Death to Cutesie Stuff

I told My Husband this story earlier today and he laughed, so I hope it will amuse others as well.

Once, I went to the Opera on a date. We saw Otello. My date fell asleep during one point of the performance, which slightly amused me. After the date, he dropped me off at my apartment and after I went inside left one of his shoes by the door, as some kind of gag. An homage to Cinderella, perhaps? For some time afterward, I saw the shoe every time I went past the door and thought, "Hmm, that's weird. Someone lost a shoe." I think it was there for about two weeks before the guy finally retrieved it.

Some months later, he asked me if I had noticed that he had left one of his shoes that night we went to the opera and I told him that I hadn't made the connection.

This kind of thing falls firmly in the realm of what I call "Cutesie Stuff," which is fine if you like that sort of thing. But I don't.

What is Cutesie Stuff? Here is a list of examples:

Cupcakes that took more than a minute each to decorate
Elaborate ways of asking someone out to a dance that involve live goldfish, cookies, and piano wire
The Disney Princesses TM
Pokemon
Lolspeak
Jack Weyland novels
Chihuahuas
Valentine's Day

Let's talk a bit about Valentine's Day for a moment. Every year, The Husband and I like to rip the whole holiday down one side and up the other. It's our little tradition. To us, it just seems unethical for society to expect men to buy their sweethearts flowers and candy just because it's "That Day," as if flowers and candy on any other day during the year count for nothing. The center aisle of our grocery store vomits forth pink and red hearts every year. It's almost an industrial version of love: "Buy our crap or you will be considered a cheapskate and social pariah!"

I know a lot of people love Valentine's Day, and I hope I don't get flamed for sharing my opinion, but there it is. It's a dumb holiday.

But this is why The Husband and I got married - we have similar opinions about this kind of thing. He has work off on President's Day, we'll probably celebrate that instead.