My mom and I are both ENFPs. If you're not hip to the whole personality test culture, that means we're the same. We communicate in much the same ways, and we respond the same way to the attitudes and actions of others.
On
her blog, she wrote about how she reacted to, and how her personality was moulded by, the actions of others during the Valentine's Days of her youth. The cruelty or forgetfulness of others caused her to need the romance and generosity of
her husband on Valentine's Day like a tortoise need it's shell. It also caused her to become a regular and generous gift giver to the people she loves.
This is the story of one such Valentine's gift.
I wasn't much of a ladies man in high school (vis the picture above). In fact, I had a pretty serious self esteem problem. My Grandmother tells me of a time when I was a little boy and she said to me, "Oh Freddy! You're so handsome." As she recalls it, I replied, "Thank you Grandma, but that's okay. I know I'm ugly." Pretty pitiful, eh?
I desired to be liked by girls and to get the same attention from them that I perceived other boys were receiving. That's why when a bouquet of balloons, tied to a package of chocolates, and addressed to me appeared in the drive-thru window of the Dairy Queen where I worked, I thought I had finally become a ladies' man.
The note attached read:
"Dear Fred,
I love you!
Love,
Your Secret Admirer"
Oh the joy! Oh the sweet terror! Oh the flush of blood, dear reader, that filled every corpuscle in my face, neck and head! Some red-blooded (hopefully pretty) teenage girl admired me secretly! I couldn't be expected to make sundaes or mix Blizzards®! We would soon be together. We would hold our perspiring hands. Within days, even hours, of her mylar advance, we would share our first kiss!
But who is she? Is she Maya, the soccer playing cheerleader who works beside me making shakes and cones? She discovered the package. Nah. She hates me. Seriously, she does. What about Carrie from youth group? I think she might like me. But she lives in Washington. You wouldn't know her. And she doesn't have a license so she couldn't have come all the way down here for this. What about Angela? or Jenna?
Ho, but I was frustrated. My joy was turning to anger as I began to imagine that this was some kind of trick! It was probably brought by one of my buddies as a joke, or by one of mine enemies to torture and humiliate me. And the girls at the DQ kept asking, "Who is it, Fred? Who is your girlfriend?"
I was beginning to hate this bloody valentine! I dragged it home with me that night, despising the sound the balloons made as they thrashed one another in the wind. When I got home, I ripped the candy off the strings and let the balloons float to the ceiling in our split level entryway, and retreated to my bedroom to brood.
The next morning I heard my sister bubbling with excitement over the Valentine's balloons floating in the entryway. "Who are they for? Are they from a GIIIIRRRRELLLLL?" I crashed up the stairs where my mother and sister were waiting, grins grinning, waiting to hear my explanation.
I reached over the railing and grabbed the strings. I quickly pulled each balloon to my chest and clumsily burst them all. "It's just a stupid trick," I raged. "No girl likes me."
That's when I saw the look of hurt, not pity, flash across my mother's face.
To this day, I'm not very concerned with Valentine's Day. My wife isn't either. We may make a date to a restaurant during that week and one of us may pick up a card if it's convenient. We have our own little romantic events that we revere, but February 14th is just not that important to us.
But my Mom still sends Valentine's cards. She brings gifts for my kids. And each time we meet, she lets me know how much she loves me.
My mother may never again pretend to be my secret admirer. I guess that is what caused all the confusion in the first place. You see, I already knew she admired me. That was NEVER a secret.
Happy belated Valentine's Day.
The Chindo
On a secret mission that will live in infamy, El Chindo, that's me, and TallGirl and Deet did set sail to Knøtt's Beπy Farm to carry out the Captain's orders. You've never seen a more determined lot. 
A great mountain of booty was there to be had and our hosts, unsuspecting of our alliances, were generous and gladly shared a bit of their own treasure with us, your most humblest of pirates.
Though well fed and cheered by the loot, we were still determined to blend in, crocodile grins and all, in the hopes that they would let slip and show us the treasure we suspect were stolen from out o' our own beloved Captain's locked and guarded cache. 
How, in Neptune's name, could this be true? It be far too horrid a tale to be believed?
We sat stunned, in sad disbelief. Yet we'd seen it with our own good eye...
It was a sad crew what set sail fer home that night. And though we're known fer a bit o' pirating ourselves, we'd hoped these bedtime tales of stolen treasure would have never had to come true.
Hi. My name is Deet. Last weekend my Mom and my sister were at Big Bear, so me and my Dad had fun adventures til midnight!
Me and my dad went on a really really really long drive that I got annoyed with.
My dad couldn't catch the pictures I was taking cause he was driving. So I just took pictures all day. 
He drove me on a really long trip. and I wanted to go home, and I was all, "nothing could keep me from wanting to go home except Chuck E. Cheeses." 
I really wanted to go home until I saw that he was taking me to Disneyland, then I was all, "nothing could stop me from going to Disneyland. Not even Chuck E. Cheeses."
I love going to Disneyland with my dad... alone. Can you keep that a secret?
We went on Pirates of the Caribbean 2 times!! And we got stuck in a video game called Buzz Lightyear. And we shot into a black hole for reeeeeals. Well not for reals, but it was just Space Mountain. And we went to the guns thing at Adventureland. I don't usually shoot things but this time I got the rabbit hole and the light sign. {whistle whistle whistle}
We stayed til midnight. I was tired but I lasted.
The next day, gramma took us to a pumpkin patch. 
I bungee jumped so high that I could almost see the beach! It was cool.
Then, I saw the most spookiest really spooky spooky haunted house. I cried cried I mean cried the whole time. The people said it was a "Not Very Scary" Haunted House. Just because they told us it was fake doesn't mean it's not scary. My Dad said that they should tell people it IS scary.
My Dad told me he was sorry that he took me in that haunted house. I said, "It's okay." Just never take me to that haunted house Again. Ever.
We had lunch at Flooky's. The one that's close. You know the one you sing Jingle Bells in? Aw, just kidding. The food was good. Really good french fries and hot dogs.
Then, we went to the most coolest car show. I thought it was gonna be a cool show where the cars did tricks and stuff, but they just bring their cars there to show off. 
One guy, my Dad's cousin Ben, took us for a ride in a really cool car. when I say cool I mean really cool. 
Then we went to see the model airplanes fly at the model airplane park. One was like a rocket. It did stunts. It went close to the ground. If I had an arrow on this blog to show you how close to the ground it went I would show you that it went all the way to the bottom of the screen. Well, not touching. Sorta.
After that we went to see real airplanes fly at, what's it called? The 94th Aerosquadron at the Van Nuys Airport. We saw only a couple planes. Not stunts. Just landing.
There was a big blown up wall there. And there was a little thing where they put a little flower at. And there was jeeps, really cool ones. Army jeeps. I sat in one. And there were cannons.
Then we took dinner to Verns house. I played drums. Isn't that cool? 
I never played drums except for that one time.