Happy Freakin' Valentine's Day - A Blog Hope

You all know who does the best blog hops - it's Nancy Davis Kho. This time, she's gathered some of my favorite writers for a blog hop(e) as we weigh the hearty issue of Valentine's Day. There's beauty in the depth of love we feel with heartbreak, and when there's company along the way, there's our hope. When you toss in bloggers with tender hearts, you can hum along in hope. Here's what Valentine's Day means to us in the language of the heart, song. And a hot beat always helps.

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I'm going to tell you something truthful here, holidays always make me blue. I can't give you an exact reason for it, but I can give the source for my downcast eyes and slumped over shoulders: it's all the ads out there telling me what love means. And if someone doesn't do this for me, then is it real love. Is it?

I think it's time, and this blog hop was the last push I've needed, to claim the holidays in my own way. And I'm starting with Valentine's Day. I'm not going to let my brain along with my beautiful heart get sucked into thinking that love means someone buys you things and love can't start until you look perfect in a wrap around sizzling red dress from Vera Wang.

Valentine's Day can begin with me here in these red flannel pajamas with a bag of mini marshmallows in my lap. Who knew! I can be in charge of my own Valentine's Day!

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The only way to kick this off is with Mick Hucknall of Simply Red. Though coming up with this playlist had hundreds of song titles exploding in my head, there was none like this one. Ahhh. Made me remember the lyrics that rented out my heart like they were meant to live there. Simply Red, simply heart-clenching, "Holding Back the Years"

Cause nothing here has grown

I've wasted all my tears
Wasted all those years
And nothing had the chance to be good
Nothing ever could yeah

I'll keep holding on

I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on
I'll keep holding on

HOLD ON, Alexandra!

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You know where I should have gone, all those wasted years filled with wasted tears? I should have gotten myself to church on time. Because my boyfriend David Bowie was there. Just waiting. Even when you don't want to go out, you can always make it to church on time. "Modern Love"

We're gonna make it to the church on time

We're gonna make it to the church on time
I'm gonna get my soul in line
I'm gonna make it to the church on time
.

No one can get your soul in line, like David Bowie. And no one ever will again. So, please excuse me while I go have my 37th cry over this man being gone.
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Another life-love lesson? How about if we make it about them, not us. How about if it's us offering our love instead of waiting for someone to come and love on us. Do it. Drop off a box of chocolates in someone's mailbox, send a card to a friend recently divorced, make a call and take a single out for heart-shaped pizza. They'll appreciate you thinking of them and you'll remind yourself how lucky you are to have them in your life. For this reason, Cheap Trick's "The Flame" will always sear my heart. Be the one who is there to keep their flame going:

Wherever you go, I'll be with you

Whatever you want, I'll give it to you
Whenever you need someone
To lay your heart and head upon
Remember, after the fire, after all the rain
I will be the flame
I will be the flame

I don't care what the theme of a blog hop is, I will always find a way to work in The Flame.

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When I was in high school, my heart was smashed into a thousand pieces. Partly because I have a heart of glass, and other-partly because nothing hurts like a first broken heart. You don't get used to the pain of your heart being made into a puzzle, but it doesn't clap the air out of your lungs the way it does when you've barely walked the planet two decades. When I did meet a new friend in college who would have liked to be a more special type of friend, it was this song that ran through my veins. I wanted this new guy close by, I wanted to see if we could try – but these tears, dear baby jesus, these tears  from the dude before him. Also, Rod Stewart will always understand, "The First Cut is the Deepest"

I still want you by my side

Just to help me dry the tears that I've cried
But I'm sure gonna give you a try
If you wanna try to love again
Try,

Baby, I'll try to love again, but I know

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Since I'm sure I haven't cheered you up enough yet for Valentine's Day, why don't I escort you into your own weekend of love with the soundtrack to my pillow soaking: Nazareth. Oooooooh, Nazareth. "Love Hurts" kept me company many many one more time many a Valentine's Day. I was positive it was written for me and it logged in a count that numbered at least 100 tear hours. You know what would have been salve to my marred scarred 20-something-year-old heart? Placing it on this barely-shirted chest:
 

Love hurts. Love scars. Love wounds and marks.
Any heart not tough or strong enough (I like to sing it “Ennnny”)
To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain (at this point, I clutch my chest with a open hand)
Love is like a cloud, it holds a lot of rain (now I look up at the sky, asking, why, why!)
Love hurts,
Ooo-oo love hurts

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I told you above this was going to be a truthful post. So it wouldn't be fair to paint myself as an angel of love. When I was in college, and went on to a new boyfriend while still dating another, I never felt worse about what I did, than when Michael sent me a mixtape with this gem on it.
Queen's "Sail Away, Sweet Sister"

I KNOW.

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What a joyful, hot and sexy playlist, right? Well, I am slowly learning what I wish I would have known decades ago: love is you.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you lovelies!

For some more music fun and company as we contemplate Valentine's Day, hop/hope on over and check out the magic with these true-hearted souls. They won't disappoint you:

Midlife Mixtape

My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog

Laurie White

Smacksy

Mrs. TDJ

 

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This, Is What I Want for Valentine's Day

Someone to exercise for me and then transfer their results to my body.

Cheap bras that hoist and lift like expensive bras.

11 vanilla bean cupcakes delivered to my door by 6 a.m.

Uninterrupted time to listen to This American Life.

A seductive mastery of the French language. Voulez-vous I'm so sexxee

Spanx that absorbs the fat and doesn't just take it and squish it up and out of my armpits.

No gas passing events during Child Pose in yoga class.

Miraculous healing of that wayward cock-eyed knee cap that won't face the same direction as the other one.

Children that find soccer uniforms on their own.

Soccer games that are canceled after just one rain drop.

Children who lose their taste buds and eat only to fill up empty stomachs and give up the pursuit of the tasty.

The eyebrows I tweezed away in high school to grow back.

Instant Facelift in a Jar products that really are instant facelift in a jar.

 

$15,000 Visa card along with a list of board-certified plastic surgeons and 4 days off, no questions asked.

That my hairdresser never, ever, but never, moves away.

Able to drop a highbrow reference to Shakespeare without people choking and sputtering.

Just one day of being able to dance like Missy Elliott.

People to never talk with glottal fry again.

My weight to go up like a feather but down like an arrow.
 

My therapist finally telling me, “Well, my work here is done.”

 

But, I'd happily accept my true heart's desire: a take-out bag of cheeseburgers from Jim's Grill with a concrete malt from Dairy Queen, and a hand-made card from my kids, telling me 1.) I'm the best 2.) There's no one like me 3.) How did they ever get so lucky.

 

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Treat yourself to something special from your number one fan, you -- because who else knows more than you about what you really want.  

 

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