on valentine's day

there are hollidays i like (christmas is cool, easter is fun, and on halloween, i actually fit in a little), even hollidays that don't exist, per se, but are still celebrated by a select few (international talk like a pirate day, sep 19), then there is the rare, but there, holliday that i simply cannot stand.

normal people call it valentines day.

it's not the day i detest, it's the implications.  it's been so distorted over the years that it no longer has anything to do with love or relationships, but deep, hardcore consumerism.  mind you, yes, america is a capitolist society and i can support almost any type of consumerism (mmm... mcdonnalds....) but not at the expense of something real.  there is no love, anymore.

for this particular event children are taught young that love = money.  when i was growing up, my school had this thing where you or your parents or any nice townsperson could order different things to be sent to the students during school, like carnations with little personalized cards, orange crush sodas for your crush, and hire the high school show choior to some over and sing "baby face" or something to you in the middle of class.  i rarely got any of these things, which was miserable (already shoving the media's idea in our faces that if no one buys you anything, you must not be loved), and even worse when i did get one, because i always found out later they came from my parents. almost pitiful, really, in the sight of my fellow classmates.  so much so that, in seventh grade, a bunch of kids got together and sent me six crush sodas, and four flowers as a joke.  (one that, unfortunately for them, backfired when i didn't seem the least bit put off -- my argument was yeah, so? which of us got free sodas and flowers?  oh, me! )

but in recent years (or maybe it just seems recent because now i'm starting to notice) it's escaladed to the point where a girl cannot be accepted by her peers unless someone spends money on them for these silly things.

i've been told that the only reason i have such a cynnical view on valentines day is because i'm not in a relationship myself.  well, yes, i am single, but (given the local choices) i'm not in a huge hurry to change that status. because of this, i assume i'll be celebrating the holliday the way all others of the single, yet pathetic persuasion will: stay home, adorn my most festive flannels, have a Bridget Jones double feature, and, in ovation to the movie choice, will enjoy a relationship with two men simultaneously: the first called Ben, the other, Jerry.

though, i suppose, were i in a completely different situation, if i had the doting boyfriend, i perhapse wouldn't mind him giving in to the horrid consumerism, and ordering me flowers, chocolates, and/or a stuffed red gorilla in a lab coat called "Dr. Love-Monkey".  if i were in the proper position to take advantage of the situation, i would probably recant this whole rant...  'till then, i remain cynnical.... waiting for someone to change my mind....