Happy Valentine’s Day! Whether you’re married, in a relationship, single, gay, straight, bi or whatever else there is, we’re celebrating LOVE today- love in friendship, marriage, relationships and in the single life. Enjoy a few stories from the TN crew!
From Bekah
I’ve been married for forever (8 years in June) and been with him since I was 19.
So basically we stopped doing stuff for Valentine’s Day when we realized our favorite restaurants used it as an excuse to charge more for the worst things on their menu, give the chefs a night off and rush you through the door. Instead last year I drank a whole bottle of wine before decided it was the perfect time to try to shuck oysters for the first time. This year I’m surprising him with a night in the suburbs: We are going to Bahama Breeze and seeing Frozen. When you live in a city, there’s honestly nothing better than once a year, heading into the ‘burbs for chain restaurant dining & a movie.
But this story isn’t about valentine’s day 8 years in. It’s about Gal-entine’s Day. Which is a thing I didn’t know existed until yesterday. Apparently it’s a day to celebrate your gals. And I love that. Because this year I’ve felt especially blessed by my girlfriends.
I have always had a great group of girls in my life. But my relationships have changed in the past year or so as most of my close friends don’t live around me anymore. In fact, I can say for the first time in my life, I’ve felt lonely at times in the past year. Mostly it’s been at 10 am on Saturdays when I’m terrible hungover and in need of brunch, but then I check my texts/snapchats/tweets and remember I have the most incredible friends all over the world! Here’s a sample:
The TN girls
(WAH no Beth 🙁 We haven’t ever all been together IRL! But HAVE NO FEAR. This is changing in April)
Did you know there are 15 of us now? After running LTT with just Nikki and I for all those years, running TN with a group has been incredible. While I still feel we’re on first dates with some of the newer contributors, the core group that have been with us since the beginning are especially important in my life. Beth, Jamie, Elise (and Nikki, duh): I can’t imagine my life without them and our group texts which often happen after nights of drinking & usually somehow involve topics like anal and circumcision.
B.E.E.N.
BEEN is the creative acronym for: Bekah, Elena, Erin and Nikki. Erin & Elena run Fangirlish.com and have been our friends for a few years now, but this year has brought us together in many ways we didn’t expect. These girls GET me and I’ll die if I ever lose my phone & our group texts are revealed. And we’re pretty sure we’ve starred on the big screen at the snapchat headquarters main conference room….
My sisters
I have 3 of them and they are the best littles in all the land:
Our mom died when we were younger which means we’re all sorts of messed up & confused and are really terrible at stuff mom’s teach you like correspondence, but we’ve had each other and so we’ve survived thus far! Plus my sister Abby (above, next to me) had a baby this past year so she’s my favorite for now.
AND my dad got married in August to an amazing woman who brought 2 more siblings into my life, one of them who happens to be a girl. So I really have 4 sisters now:
NIKKI
You know how they say “Don’t go into business with your friends?” Well, I agree. Unless your friend is Nikki. Nikki & I went “into business” (the vampire business) together in 2008 and threatened to start an official business someday. After almost 5 years of talking about it, we actually did it and launched a company together last Fall.
Running a business is hard. But I’m so glad I have Nikki to do it with.
And I love that after a 5 hour google hangout (which is our equivalent of sitting in a room next to each other & working) we still want to be around each other- and, furthermore, want to talk about life outside of our work. Nikki is my best friend, business partner & I cannot imagine doing life without her!
There are so many others (I actually have friends I didn’t meet on the internet) but that’s just a sampling of who I’m loving this Gal-entine’s Day!
From Carrie-Jo
My husband and I aren’t Valentine’s Day people. We don’t do flowers, candy, cards. etc. on birthdays, let alone on some random day in February. However, we do like each other and so we generally “celebrate” between our sheets.
Two years ago on Valentine’s Day (I think, but let’s just say it was), as I was upstairs, putting the kid to bed, my husband turned on our fireplace, put the cushion from our papasan chair on the floor, and covered it with this fuzzy brown blanket we keep on our couch. For those of you who remember the bearskin rugs jokes made on LTT, you’ll know why I couldn’t contain my giggles. My husband, who was trying to give me a sweet, romantic moment, didn’t appreciate my #EGBTT moment quite as much as I did!
This year, we’re been vacationing in Florida this week to escape the polar vortex. Our exciting V-day plans will probably include laundry and unpacking.
From Nikki
If you were around these parts last year at Valentine’s Day you know that I was single… and well, on and off (mostly off) single for entire my life. This year, however, we are entering into new territory because yes, drum roll please, I will not be single on Valentine’s Day in 2014! Shocker of all shockers! Somewhere my mom is clapping and clasping some sort of hanky. It’s crazy how much can change in the blink of an eye or a span of four days at Comic Con.
Needless to say, I will whole-heartedly be celebrating Valentine’s Day because unlike some of the other stories we’ve shared today, I am not over it! In fact I’m only just getting into it. I’m so in, in fact I’ve purchased at least six Valentine’s cards because I simply can’t choose which one I like best. I even made my OWN card via Red Stamp complete with pictures but even that wasn’t enough, so prepare yourself, boyfriend, you will probably be opening more than one card this evening. Just go with it.
From Rachael
Happy Galentine’s Day- the perfect day of the year to remind you why it’s the best to be single. I am single and 25 and am loving it. Want to know why? Here are some reasons:
You can do whatever the eff you want.
Yesterday I had a snow day from work. I watched 8 episodes of Girls, obviously. In between letting the episodes buffer, (because I have to watch it on a site that I know will give me a virus because I can’t afford HBO, obviously), I watched Friday Night Lights on Netflix. It was confusing, watching 5 minutes of each show at a time, but eventually I made it through 8 episodes. Could I have done that if I weren’t single? Absolutely not! That alone is reason enough why being in a relationship suucks.
But the best part of being 25 and single?
You can make your own weird decisions and not feel judged for it. When you’re in a relationship, you feel compelled to talk through things with your S.O. When you’re single? Nope. You can make whatever decision you want and then feel proud/ashamed of the outcome. Mostly ashamed. But it’s ok. Because no one is judging you. And you will mostly learn from it/make the same weird decision again.
So basically what I’m saying is, being 25 and single is pretty awesome right now. Happy Gal-entine’s Day!
Happy Valentine’s Day to all you fabulous friends out there! We love you! XOXO
