As February comes to an end and I have nothing to say about the Olympics, I must revisit some of my own thoughts of love as the light of sitcoms shine into my heart.

Ahhh, love. All I have to say to that is BLERGHHH! No, I’m not some spinster living in an upstairs apartment with two cats and a pint of homemade triple fudge brownie ice cream in the freezer. I’m a married woman living in an upstairs apartment with two cats and a pint of homemade triple fudge brownie ice cream in the freezer. I’m not put off by love. I love my hubby. But I frustrate him every year with my vitriol against the Hallmark sponsored day of red and pink. He wants to do nice things for me, but I completely rebuff every flower, every chocolate and ever traditional valentiney thing that he would try to do. This year, though, the lead up to Valentine’s Day was paved with comedic gold with Valentine themed or tinged episodes of my favourite comedies. Will the lessons learned soothe the heart of this savage anti-valentiner?

Parks & Recreation – Galentine’s Day

Galentine’s Day… I used to do Anti-Valentine’s Day myself, parties full of garlic and broken heart cookies and movies about love that has gone wrong… oh so wrong. I didn’t have beef with love, but I could punch Valentine’s Day in the face. Easily.

I could do Galentine’s Day though. I LOVE that concept. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a holiday and more. Women sitting around telling love stories, and eating good food. Okay, so maybe it’s the eating with friends. ANYway… This episode was great. Ron Swanson is the best character ever!

After Leslie’s mom, Marlene, tells the tale of falling in love with a lifeguard before her parents broke it off, Leslie takes the tale to Justin, who wants to try to get them back together. Justin successfully tracks down Frank finding him in Illinois. Justin and Leslie drive down to meet him, but as the day progresses, with John Larroquette doing a great turn as the aged lifeguard Frank, Leslie realizes that Frank is crazy and will not make her mom happy. Marlene is at first astonished to see Frank, but the more he talks, the more she knows that she wants nothing to do with him. Frank offers to give Marlene another chance, but she turns him down. He takes the stage and “shows” Marlene what she’s missing out on. Leslie doesn’t know why she is disappointed with Justin’s attitude until Ron Swanson points out that Justin is just a tourist who vacations in people’s lives, looking for the story before leaving. This leads Leslie to break up with Justin on the most perfect day of love (gag).

Lesson for this Anti-Valentiner: Do NOT track down old flames after more than 40 years. Also, beware of men who care a lot more about your story than you.

Poor Tom wants to tell his ex-wife that he likes her, but she tells him that they can only be friend. So he tries to blackmail her into getting to fall in love with him. Somehow, even though he tried that, she still ends up forgiving him at the end.

Lesson for this Anti-Valentiner: Cute counts for something. What? I don’t know, but something.

April realizes that Ann may still have feelings for Andy (there’s a whole bunch of “A” names in this sentence). Ann may be growing tired of her nice, normal relationship with Mark.

Lesson for this Anti-Valentiner: Ladies know how to bring the drama! (Psych! I already knew that!)