You're Neat!

I was at CVS the other day, noticing row upon row of those boxes of kids' Valentines... Harry Potter "Hope you have a *magical* day!" and Pirates of the Caribbean "I choose YOU as my First Mate!" Anyway, looking back, I did get a little nostalgic for those days.

What pains I took in making those out! ...One for everybody in my class. The penmanship had to be fabulous or I'd throw it out and start over. And, whatever hokey, saccharin-soaked message was printed on the front had to be appropriate to the person I was sending it to. You know what I mean, admit it! Every box contained like 4 or 5 messages, and you had to be calculating about it-- It would be social suicide to actually send "BE MINE" to your crush, but you sure as hell couldn't very well give them "YOU'RE NEAT" either, right? What a dilemma. What really cracks me up is remembering what trouble they went to trying to make boys valentines-- Remember G.I. Joe valentines, or Transformers? What a riot.

Anyway, I'm a fan of the e-card, so this is an experiment in sharing an e-card with all of you. The grownup, internet-era answer to the whole-class V-day shout out...

http://www.hallmark.com/ECardWeb/ECV.jsp?a=1052572282861M179128031Y&product_id=

Also, it may make you squirm (as it did me) to see that Hallmark actually makes a "Will You Marry Me" E-card. Wow. Uh, buddy, I think I know how that's gonna turn out... and it doesn't look good.