So St. Valentine’s Day has come and gone once again. This one was a bit different for me in a number of ways. It has been a really long time since I’ve been single on V-day, which means I can probably count myself lucky. Of course this year, things changed a bit in my life (in regards to romantic relationships but also in other ways)…I haven’t talked much about it here because its been a little bit of a rough transition for me and I think it would quickly degrade into less than riveting prose. That notwithstanding, I am not at all anti-Valentines day. Every year, I remember people (both single and not) dreading the day for the undue pressure it places on people…throwing around “Hallmark Holiday” and all the rest of the somewhat tired and cliché lines. I always shrugged it off a bit because I never felt that way though I couldn’t really judge because I wasn’t in their shoes. Now, I am and looking back…I still don’t feel that way. I think that Valentine’s day is a fine holiday to have. It may be commercialized but so is every holiday in this country. I know many men look at it as a day when expectations are unnecessarily higher for them to produce something…candy, flowers, romance and all the rest. That may be the case…but isn’t it something that we designate a particular day when society says, go out and tell the person you love something sweet and do something nice for them. Should it be unnecessary? Yea. But it isn’t unnecessary, too often we as a society forget about those in our lives and if for one day a year we are forced into submission and made to look at life a bit differently, then I’m all for it. I can resent the buying of expensive gifts and the expectations that must be lived up to but that’s really a small price to pay. And now I’ve gone through the holiday on the other side of things and while I might have liked to have had someone there to share it with me…this year just wasn’t my year. I still do see the value in it though…the same way I see the value in Christmas and thanksgiving and Independence day and all the other singular holidays that we celebrate throughout the year. Why should valentine’s day get such a bad rap…it seems to me that it should be the easiest of them all, besides the rest of them you usually spend with family…and you don’t get to pick them. Valentine’s day is special in that regard…if you’ve got someone that’s great and if you don’t well then its just another day. There is one caveat to this whole thing though. Something that really pisses me off. Those little candy conversation hearts. They taste like chalk (or at least I imagine chalk would taste this way) and are usually as hard as a rock (or maybe as hard as chalk which is kind of like a rock). Plus, the sayings on the front are just stupid…its like eating a magnetic poetry set. In addition, there is this image in my mind of a lonely old sole sitting by himself eating the conversation hearts sobbing whenever he reads, “Be Mine” and realizing all he has is crappy candy. On a side note, I know its sacrilege in New England to say this but, NECCO wafers taste like crap. Actually they taste like conversation hearts (probably because they are made of the same stuff). Who thought a tough wafer candy would be a good thing, according to Wikipedia they were used in army rations during WWII…that alone should inform you of their evils. I will say that the conversation hears meet their nemesis in those little spicy cinnamon hearts and boxes of chocolate, thank goodness for them. Patrick OUT!!!
What I’m listening to: Ella Fitzgerald
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