roses, shmoses.....

I can't tell you how many times I was asked yesterday if I had sent the bride roses. Several ladies in my building got them all day long. One lady received a dozen from a delivery guy and wondered aloud if she and her husband would have enough money to buy gas for their cars the rest of the month. I laughed and she said, "Uh, I'm not kidding. I really wished he hadn't done this." The roses didn't produce a smile on her face as intended. Those same roses probably cost 2 to 3 times yesterday what they'll cost today. It's called supply and demand. Or stupid consumers. I can't remember which.

Some of you may be reading this and thinking, "Oh, he's just cheap! There's probably not an ounce of romance in his body!" First, on the cheap thing, yeah. When it comes to overpriced flowers that will die in 3 days, I'm cheap. So? Second, romance can't be defined by flowers alone. I actually used to send flowers to the bride quite often. She liked them, but she also knew how much they cost. She finally told me that I didn't need to send her flowers. I resisted, but then we had babies and any potential flower money went towards buying disposable diapers and formula. These things just seem to work themselves out, don't they?

So I didn't get the bride flowers for Valentines Day. We actually bought each other Valentines Day presents well over a month ago. And we'll celebrate the holiday next Wednesday night when we're sitting 12 rows from the stage at the GEC watching Billy Joel in concert.

And by the way, in reference to the non-romantic thing - the bride and I saw Billy Joel on our second date. "The Bridge Tour", February 1987, Murphy Center at MTSU. (Looks a little different back then, huh?) Next week's concert actually does hold special meaning to it. So there.....