With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I have to be honest about something: I’ve found myself throwing up in my mouth a little at all the jewelry commercials enticing men with promises of beautiful diamonds for only $99.99! Or the florists offering a dozen roses for just $9.99! I just don’t get it. And I’m not just talking about how someone thinks that jewelry for under a hundred bucks is going to do the job (that’s another blog post).
Just because someone decided February 14th is a day we all need to “celebrate our love,” we’re now obligated to go out to a pre-fixe dinner that costs more than the aforementioned jewelry and roses combined! Or worse, buy some teddy bear holding a heart full of chocolates? Forgive me if I’m not interested in partaking. It’s not because I’m anti-love or romance. Quite the contrary. You should see me bawl my eyes out EVERY TIME I read The Notebook. I just don’t want the pressure. And I know the future hubs doesn’t either.
This feeling has made me the hero in every relationship I've been in (including my current one—you’re welcome, honey!). Telling a guy you’re not a big fan of February 14th is like telling him you LOVE when he goes to strip clubs. If you love me, you’ll tell me. If you want to buy me flowers, you’ll do it because you want to, (tulips are always welcome!) not because Hallmark tells you to. If you want to take me to a crazy expensive dinner, shouldn’t we do it when it’s up to us what we’re ordering? Not when we’re forced to work off a menu that could be from someone’s wedding—chicken or fish?
If this makes me the Scrooge of Valentine’s Day, then so be it. Because this story is about me. I’m not going to turn my nose up at you if you love getting a bouquet of mylar balloons at the office or look forward to adding to your ever-growing collection of white teddy bears squeezing red hearts (okay, maybe I will judge that one just a little). I’m just not going to be sitting next to you in that overpriced restaurant staring into my significant other’s eyes when we’d both rather be home watching The Amazing Race on Sunday night. (Okay, maybe that’s just me!)
And don’t even get me started when you’re single on Valentine’s Day. Even. Worse. Lucky for me, it’s one of my best friend’s birthdays. So we’d always go out together or throw a party to avoid the depression that can so easily set in if you don’t have someone to give you one of those darn teddy bears. (Remember when Samantha checks in on Carrie to make sure she hasn’t hung herself from her curtain rod?) But single or in a relationship, V-day just ain’t for me. Maybe it’s the rebel inside, that teenager deep within me that hates to be told what to do, but I refuse to succumb to the social pressures of V-day. My solution? I’ve logged it in the lame-holiday category and made a reservation at that five-star restaurant I’ve been dying to try—for February 15th.
Do you celebrate Valentine's Day?
Lisa Steinke, along with her best friend Liz Fenton, co-authored the chick lit novel I’ll Have Who She’s Having and co-created the popular Chick Lit blog, Chick Lit is Not Dead.
