Valentine's Day - TOO much pressure (imported from Myspace)

I am happy Valentine's Day is OVER! It was fun when I was in high school, when Andy and I first met. Before we had responsibilities and bills to pay. Back when we could afford to spend ridiculous amounts of money on each other and dedicate our thoughts purely to surprising each other on this most "romantic" of days. What bothers me about Valentine's Day now is the pressure that it puts on couples to be romantic! You shouldn't only place emphasis on romance one day a year. And what is romance? I think it is so different from what the media and commercials show - more than candy, hearts, cards, dinner out, and certainly more than just sex. This is the same thing that bothers me about "chick flicks". I come away dreamy-eyed about what men do for the women that they love. Well, WAKE UP, 98% of men will not spill out soliloqueys telling of our beauty and character, ladies! And this is not because they do not love us! Real men (at least most) do not know how. This is not how they show us they love us. What is important is that they DO show us they love us. And sometimes, when I have been watching too many chick flicks I want Andy to show me that he loves me in the same ways that Romeo onscreen shows Juliet. So I become discontented. NOT FAIR to Andy. So, one of the ways that I combat discontentedness is to avoid the things that make me that way - i.e., chick flicks. Not all, mind you, but the super-sappy stupid ones. My favorite movie at present is "Shall We Dance" because of the way that Richard Gere loves his wife - and the way he is human and a little stupid about handling things. But in the end, he does love his wife and we see that.
Back to Valentine's Day.....same perspective for me. I want more than just flowers and candy, and I don't want to be disappointed if I get neither. I want to focus on my marriage and the person that I married and accept his love the way that he is able to show it. (Which, by the way, wasn't flowers and candy - instead it was frying up some shrimp for dinnner and watching a great animated flick with me!)