Valentine's Ahoy!

Last year at Christmas time I was horrified when Henry brought home little goodie bags that all the other parents had brought in and handed out. Candy canes, pencils, stickers, you name it. I don't know if I missed a secret memo or what, but I felt pretty "bad mama" about sending Henry to school empty handed. When Valentine's Day rolled around, I was bound and determined not to let that happen again. I made darling little packages filled with stickers and tattoos and organic cherry fruit bars (Ha! Not only do I recognize holidays, but I care enough not to send your child home full of corn syrup in the middle of February when you can't kick them out the door and let them run it off. I'm the Best. Mom. Ever!) and wrapped them all up in heart bags with ribbon and the whole 9 yards. Well, Henry was the only one who brought anything in and I looked like a crazy Valentine obsessed freak of nature. Bah.

This year I vowed not to buy into the whole prove-you're-a-super-cool-mom thing. I sent Henry with humble little candy canes and boring cards for the winter holidays. Then I saw these Valentines at The Mayberry Sparrow and my nonchalance fell apart as I pressed the Buy It Now button and declared aloud (to an empty house) "Henry is going to ROCK the Valentine's preschool party!". I might have even done a little demented version of the Ray Lewis victory dance.



Okay, you're right. I'm a gigantic dork and not a single one of Henry's 10 classmates will note the awesomely vintage look or care that were HAND printed with HAND CUT wooden block stamps on recycled card stock, or that they put money into the pocket of an indie designer instead of the Disney/Pixar/etc. superstructures. Whatever. I'll tape a few conversation hearts to the back and they'll fall in love with them.

The perfect song for today is Strange Powers by The Magnetic Fields. I think that Stephen Merritt is pretty much the best lyricist of all time, and this is such a bizarre and amazing love song. I got to see The Magnetic Fields play with Yo La Tengo (who I'm sure will be along on this list sometime soon) at The Magic Stick in Detroit and it was mind blowing to be sharing space with someone I have so much respect and love for. Two days in a row of songs by bands I've seen live, I think I'll try to stick with it for a while.