February 14, 2009

Ahhh, Valentine's Day.

It's even the most content single girl's kryptonite. The red and pink aisles of CVS and Walgreens have been haunting me for weeks. Say all you want about it being a Hallmark holiday that means nothing. If you're saying that, I guarantee that you are in a relationship. Let me just say there's a huge difference between choosing not to celebrate and not celebrating because you have no choice. In other words, have no one to celebrate with.

Valentine's Day is especially frustrating for me because not only do I loooove holidays and excuses to celebrate (and it makes me upset just on the grounds that I can't fully participate in the day), but I'm a huge dorky romantic at heart who believes in love more than anything in this world. I love love. I think that everyone who CAN celebrate Valentine's Day should, and yet most relationship people are so blah about it. I think this mentality is kind of like how you don't want to waste food because there are starving people in the world, but yet you still don't always eat everything on your plate and occasionally let food in your fridge go to waste. You are so used to what you have that you forget that not everyone has it; you forget you are lucky to have it. But that doesn't change the fact that you are indeed lucky, that you do have something that others wish they had. And there's no excuse for not celebrating your good fortune on a day made for that celebration.

But I'll end my rant there. What is Valentine's Day, really? A day to celebrate love. And this year, I'd like to think of it as just that, because it allows me to participate a little bit more. Let's just say that, for me, romantic love has been dead for so long that it could be considered extinct, but there is still a lot of love in my life. I have a wonderful family who loves me and sends me VDay cards. I have friends who love me enough to try to persuade me that everyone hates Valentine's Day so I don't feel so bad (even thought that rationality backfires with me, I appreciate the effort). I have co-workers who love me enough to not let me order red velvet cake at our girls-only pre-Valentine's Day dinner, when my willpower starts to fade in the face of everyone else's desserts on the table.

Don't get me wrong, it definitely sucks to be single on Valentine's Day, while everyone else I know gets to spend it with people they love. No amount of positive thinking will get me to the point where I don't think that it's a total bummer. But I'm happy that the people I love have people that they love.

And, hey, maybe the gym will be pretty empty today because everyone is doing VDay stuff and I won't have to park a million miles away. I've decided to ditch my original Valentine's Day plan of hibernation (stay on the couch all day to avoid having to realize what day it is) by going to see "He's Just Not That Into You" tonight, so either I'll be surrounded by girls just like me (it's so not a good date movie) or no one (since everyone is at date movies). Which means no crowds. No one's bringing me chocolates or taking me out to a dinner that will ultimately just ruin my diet. An honestly, if I was in a relationship right now I wouldn't want chocolates or a fancy dinner anyway. I'd want new sneakers.