Unfazed and Uncaring: Valentine’s Day Rant for 2008

This year Valentine’s Day has no effect on me whatsoever.
Those may sound like the words of a bitter single woman, but trust me, they aren’t. This year, February 14th is nothing more than a calendar day. Another notch to count down the days until my birthday…a non-issue…a blimp on my radar.
Have I convinced you yet?
In times and relationships past, Valentine’s Day would cause a mad run to a store-any store-to get the current ‘boo’ something that said “I love you,” “I care,” and “this looks incredibly expensive,” for a cheap price. ‘V-Day’ would mean dresses, shoes, manicures, pedicures and fresh wraps for a night on the town. It meant forgetting about recent arguments for one night in exchange for positively mushy couple-dom. While I’ve always been a relationship type of girl, for once it’s perfectly okay that I’m not one half of one this year. If nothing else, I don’t have to be in the mad dash for the least crappy looking wallet for a current paramour. Or a card that looks, smells, or sounds nothing like me.
I thought I’d beaten the market at it’s own game in that I would become a black Martha Stewart; cutting, pasting, and glittering every surface of construction paper left over from high school days. My room would become a flurry of original poems, pictures, and string; I was “it’s a good thing” personified. This way, it was a win-win situation -I got rid of some art crafts, the boyfriends thought they got a one-of-a -kind gift. Either way, my checking account came out for the better.
So instead of some cheesy love poem, disgusting chocolate, or cheap jewelry, this year I’m simply celebrating the things I love every other day besides a martyred saint.
Right now, I love the fact that the writers are about to trade their picket lines for computer screens and typewriters. I have been praying for the day that a fresh “Desperate Housewives” comes on, so that my Sunday nights would be filled with something else besides reruns of awful television.
I love that the Grammy’s have ended, because it was the worst thing I’ve seen by way of award shows in a while.
I love that Sen. Obama won Louisiana’s primary Saturday, and that the people of the state are making more progressive choices.
So you see, while it may seem that I’m stonewalling the idea of love on Thursday, it’s quite the opposite. I’m fighting for every other day, the other 362 (Christmas and Thanksgiving excluded) days that are shunned and pushed aside for commercialism-I’m fighting for love everyday.
To prove my point, one of the most important reasons I will hail all things loved by me is the fact that on the 15th, all Valentine’s Day candy will be 75 percent off.