blanks as well if you'd rather use a different font. But there's something like 70 icons in the zip file--granted, that's made up by two or three variations on each image, but this is compared to the "Hey, I made a couple of new ones" I usually do. I'm just saying, have fun with it and go to town tomorrow; reminding people that you care about them and that Valentine's Day isn't just for Lovahs can really brighten someone's day.

I actually meant to post these a couple of days ago and get a really super early head start on the occasion, and... didn't. It's just as well, because I'm glad to have something obviously positive to offset what I'm about to mention. Oh, it's nothing gigantic--I'm more concerned that it will upset y'all than me. It's just that February 13th is the day my father walked out, and this year it'll be ten years ago exactly. And I think this is the first year I can honestly say that I think I'm over it. I mean, I'm usually pretty sanguine about the day itself, but for years, you mentioned my father and I'd start ranting--frothing at the mouth, and I'm talking almost literally here; it was very, very bad for my blood pressure. I'm to the point now where--well, there's a lot of things I wish I could see repaid (I don't mean that in a profound or creepy way; I mean that he swindled members of my family out of money), but generally I think of it now as That Wacky Thing That Happened That Resulted in Us Being a Lot Happier Down the Road. The funny thing specific to 2008 is that I've been saying for years that I wondered how long he could go without trying to contact me in any way. (Keep in mind, my mother spent months urging him to contact me when it first happened.) I wondered, really, if he could go the distance in asshaberdashery. Well, it's been ten years now, and since I don't want him to contact me, it's more amusing than anything.

Although, I can say that I have not had a single bad Valentine's Day since he left--as I put it last year: "I really haven't considered Valentine's Day to be a sucky day ever since this happened back in--1998? Because, really, after your father walks out on 1) Friday 13th, 2) the day before Valentine's Day, 3) five days before your mother's birthday, 'O noz I have no mans' kind of pales next to the kind of shit that could be going down, I figure."

Tags: february 13th, valentine's day, valentined