Things I don't understand #12...

...Valentines Day.
Fine, I sort of get it. Love and love and celebrate the one you love and blah, blah, blah. But doesn't this made up holiday (and make no bones about it, it's so made up it hurts) create more problems and heartache that it ever resolves? I'm sure some of you (all right, most) will attribute my seemingly poor attitude about V-day to the fact that I am, indeed, single and haven't yet found my one true love (looks misty-eyed up to the heavens and sighs deeply). That could be true. But I have actually done a couple of these when I was in relationship, and all it really seemed to be was another chance for me not to meet the expectations of certain females ("That's just because you haven't found the right one!"). And I do not need any bonus attempts in that area. Sometimes (ok, once at least), I actually did succeed. But even then, I'm left with the feeling that I'm the sucker who got fooled by the evil-genius-inventor-of-made-up-holiday. And like I said, there are those that take being alone on this day extremely hard. I'm too much of a pompous, arrogant, loner to let it really bother me, but there are some. This might be especially true for the fairer of the sexes. I've seen girls cry, pout, and be just plain venomous on this day for seemingly no good reason. But, back to me.

There are two things in particular that I don't understand about this day. One is that people are starting to get a little fuzzy on the fact it's just one day. We are not in the Valentine season. I still can't find my copy of "The 12 Days of Valentines." It is a day. I hear people saying, "Oh, we decided to do it (Valentines Day, not "it", geez get your mind out of the gutter) early," or, "We're just going to celebrate one day this weekend", or (even worse), "Well, the actual day were doing whatever and then this weekend we're going to where ever." Thus turning a made up holiDAY into a full four-day weekend. And I think all this proves it that this day has been turned into just another excuse to buy people gifts, and (Problem #2) giving them to people who really shouldn't be trading "Valentines". My first recollection of this phenomenon was probably in about the fourth grade. When I got a Valentines gift from my parents and grandparents. I'm guessing I wore an expression somewhere between confusion and incredulous. I might have asked my parents if we were "going together" (what a punk kid). I believe at that point I informed them that if it was o.k., that they please not bother getting me anything for Valentines...ever. I think my grandparents got the memo but probably immediately discarded it (I'm kinda scared to go get the mail today). I've heard reports that friends and extended family and all sorts of random relationships are now exchanging Valentine gifts. I just don't get it (thus the title). I guess I just feel that if the person you're giving a "Valentine" to doesn't generate any sort of sexual tension (you know, that there be some chance that "it" might happen at some point, and yes, this time I mean "it"), then don't bother. You might be straying from the script.

And now I'll go pray that next year I have to worry about it...