Christmas comes but once a year

And today is NOT Christmas.
After weeks of saying we were going to do this, Kyle and I finally went to visit Annie at the Kopper Top, the restaurant where she works as a waitress. We got there and it felt like walking into Valentine's Day. The restaurant looked like Valentine's Day had thrown up all over the place. There were pink and red hearts everywhere we looked.
So, we requested a table in Annie's section and sat down at the bar to catch up on each other's lives. After all, we hadn't seen each other in two whole days. We talked about the fact that I grew up in both Ypsilanti and Jackson. Then the guy sitting next to me asked me if I minded if my coat smelled like cigarette smoke because he was about to start smoking a cigarette. I sighed and told him to go for it. We wouldn't be there long. (Kyle saw the sigh; the gentleman next to me did not.) A few minutes later, we were finally seated and got to see Annie! She recommended various dishes to us. Kyle tried one of them; I went for something completely different from her recommendations. But it was a very good sandwich. During dinner we covered more exciting topic including his excitement over being eight weeks away from the completion of his college degree and the fact that I will be doing homework or grading homework for the rest of my life.
After dinner, we went back to my house to exchange my car, which we'd driven to the restaurant, for his car so we could go to visit Greg. We decided to visit Greg (and bring along children's books so I could finally read Rechenka's Eggs to Kyle) after throwing out all of my ideas, which were
1) running away to join the circus; I was going to shovel elephant dung. Kyle said the fact that this was the first talent that popped into my head was evidence enough that this was NOT a feasible option for us.
2) stealing a penguin...it isn't that he doesn't like penguins; it's just that Chicago is a LONG drive on a Friday night when my car needs gas and his car isn't in that great of shape. (We were going to steal one from the zoo/Shedd Aquarium.)
3) stealing a monkey...again, it isn't that he doesn't like monkeys, but where would we keep the thing? (This boy is getting too intelligent for me.)
So we went to see Greg. We watched some Bill Cosby. I read to Kyle. Kyle played guitar. Greg and Kyle analyzed an online chess game. We talked. I read a book. And then, Kyle took me home and then went home himself. After all, we both need our beauty sleep.

So why was all of this blog-worthy? Because I'm a girl who hates Valentine's day. Yes, today is the actual Feminine Mind Control Date. But last night, I went out to dinner with a good guy friend in a restaurant that looked like Valentine's Day had thrown up all over it. And I enjoyed myself. Today, I have no plans. I have a paper to write and a package to mail. I don't know that it will be that great of a day. But yesterday was definitely worthwhile. I didn't feel like I was being made aware of the fact that I was single. I didn't feel like Hallmark Gold Crown or a florist or a candy company or a jewelry store was controlling my mind. I felt like myself.