Day 45 - love and stuff

I had a list of 17 celebrations to try to work through today, some more obvious then others. What I've started to notice though is that if there's a celebration for one type of day there is often another for the complete opposite as well. That was true for today. I'll start with the obvious. St Valentine's Day. It's supposed to be about spending time with the one you love or letting the person  you have a crush on know that they have an admirer ( in a non-stalking kind of way). The card industry however have taken it over and turned it into a day to spend money on overpriced flowers and chocolates.  My attempt at celebrating was a gift of romantic dvds and books (it's also International Book Giving Day - tick) but really I'd rather have been doing the nice meal and bottle of wine thing. Life however gets in the way with kids needing taxied. Linked to today were Cream Filled Chocolates Day (during lent?), Call In Single Day (don't go to work as your colleagues will all be loved up and you'll feel left out), International Quirkyalone Day ( be happy being single), Condom Day ( self-exanatory) and Batman Sticker Day. Before you start with the "what's that got to do with Valentine's Day",  it was started as an anti-valentine's day thing for people who don't like seeing happy stuff to instead celebrate Batman who is dark and broody. Can't people just be happy for those who want to celebrate love rather than complain about being left out or feel the need to have something to do instead? By all means be happy that you're single but save your celebrations for another day!

I mentioned Book Giving Day. This is a nice idea to give books away, mainly to kids, schools, libraries etc. but why stop there?  I offered a free book on Twitter but didn't get a single response.  Admittedly I have hardly any followers so  not many people would have seen it, and it is the second in the series so would only interest those who had read the first book,  but all the same, I had hoped for at least one taker. If you fancy a free copy of Hollow City, the sequel to Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children the  comment below and I'll send it to you. I also responded to someone asking where they should send some kids books, hopefully they'll notice and send them to the local library. It was also Library Lovers Day so I'll treat that as celebrated!

Today was Ferris Wheel Day but there aren't any close enough to ride so that will have to wait for another day.

Have a Heart Day sounds like it should be Valentiny but it's actually a Canadian movement to think about teaching kids about how the country was colonised and thinking about integration. It's not something I can celebrate from here although a trip to Canada is very appealing!  I read a book by Mike Gayle where he travelled to America just to buy a replacement mug. Now that is commitment to a cause.  I don't think I'm quite there yet. Maybe I should start a crowd funding page to pay for some of the foreign celebrations?

There were some more serious days taking place today which may have been missed due to St Valentine's Day hogging the limelight. Donor Day is an important one. I'm registered on the organ donor. If I wasn't then I'd take today as a chance to do it. There's also blood donations to think about but I've been told that I'm not allowed to anymore since collapsing the morning after my last donation. It wasn't fun! Don't let that put you off though, sign up! You get free biscuits!

Lastly for today it was Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day. Details can be found at www.consumerhealthdigest.com/health-awareness/congenital-heart-defect-awareness-day.html. It's an American website but it is an issue which effects people everywhere so is worth reading. I had a girlfriend in college who found out that she had dilated cardiomyopathy, one such defect, and sadly passed away from it when it her early 20s. She had no idea that there was a problem until it suddenly materialised. There are plenty of UK websites as well with information and fund raising pages, such as www.bhf.org.uk or www.chsf.org.uk. I've donated a little something today and hopefully this blog will help a little to raise awareness.