Valentine's Day
I know Valentine's Day is a commercial holiday smothered in over-priced price-fixed meals at restaurants and over-hyped calories contained in cheap paper hearts, but I still wake up on Valentine's morning thinking that it is in fact Valentine's Day. I don't believe anyone who says they forgot it even happened. That's complete b.s. It's like forgetting your own birthday or Christmas. Almost completely impossible...
Regardless, I still like the holiday, or the principle of the holiday. I like walking into CVS and seeing hearts all around. I like smelling fresh roses when I enter Safeway. I like grabbing a bag of chocolate at the register in Target and nibbling on it as I drive back to my apartment. I like owning Valentine's Day socks to wear all year round with little Cupids throwing arrows. I like how Never Been Kissed and Sleepless in Seattle play on cable repeatedly during the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day. This isn't to say that I've always had excellent luck with romance on Valentines Day. Quite the contrary. I've just learned to love it for what it is. So my fondest memories of this splendid/ depressing/ ridiculous holiday, in a very particular order:
One memory- Freshman year of college. I was living in the sorority house. The guy I was dating at the time was a complete a-hole. Didn't know at the time that he was also dating someone else. I went out to dinner with an "art class" friend who had multiple piercings and preferred women with tattoos. He paid. That was nice. Later on that evening my roomie and I got a tub of icecream and took to the downstairs television room. All the single girls were out at the bars. We both thought that was pathetic. A-hole shows up around 10pm with a rose and a friend for my roomie. So that was V-day 1999.
The following year, I was totally into MG. We had decided it wasn't working about 2 weeks before the big day. In typical college Fraternity boy fashion, he had already started dating some blonde chick on exchange from a foreign country. I went to a Screw Valentine's Day party at a friend's apartment. I drank too much. I passed out around 10pm.
It wasn't until Senior year of college that I learned how to properly spend the evening of February 14th, with or without a boy. I bought Bagel Bites, Ben and Jerry's, and Velveeta Shells and Cheese. I bought a sweatshirt with a huge heart on it. I watched Sliding Doors, You've Got Mail, and Sleepless in Seattle. I didn't leave the house. 'Twas a good night. Pretty much every other year has followed that idea.
Jerk was the first guy I ever really spent time with, happily, on Valentine's Day. One year, Jerk and I got really dressed up and went to the Washington Square Diner. One year, we rented a hotel room a block from my apartment and spent the night watching Love Actually and eating Chinese Food. Last year, well last year we spent the night fighting, but that was pretty much how I spent most of 2005 with Jerk.
So this year, tomorrow, APK and I will be picnicking in my bedroom. Eating pizza. Watching no one putting Baby in a corner. Sounds like a groovy evening. And I've sent Valentine's Day cards out too. Hello Kitty cards. In pink.
And what's so wrong with enjoying a day purely dedicated to making each of us long for a little love in our life. Taking a day to be depressed or happy or sad or drunk in recognition of human relationships... and allowing me an excuse to eat nothing but chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Regardless, I still like the holiday, or the principle of the holiday. I like walking into CVS and seeing hearts all around. I like smelling fresh roses when I enter Safeway. I like grabbing a bag of chocolate at the register in Target and nibbling on it as I drive back to my apartment. I like owning Valentine's Day socks to wear all year round with little Cupids throwing arrows. I like how Never Been Kissed and Sleepless in Seattle play on cable repeatedly during the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day. This isn't to say that I've always had excellent luck with romance on Valentines Day. Quite the contrary. I've just learned to love it for what it is. So my fondest memories of this splendid/ depressing/ ridiculous holiday, in a very particular order:
One memory- Freshman year of college. I was living in the sorority house. The guy I was dating at the time was a complete a-hole. Didn't know at the time that he was also dating someone else. I went out to dinner with an "art class" friend who had multiple piercings and preferred women with tattoos. He paid. That was nice. Later on that evening my roomie and I got a tub of icecream and took to the downstairs television room. All the single girls were out at the bars. We both thought that was pathetic. A-hole shows up around 10pm with a rose and a friend for my roomie. So that was V-day 1999.
The following year, I was totally into MG. We had decided it wasn't working about 2 weeks before the big day. In typical college Fraternity boy fashion, he had already started dating some blonde chick on exchange from a foreign country. I went to a Screw Valentine's Day party at a friend's apartment. I drank too much. I passed out around 10pm.
It wasn't until Senior year of college that I learned how to properly spend the evening of February 14th, with or without a boy. I bought Bagel Bites, Ben and Jerry's, and Velveeta Shells and Cheese. I bought a sweatshirt with a huge heart on it. I watched Sliding Doors, You've Got Mail, and Sleepless in Seattle. I didn't leave the house. 'Twas a good night. Pretty much every other year has followed that idea.
Jerk was the first guy I ever really spent time with, happily, on Valentine's Day. One year, Jerk and I got really dressed up and went to the Washington Square Diner. One year, we rented a hotel room a block from my apartment and spent the night watching Love Actually and eating Chinese Food. Last year, well last year we spent the night fighting, but that was pretty much how I spent most of 2005 with Jerk.
So this year, tomorrow, APK and I will be picnicking in my bedroom. Eating pizza. Watching no one putting Baby in a corner. Sounds like a groovy evening. And I've sent Valentine's Day cards out too. Hello Kitty cards. In pink.
And what's so wrong with enjoying a day purely dedicated to making each of us long for a little love in our life. Taking a day to be depressed or happy or sad or drunk in recognition of human relationships... and allowing me an excuse to eat nothing but chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
posted by Sam.I.Am @ Monday, February 13, 2006
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