Well, this IS a dating blog, so it would be remiss of me to ignore this most obnoxious of holidays, wouldn’t it? And despite my best efforts to do so, I’ve been unable to ignore it, as I would prefer. I have never been fond of Valentine’s Day, probably because of its early connections to romantic love (as in during the High Middle Ages with the likes of the works of Chaucer; I mean, Chaucer was great and all but he breathed into existence this concept of a form of love that had never really existed before, and now we walk around taking for granted that things were always like this). I digress. As I tend to do. My point is, whether in a relationship or single – and I have almost always been in a relationship on this dreaded of all days – I have never been fond of Valentine’s Day. I am not inclined toward romanticism. I am not at all romantic. I barely acknowledge anniversaries, let alone some date on the calendar meant to celebrate one or more of the Valentine’s Saints which was then bastardized into a Capitalist enterprise of purchasing candy and stupid cards that tell your beloved (through the words of someone else) that you love them. Ugh! Just gag me, already!
Anyhow, Guy I Was Kind of Seeing (you may recall reading about him, although he’s been out of the picture for a couple of weeks) made mention of what he was going to plan for me for Valentine’s Day. And hence why he is no longer among us (here at my blog, I mean… He’s still alive, I assure you). Well, I told him that I don’t really do Valentine’s Day, so he dropped it there… but then when he started tossing around that dreaded ‘G’ word a few days later (*shudder* Girlfriend, for those of you who may not know what I mean when I say dreaded ‘G’ word) and the ‘l’ word (equally horrific – love), I knew it was time to extricate myself. Expeditiously. And so I did.
There have been other guys who have, in passing, made attempts to draw me out on this day, but I have refused. Not only because I will not partake in these most affected demonstrations of ‘love’, but because I have far too many things to do before my departure in 18 hours. As is my usual habit, I have yet to pack, even.
But what has been equally bizarre to me is the number of men on the dating websites that I have a profile on who have taken this day as an opportunity to make first contact. Why? I hate when people make some sort of extra effort just because it’s some stupid, arbitrary day on the calendar that was called Valentine’s Day and then consequently become some stupidly over-Capitalized day for romance. I just don’t do Valentine’s Day. I guess they don’t know that. I think it is common to perceive women as particularly desirous of a date on this must vomit-inducing of days. And if there are women out there who want dinner dates, boxes of chocolates, cheesy cards and bouquets – all the power to you! But leave me out of it.
Perhaps I’m jaded. But I don’t believe any of the bullshit our culture tells us about ‘love’ on a regular day, and my disdain for this nonsense becomes heightened on V-Day. So I shall retreat back into my space of solitude and leave you all to your loving and Cupiding and gifting each other of cliche crap.
Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends.
You’re such a rebel