Consider this a rant. I can't decide if I should make it the week of rants against Valentine's day, or just the super long, ultra extended rant-O-rama about how much love and all things associated with it sucks. We'll see what progresses...
Ok, I don't hate love. Not really. I think it's wonderful that all my friends who found love have found it. I wish I could be in that category too. But I'm not. And apparently I've been chosen to carry the banner for bitter single people everywhere.
And that's ok. I think I can get behind this. I think that I can be good at this. There are many good things about singleness (I'm sure I'll think of them later). That is not the problem.
The problem is Valentine's day. I object, on behalf of single people everywhere (whether they object or are still holding out hope that "love" will happen to them) to the very concept of Valentine's day. What's with the ONE day per year to express your love and appreciation for your beloved??? Isn't that supposed to be done, in some small measure, every day? I mean, if you're doing it right, you should be showing your love every day, right? Send an IM to show you're thinking of him/her, give a hug and a kiss goodbye on the way to work, do something thoughtful like making dinner (or getting take-out) when he/she has had a bad day.
And the greeting cards... don't get me started on that! It's all a conspiracy on the part of greeting card companies to make you think that the card is important. It's a conspiracy to make me think that I'm the only woman on the planet who doesn't buy cards - no, not even buy cards but who doesn't have a STASH of cards for every occasion that she can go to pull a card out of to express exactly the right emotion at exactly the right moment. NOOOOO... it's not the card, it's the present. Duh... everyone knows that.
To be fair to the guys - I think they get shafted when it comes to Valentine's day. They're expected to do something nice, something thoughtful on this one day of the year, and if they don't then they're in the doghouse. Well why should you expect them to do something thoughtful and loving one day a year when they can't remember your birthday or remember to put the seat down? It's unfair. Of course, if I had a boyfriend I'd expect him to do something nice for Valentine's day. But candy is out (is that a veiled hint that he thinks I'm fat), and flowers is too expensive for the one day of the year they jack up the prices on roses, and other flowers might cause an allergic reaction. And god forbid they should get something PRACTICAL (like a vacuum cleaner or something for the house or car), even if I've asked for it.
Just a hint for the guys - the gift needs to be personal, something that SHE will love (not that YOU will love). Lingerie is a nice idea, but I'll bet that if you buy her something really sexy it'll be uncomfortable, will get worn once and then put away, never to be seen again.
Does she like to read? Get her a favorite book (or a gift certificate if you have to - but gauge whether she'd think a gift certificate is thoughtful or shows lack of imagination). What are her hobbies? Get her something to go along with her hobbies. Get a CD of her favorite artist (if you don't know who that is, you're in trouble anyway). Think about the favorite gift you ever got and what made it special (probably the fact that the giver knew what got to you), and do something like that for her.
Geez, I got off my rant into sounding like an advice columnist. Bitter, mean-spirited, yeah.... damn, I lost my jones to rant about this. Apparently this will be the week of rants.
Posted by cshell at February 9, 2004 10:14 PM