This time around, love takes a holiday

Valentine’s Day fell on a Tuesday this year, near the beginning of the workweek, and on a day with so-so weather, at least in the Bangor area.

So it seemed just like any other day of the year, despite the fact – or Hallmark suggestion, whatever your opinion is of the holiday – that Feb. 14 is supposed to be the most romantic day of the year.

Thinking about how I’d be spending my Tuesday evening – in a high school gymnasium, watching a girls basketball game – I was sort of down. I like girls basketball, but I had other things I would have rather been doing.

It could have been a lot worse.

A co-worker of mine got a nasty e-mail from a reader, and it pretty much ruined her day. Another colleague was excited to spend the evening with her boyfriend, but she found out she had to report on a meeting that was taking place at night. She didn’t walk back into the newsroom until well after 11 p.m. Tuesday.

It doesn’t get pretty from there.

How would you have liked to be the girlfriend of that Massachusetts man who allegedly pulled a knife on a drugstore clerk in Newport after asking for Valentine’s Day advice? Talk about My Funny Valentine. I wonder if he ever picked up that stuffed animal or box of chocolates he might have been asking about – or if the girlfriend’s Valentine’s Day was spent driving up from Massachusetts to bail him out. What a Valentine’s Day present and true test of love that would be.

I wouldn’t have wanted Harry Whittington’s Valentine’s Day, either. Whittington, the 78-year-old Texas lawyer shot by Vice President Dick Cheney over the weekend, had a heart attack Tuesday morning. A heart attack on Valentine’s Day – pretty ironic.

Not even Olympians got much love on Valentine’s Day. Bode Miller, that much-maligned and loud-mouthed U.S. skier who attended Carrabassett Valley Academy in Kingfield years ago, seemed to be having a pretty good run in an event called the combined. He led after the first round – but was disqualified later for a technical mistake during a run down the hill.

And speaking of Olympians, how about Alaska’s Jay Hakkinen, who competes in the skiing-and-shooting sport of biathlon. He raced in the World Cup in Fort Kent two years ago. Hakkinen had a devastating Valentine’s Day – he shot very poorly, accidentally skied one more penalty loop than he had to, and finished 80th, which means he can’t compete in the next event.

Last year, I had a pretty bad Valentine’s Day. After dinner and a movie, I got dumped.

Things seemed to be on an upswing, however, as the day wore on and moved into Wednesday.

My co-worker with the night meeting wasn’t too upset about working so late on Valentine’s Day evening – she’ll just celebrate another night. And judging by the two dozen roses her boyfriend gave her yesterday, I think he was fine with the change in schedule.

The colleague who received the mean e-mail also had a lot to look forward to. Last I saw her on Valentine’s Day she was headed home to her husband, who can cook up a storm and has excellent taste in movies.

Doctors in a Texas hospital were able to stabilize Cheney’s shooting victim, and he’s expected to live a healthy life with the shotgun pellet still inside him. The heart is resilient after all.

I don’t know anything more about the Valentine’s Day drugstore bandit, but hopefully this will be a wake-up call for him to turn his life around.

Even the Olympians turned out to be all right. Although Miller was disqualified, another U.S. skier won gold in the combined event. And even though the country’s top biathlete faltered mightily, the U.S. got two other competitors in the top 60, which means we’ll have representatives in the next biathlon event.

This year’s Valentine’s Day turned out to be quiet for me, but in a good way. Not only did I not get dumped, but I actually got a couple of sweet presents. And I also got 10 minutes of alone time with the gift-giver, which was pretty nice in what’s been a busy month for me.

It turned out to be a decent Tuesday after all.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600, or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.