Sunday, February 14, 2010

My Valentines Date with My Neighborhood in Colorado Springs

This morning I awoke to find I had no voice. It might just be a cold, although I don't have any other symptoms. It started Friday night at Rico's performing with Nick and then after 3 hours of squeaking and squawking my way through a set at Boondock's in Pueblo West (great crowd!), it's all but dead.

Which is fitting, because our elders always said "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" - and today is Valentines Day, and whether I've had a significant other or not on any given February 14th, I've never had anything nice to say about Valentines Day. Being recently engaged and now... not, I'm even more sour than most years.

I can still type.

Nothing is as insulting to the male intelligence as those Jared Jeweler commercials. If you've missed them, they sort of go like this: Woman excitedly tells her friends she's engaged by exclaiming "He went to Jared!" and all her hot friends jump up and down, squealing and declaring her the luckiest girl on earth. The message Jared is trying to get through to me is "if you give 1/4 a years salary to Jared (and ONLY Jared) for a ring for your special lady, not only will SHE have sex with you, but all her friends will want to, as well!"

Valentines Day is almost (almost) as insulting. Have you seen the commercials selling 5 foot stem roses at $50 a pop? The ads scream "Attention males! You poops! Buy these to prove you love her! Buy these to prove that your love for your girlfriend is a good 4 inches larger than your buddies love for his girlfriend. Buy these and get praise and good-lovin' for Valentines Day!"

My Valentines Day gifts to my lady usually consisted of cooking breakfast, a kiss on the forehead and a "Happy Bullshit Hallmark Holiday." I usually did not "get any" on the 14th, but the Mrs. (whoever she was at the time) usually came around to give me good lovin' by the 16th - and I'm used to waiting, anyway.

I always figured if you needed Hallmark to remind you to show your woman that you love her, or your a female that bases love on how big the gift is when he's told by society to buy it, you're probably a real shit. It just seems unromantic to me. Maybe this is why I'm single now...

But I digress.

This is about my Valentines date with Colorado Springs.

Today, I called my dad. It's his birthday. He's 58. Couldn't talk long because, well, I can't talk.

Then I went for a walk around the neighborhood. It's a bitterly cold day but beautiful. I moved north to Dogtooth Coffee and popped in for white hot-chocolate and the cute coffee girl said "did you know it was Valentines Day?" Her eyes twinkled with excitement so I didn't have the heart to tell her to shove my white hot chocolate up her bum. Then she gave me a kiss. The Hershey's kind, from a bowl on the counter. I took two more. That's my good lovin' for the day.

I walked west to Cascade - passing the houses, runners, smiling faces, families and puppy dogs barking "hello".

I came to my house. It's already my house. My stuff isn't in there yet, but it's already mine. It's a mansion on Cascade and I won't tell you the address because it's mine. I'll invite you to the housewarming party come spring 2014.

I walked and walked, pausing only to steal glances of Pikes Peak. As long as I was in the sun, not facing the southbound wind, I was warm, and - wait for it - I felt love. On Valentines Day.

I love this town.

It has so many faults. If you live here, you know. It leaves it's socks on the floor. It forgets to take out the garbage. It can be a real disappointment sometimes. It's an odd melting pot without a solid identity; a college town, a military town, a hippy town, a Dobson town. It seems everyone who lives here is from Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Missouri... some of us move here and buy western gear to try and fit in with all the other people who wear western gear and aren't from the west (actually, I've found that you can almost be sure that anyone wearing western clothing in this town was born east of the Mississippi River).

Despite all it's faults I realize I am in love with it - and today I was able to stroll in the sunny cold, touch it's face gently and say "You dumb ass. I love you. Happy Valentines Day!" and really feel it and mean it.

I've been so focused on getting out of here - marketing for the tour, booking it, hustling - that I had forgotten. But I'm really gonna miss this place when I take off in 3 weeks, and it was good to have that romantic feeling and share that time with my little-big town this afternoon.

How about that. Jeremy Facknitz felt romantic on Valentines Day.

But I'm not going to Jared and I'm not buying 5 ft. stem roses.

Colorado Springs will just have to deal with it.

1 comment:

  1. awwwww....now where's my frickin ring and roses? ;) What a great post. Really it is. I've always loathed VD day and prefer to think of it as National Buy Shit to Improve Hallmark Stock Day.

    We're all in love with you too.

    ~C

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