As a rule I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day because, as a rule, I expect to be treated the same way every day, regardless of whether or not Hallmark declares it a holiday.

Sometimes, just to be contrary, I like to do even less than normal on Valentine’s Day because people are out en masse, and lets be honest… a lot of the time? People drive me crazy.  

This year I broke tradition just a little bit, and decided Saturday morning that I wanted to give MysteryMan a present. Not necessarily because it was Valentine’s Day, but because I was stumbling around Flickr Friday night and found the 365 Daysgroup of self-portraits, which inspired me.

As much as I love my Nikon, I’m not a huge fan of taking self-portraits, unless it’s of me doing something crazy like sticking my head down a hole for the sake of DIY. First of all, it takes a lot of time to set up a camera to take a picture of yourself, and it’s much easier and more satisfying to just snap pictures of other people. Secondly, I’m not that intrigued by how I look. I’m an average woman, my face is starting to age, I’ve been kicked in the nose one too many times, and occasionally I whack off all of my hair without remorse. You know? I am what I am.

However, the one thing I can say about self-portriats is that it’s way easier to do yourself what other people would have you comitted for suggesting they do. Wear very little clothing in the middle of the woods while it’s snowing, for example.

But I had this idea, and MysteryMan doesn’t really have any pictures of me, so I figured, what the hell? This will be a nice thing for him to have when we’re ninety and I look like a hunched over wrinkled little gnome.   

I liked the whimsy of it. And even I have to admit, sometimes it would be nice if the whole world could see you through the eyes of Photoshop.

But I can tell you this for sure, the next self-portrait you see of me will be taken on a beach, when it is no less than seventy-five degrees out. (And since we’re taking a weekend in Jamaica at the end of March, that could be sooner rather than later.) One day freezing my ass off for the sake of photographs is quite enough, thanks.

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