The V Word

There are an awful lot of hearts around at the moment you know.

I’m not really one to go all out on Valentine’s Day. Have never done the exchanging of gifts, I’ll send a card, maybe go for a meal out but that’s it really.

I don’t have anything against it as a day, I’m not one of those people who start foaming at the mouth and saying “You shouldn’t need a day to be romantic”. I agree, it shouldn’t be the only day that you are romantic, but if there’s chance for a little bit more and a day to take a little time out and be especially nauseating then why not take it?!

At the same time, I’m not going to line the pockets of some savvy businessmen who have latched on and want me to buy The Greatest Love Songs Ever of The Decade Ever and Ever Part II as a declaration of my love.

I’ll just make a card for the boyfriend and maybe we’ll go out somewhere and maybe we’ll stay in. Who knows?

Ah yes, “make a card”.

This is when living together becomes an irritation. Last year was easy peasy, I was living with Mum, plenty of time to get my needle and thread out. This year? He’s there ALL THE TIME.

Luckily I’ve had Stitch and Bitch on a Thursday evening to do some stitching, (although when we picked me up last week and asked me what I’d done I had to give the rather lame answer of “Oh nothing, I just couldn’t be bothered”) and in the evenings before he’s come home I’ve got my stitch on, and I have encouraged him to take lots of nice, long, relaxing baths, but it was looking like it wasn’t going to get finished.

My salvation came in a rather painful way though.

I have done my back in.

I would love to say that it was flying through the air on a trapeze, or skiing down a mountain, but I just slept a bit funny. And I woke up and it hurt. Then the next day it hurt a bit more. Then the next day a bit more. Then the next day a bit more. Then the next day I cried. Then I got a taxi home from work because I couldn’t walk, sit, stand or generally concentrate and I spent that day and the next lying on the floor at home.

It was irritating and incredibly annoying. I felt absolutely fine. I was at home, I could be doing things!

But my back wouldn’t let me.

“NO” it said when I asked it if it would mind me just sitting on the sofa with my legs out. “NO” it said when I asked it if it would mind if I laid my full length on the sofa. “YOU MUST LIE FLAT ON THE FLOOR.” It demanded.

I tried to reason with it. “But it’s annoying lying flat on the floor, can’t I just lie on my side?”

“NO. ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN. GET. FLAT.”

You can’t do anything! I thought I would spend lots of time piddling about on the internet, but I had to balance the laptop to do so and I figured that at some point I was going to get a broken nose when it fell on me. I figured I’d pick up my cross stitching but that too was annoying. My arms got tired from holding it in the air and because I was following a pattern I kept having to stop and put down the aida, pick up the pattern, see where I was and do the next line.

In one word.

FRUSTRATING.

But I am pig-headed. And I persevered because I knew that this was my silver lining. Yes I was in pain and probably overdosing on ibuprofen but here was the perfect time to get the boyfriend’s Valentine’s Day card made.

(Sometimes you have to look really hard for positives)

So hurray for me, it is done and I can relax for the next week or so.

On the floor.

(The pattern for the card came from The World of Cross Stitching magazine and was part of a Love Token sampler)

(My back is on the mend now, and has felt much better today. I am receiving some treatment in the form of acupuncture - probably more on that in a later post!)