Is This Day About Love or Violence?

Valentine's Day means something different in Illinois

Happy Valentine's Day! This day is supposed to be about love and appreciating the people that are important to us in our lives. In my part of the MIDDLEwest there are other things that come to my mind too. Just east of us is a small Midwestern town called Chicago there was one of the most famous shootings of all time in 1929. You know it's a big deal when you hear names like Al Capone and Bugs Moran associated with it. They even gave it a name so it could be marketed for the rest of time - The Saint Valentine's Massacre. It's been referred to in many movies and television shows and songs and stage plays...

In 2008 we had a shooting here in our town too. I remember driving home from work and, as I got closer to home, seeing several helicopters hovering over town. I tuned the news radio station in and learned what was going on. I am not going into great detail but I am always a bit more cautious this day for this reason. I work with a girl (I call her a girl because she is quite a bit younger than me only - do not read anything else into it) who was injured in the shooting. She even became a police officer because of this event. I knew that about her until Splenda sent me an article that was in Cosmopolitan magazine about her and the event. I like her a great deal. She is always friendly and smiling; that says a lot to me about a person (it is not 100% though). She can be through something so dramatic and traumatic and still be positive says a  lot about her character. I did not know her before 2008 so maybe this changed her but it seems to be her nature.

Last night on the way home from dinner and a movie we were listening to the radio and they had a story about a young lady girl (23 years old) from Geneva that was arrested in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She had flown up to Canada to be part of a shooting/suicide at a shopping mall. We heard the story just as we were driving by Geneva High School. We know lots of people from Geneva. Cha Cha works in Geneva. There is a very good chance that we know this girl's family. They have not announced her name yet but it will happen. Everything has to be everybody's business. Thank goodness for a person who tipped-off the authorities and for the Mounties (Canadian Mounted Police). Geez, I wonder why Canadians hate us Americans. Actually, I am not sure if they hate us and they probably don't because they don't seem very hateful; it's probably because of the great health care that they have and the over-the-counter codeine and the stronger beer and the clean air...

I have convinced myself that Valentine's Day is more about hate and violence than about love as we're taught to believe as children. We cannot have anything nice! I guess we cannot make things like this turn things bad. I assume that people pick this day on purpose to do this because they are miserable and want to make it miserable for the rest of us. I know I will forget by next year but I am going to make sure I stay away from big crowds on V.D..

In hindsight maybe we weren't so smart to go out to a theater on the opening night of Fifty Shades of Grey. We did not see that movie (and I NEVER will) but it was playing in four of the theaters at the mega-huga-plex where we watched Kingsman: The Secret Service. I guess it wasn't Valentine's Day last night - it was just Friday the 13th (another day that is surrounded by murder - mostly in film).

I highly recommend Kingsman: The Secret Service. It was a fun movie. I am guessing there will be sequels because they added the colon to the title. I didn't find it ironic until right now that I am promoting a film that could not have had any more guns and firepower and violence in it when I wrote about all of the violence in my area this time of year. Maybe everybody just hates Midwestern winters?

We thought it would be funny to screw with Matt & Jill all night long

While Cha Cha and I were sitting in the theater waiting for the show to begin we could not stop laughing. The theater was probably about 25% full when we got there. We sat down at the third and fourth seats from the aisle. Everybody in the theater was talking at their regular voices. It was weird. I realize the film hadn't started but don't you still kind if whisper in a theater? Then, two people came and sad next to me in seats one and two in out row. There was 75% of the theater open and they had to sit next to me? Jill and I just looked at each other and started to laugh. Is Allen Funt still alive (if you're MIDDLE-aged or beyond you know who that is)? So, I moved to the other side of Cha Cha. Shortly thereafter a man in an electric wheelchair came in and parked right in from of Cha Cha. The chair had a really tall back/headrest and it totally blocked her view. When the heck is the hidden camera going to be revealed to us? We got up and moved to the third row of the theater. I didn't sign any release forms so, when I see this night on some hidden camera show, I will be getting a pay-day!

I forgot to mention that, at dinner, we ordered a bruschetta appetizer and, when our main dishes came and the appetizer hadn't arrived yet, I told the server that we didn't want the appetizer any more. I was very nice about it but why would we need an appetizer when we have our meal. Plus, I did not intend to pay for something we did not receive and I figured it would be easier to deal with it right away than to haggle at payment time. Maybe the Diet Gods were looking out for me? I didn't need the bread. So we ate our dinners and then she brought us a piece of cake to split. Curse you Diet Gods! I did not eat any of the cake - take that Diet Gods! On the bill we were not charged for the cake but it was listed at "birthday cake." She just brought us a piece of cake that they give away free anyway just to ease her conscience.

Okay, I have to get some things done before work tonight (my Monday - blechhhh). I hope you have a great Valentine's Day. I LOVE YOU for stopping-in today - thank you. Thank you for all the nice words and comments about the blog too; I really appreciate them. I will not blog tomorrow. I do not know why I don't blog on Sundays most of the time. TTTMonday...MITM (out) TA!