Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Two Minutes Hate

Valentine's Day

Some may people may claim that I hate Valentine's Day because I have only had a girlfriend 2 of the 34 Valentine's Days that I have experienced. They may be partially right. I did kind of like Valentine's back in grade school when you had to give everyone a valentine...or maybe I just liked getting candy and Scooby Doo Valentines.


But as I grew older (and angrier?), I have come to view VD as a terrible holiday:
  • It is a holiday that is mainly propagated by the greeting card and candy companies. Obviously they only care about profits.

  • It is a holiday designed to make you feel like crap if you don't have a significant other on this one stupid day...you are somehow a misfit in society. Seriously, single people do not have a good option on this day...either you stay home and everyone thinks you are a loser or you go to a bar and everyone thinks your just trying to pick someone up so you don't feel like a loser.

  • It has become very generic where men are supposed to buy their loves flowers (oh but not any flowers, roses), candy, cards, and take them out for a romantic dinner and evening...variation to this routine is not encouraged.

  • Since this is so much of a tradition, everything costs way more than it usually does and all restaurants are packed.

  • Really? Only one day to celebrate your love, one day that is supposed to amend for you being an idiot to your significant other for the rest of the year?

  • If you plan a big romantic Valentine's, it is almost always a disappointment...there is just no way that reality can ever live up to the hype created.

Personally, I have always felt you should be nice to your significant other all year round, not squeeze it all into one day. Now give me one day a year where I can treat someone like shit and not have any future repercussions because it was St Gubby's Day and I would sign up for that...I'd even buy a card. Or let's go back to Scooby Doo and A-Team valentines and drop all the uber-romance crap.

I think these cleavers by Elizabeth McGrath would be perfect for Gubby Day as well as Valentine's Day.




End Hate



PS...Although I tend to boycott as much of the tradition as possible, I can not be the guy that completely ignores Valentine's Day. GF-Unit and I spent a nice day going to Coraline, with her son-unit, and America (human). We then proceeded to go out for a late lunch and headed to the Chops hockey game...definitely not your traditional Valentine's Day (for some reason hockey games don't come across as romantic) but nice enough.

2 comments:

Lax Guy said...

Down with Hallmark holidays!!!!!
Not even my wife likes flowers on Valentines - oh she likes flowers, but not overpriced flowers for a cliche fake holiday.
That said, she did like how I made her heart shaped fried eggs for breakfast. But I have a feeling that it had more to do with liking fried eggs than anything else.
How is this for nontraditional? We had our taxes done on Sat and then went to dinner at my dad's house. True, it's on a vineyard, but three out of my five siblings/step-siblings were there.

Michael said...

See that is nice...something to show you care without bending to the pressure of society saying that you have to give a dumb gift. She won't remember the chocolates in a couple weeks but she'll remember you took the time to cook heart-shaped eggs. Unless she suffers from anterograde amnesia, of course. Gifts in themselves don't bother me, it is the generic ones that do. You did good Aetraxx.