You would think that a poly person would have a bit of a hard time on Valentine's Day, but it wasn't an issue for me, mainly because Penny had other plans and doesn't believe in making a big deal about celebrating love on arbitrary days like V-Day. My family does like to celebrate anniversaries and other holidays, but we've always been a little skittish about V-Day and holidays involving birth families. This year though, if there were any difficulties, they were kept shielded from me, so I made the day as enjoyable as I could.
Tara and I woke up early together Saturday morning and had some extended time in bed, as I was feeling in need of some extra cuddling. We had our usual breakfast of pancakes and bacon (although we both did an extra-fine job of cooking this week) with a beautiful bouquet of red roses on the table. I think it's the most perfect dozen of roses I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot over the years, mostly of the white variety.
We went to IKEA after breakfast to buy a bookshelf because we needed Yoshi to carry such a long, oversize item home. After I dropped her off, everyone came over in the evening and we all shared some Valentine candy, and I added some bags of Valentine M&M's as betting chips to our poker game. It certainly amped up the game, and the highlight for me was a hand of five-card draw where I got four 10's, plus a wild card to beat Bee's full house. However, at the end of the night, I came in second to Tara, who was the big winner in both chips and candy.
As you might guess, I'm feeling down about Penny leaving for Argentina today. The best I can do is to try and stay occupied and live in the moment. That's not to say I'm trying to hide my feelings, as I have been so good at doing in my past life. I don't need to learn that lesson again.
