Selfie Does Galentine's Day

Last week, I was perusing purewow.com and came upon this article which was all about why the author will never, ever celebrate Galentine’s day and I was like…”What in the actual hurrrrrrrrrr?” First, I think our Patron Saint of Optimistic, Female Badassery in the form of Fictional Characters, Leslie Knope, would disagree with the characterization of this holiday. In its original, sitcom-based form (and yes, I am a human who has watched far too much Parks and Rec so this is on par with going to Comicon and having a convo about the science of Star Wars), Galentine’s Day is about “ladies celebrating ladies” and was not ever a celebration that occurred in lieu of Valentine’s Day. Secondly, I’ve certainly never celebrated…any holiday…in NYC but I’ve never been anywhere that Galentine’s Day was some sort of weird stigmatization of singledom. In fact, my friends and I have always used Galentine’s Day as a chance to take time out of our busy schedules, to hang out and reconnect. Sometimes, that’s even included women coming to Austin  from out of town in order to have a mini reunion with all of our friends. The whole, entire point of said event is to make sure to take time for our really, really cherished and important female friendships regardless of career, marital, relationship or familial status. Any place that tries to monetize something like Galentine’s Day – which legitimately exists from.A.TV.Show or  markets it like female friendships only matter if you don’t have a significant other is pretty effing gross and should be avoided at all costs. To wit, I legitimately hope that the author just missed the freaking point but if not, and that is something that businesses are doing, UGH. Just so much ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggh. I, of course know, there are however plenty of events that revolve entirely around relationship status, which I fully agree is flipping unnecessary but this ain’t it. And quite frankly,  I’m really happy to have any excuse to get together and grab a glass of sparkling with any of the many, many accomplished, inspiring, aspirational badass women in my life – regardless of whether or not the name is IG friendly or cutesy af.

*Steps off Soap Box*

In the spirit of Selfie Does and its mission statement, looking for joy in the everyday, to me, necessarily includes being more generous and thoughtful to the people that I care about. So this year, I’m grabbing dinner with a few of my close friends to enjoy one of the many, many new(ish) restaurants in Austin and grab a glass of bubbly (McSee Ya, Dry Jan!). I have friends who are amazing at giving gifts – like, they know you’ll like something even if you’ve never even thought about it before in your life. Like a stylish clutch with a wrist attachment which is super useful because I travel a lot. Or a dainty gold “love” necklace which is not something that I would ever have stopped to look at myself but I’ve worn it most days since it was given to me by a cherished friend on Valentine’s Day. The point being, I’d love to surprise and be generous to my friends more so this year, I wanted to incorporate some gifts into our Galentine’s Day celebration.

This particular group of girlfriends love Disney and Harry Potter – it’s very Orlando of us. This kind of makes us sound like tools but *shrugs * everyone likes what they like and fun is fun! I learned about this company Spireside a few years ago. They make candles that smell.like.Disney World. As in, they make candles that capture how specific hotels smell (Disney purposefully engineers this so it’s super clever and dope) and even rides like Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Carribbean. You know how water at theme parks has a distinct smell? Yeah, that plus the rest of the ride. So, I’ve been really intrigued and grabbed candles that smell like the ride Soarin’ and Pirates of the Caribbean plus a candle that smells exactly like Dolewhip. For the fourth candle, I snagged one that is supposed to smell like Three Broomsticks from Harry Potter, butterbeer and all. I also used this opportunity to try out a cosmetics brand that is supposed to be great but at a lower price point. Colourpop did a collaboration last year based on the Disney Princesses and honestly, the packaging is so cute and fit with the theme and the makeup itself seems like it has really nice formula and color pay-off. When I give gifts, I really love having a theme and being creative around that and hopefully, my girlfriends will be super surprised about their Galentine’s gifts!

How about you? Y’all tell me- Do you love or hate Galentine’s Day? Does the name annoy you? Have you seen companies market it as only for single females for some reason? Do you have plans? What kinds of gifts do your girlfriend’s love?

Happy Galentine’s/Valentine’s/Wednesday/Badass Women’s Day to all of you!

Xo,

Selfie