Why Hating on Valentine's Day is Stupid

Every February singles across America are bitter because they don't have that "one special someone" to lavish them with love, or to lavish with love. They're bitter because they feel as if the world has taken up arms against their singleness so they hate love, they hate positivity and they decide to hate their friends who happen to be in a romantic relationship. I happen to find that whole mindset to be ignorant, spiteful and stupid. 

It's common enough knowledge around these here parts that I am single and I have never had a boyfriend. I've written a few times over the years about relationships, some things positive and some negative. I've also written about love a few times. Those last two overlap but whatever. My point is I'm single and I've been bitter about it, but Valentine's Day doesn't really make me bitter. I'm indifferent because I don't really need to lean that far one way or the other.

It's also stupid for people who are single to pine, cry, and rage about Valentine's Day when conversations like "Worst Valentine's Gifts Ever" get written, every fucking year. Or how about "Valentine's Dos and Don'ts" And to manipulate people there are lists such as "Gifts for Every Woman in Your Life". People who are single take for granted all of this shit, I read it and make a confused face and laugh at the stupidity. Why is it also looked at as the ma's responsibility to make Valentine's Day "perfect"? We're I able to I'd wine and dine my fella because I'd want to.

Going back to single-bitterness, people have taken to calling February 14 "Singles Awareness Day". I feel sorry for these people because they can't accept everything else they have in their lives. I don't have A Significant Other, I have many Significant Others, I generally call them 'friends' because that creeps all of us out a bit less. On a given week I interact with anywhere between 20-50 people who worry about me, who notice when they haven't seen me in a while, who like to see me. Since last February I've made around ten new friends to hang out with, I've added a shit ton of Facebook friends, but that's different, and I feel loved.

I feel loved because I don't sit around waiting for one person to tell me they care about me. I'm not waiting for one person to buy me flowers and candy, to take me out to dinner or to stay in watching some delightfully terrible movie because why should I put everything into one person? That's too much stress and responsibility, it's ridiculous.

People say Valentine's Day makes them aware of how tragically alone they are; that's every fucking day. Think passively about the last movie you watched, just about any genre, there's a male and female lead, they hate each other, then love each other, have a falling out then they get back together before the credits roll. Action movie: the action hero/ine rescues someone else and the victim they rescued falls madly in love with them half way through the movie, there are some sloppy make outs, maybe a fade to black sex scene and finally they walk hand in hand into the sunset after the victim's been saved one last time. Romanctic comedy (I can't remember the last movie that was just a romance without needing the poorly handled comedy) Super hot really successful woman meets super hot/moderately hot/seriously unattractive and unsuccessful man who teachers her how to live and love life again, they have a falling out over something she initially found endearing, they realize they can't live with one another so they gt back together. Credits. The comedy, male lead living a mediocre life meets super hot chick and cracks jokes about the main plot and some how gets his life entwined with hers, but not before they break it off for like a movie-day then get back together, a few more jokes and credits.

And it just keeps going on, many movies have a lead and their romantic counterpart and it's generally the same up and fucking down and people get pissed off because one day celebrates relationships. I'm more irritated that I have to deal with some hamfisted, unrealistic romantic relationship in my action movie instead of seeing more explosions, more trains crashing into each other and more monsters getting their asses handed to them. No, in the middle of the fight the leads realize this may be their last or their only chance to tell each other they love them, so movie time slows to like...30 seconds movie time equals 2 minutes real time, so their liplock is on DBZ levels and how fucking long has this been going on.

I'm not lying when I say I wouldn't want to wake up in the morning with someone else in my bed or that I don't want someone else to think about me all the time, but I'm not going to hate other people or a holiday just because I don't have any one else. I have many people. Hell, on Monday I walked around campus giving holographic dinosaurs, temporary tattoos and candy to people. I gave them to people who said they hated Valentine's Day, and they told me I made their day better.

Valentine's Day isn't about one person caring about you, it's about anyone caring, it's about knowing that people want you to be happy. I did what I did because I like giving people things, and I wanted candy but I didn't want to eat the entire bag on my own. You know what's amusing? Seeing a 23 year old geek out over a holographic dinosaur that shows it's skeleton. Seeing the 27 year old who has real tattoos try to put a tie-die patterned peace sign on his forehead, or the 19 year old rush to put a creepily disembodied puppy on her wrist. And that people can't resist the delicious taste of a Reese's mini-cup or a Jolly Rancher lollipop. For a moment people forgot that they didn't have a date for dinner and took joy in the kindness of a relative stranger.

I don't know, people put too much stock into one person caring about them that they forget about anybody else around them who notices when they're not there. If you disappeared for even 24 hours and nobody knew where you went, I'm sure at least one person would wonder and be worried. I like to think about all of my relationships more then just thinking about my non-existent romantic relationships

I dunno, I've just never understood the rage and hatred, especially when people in relationships still hate Valentine's Day because they have to make an effort to prove to someone they love them. The hassle it all is because society puts so much into pushing one day of love and compassion that if the 14th sucks then the relationship is destined to fail. You never win it seems, so I'd rather be happy with many, seeing many and enjoying friendships instead of depressed with one and having no one else to spend my time with.

Jasmine P.

Christmas Traditions

Christmas has the stereotypical traditions of opening presents Christmas morning. Spending time with the family, decorating and all that jolly TV Christmas bullshit. With my family our traditions were more along the lines of a bad Christmas comedy, but instead of a myriad of issues for the entirety of the break, there were usually 1 or 2 per winter. Or things weren't really issues, but different from the American Norm. for Christmas.

Christmas 2006: We decided to stay in Reston because our mother didn't want to make the long distance ride from VA to NY and back so we stayed down there and the family came to the house instead. This was also our last Christmas with mom.

Christmas 2005: We decide to open our presents late on Christmas Eve then drive up to New York mad early on the 25th to celebrate Christmas a second time with the NY relatives.

Christmas 2001: This is the Christmas before my Grandfather died. It was either over Christmas or Thanksgiving break he fell ill, so we kind of packed up late so we could drive up here to see him for the holiday. The traffic was hell, it took up something like 14 hours to get here. We stopped once because I had to use the bathroom and the winter iced over so much we couldn't just chip it off, we had to wait for the window to melt enough before we left the rest stop.

On other Christmas trips me and Dor would be packed into the back of the Buick with presents for the three of us, and for the family all around us. We'd get up here stiff legged from having no space to move for the entirety of the 4 hour drive.

This has all been just a really elaborate segue for Christmas 2007: The Trip.

So, we're moving along fine enough, but once we hit the Jersey Turnpike there was construction going on on one of the overpasses so we have to take a detour. This shit happened at about 5 this morning, I was pissed because the sucky road woke me up. Any who, we get off of 95 somewhere round the whereabouts of some road on Kings Street or something, I can't quite remember that one, I kind of went back to sleep on the first thirty minutes that we weren't where we wanted to be. When I woke up we were in the middle of possibly Trenton, NJ as we kept seeing signs for or about Trenton. When I realized we were in Jersey out of boredom I looked around for the Absolute Fencing Gear store. It was 5.30 and I hadn't quite fallen back to sleep yet. I'm not quite sure which road we were on, but we eventually pass a sign that says 'Princeton'. This amused me because of what Glenn said about not wanted to drive to Jersey. I laughed at Glenn in my head for a moment as we continued on not I-95. We eventually got to US1, I don't know what US1 is, but we were on that bitch for a long time. We eventually crossed a bridge that lead us to Newark and from there we got into the Bronx safely. I ended up going back to sleep until we stopped somewhere up here and the cold coming into the car woke me up.

So, Christmas 2007 hasn't even quite started and we've ha one interesting trip.

Maybe this type of story is what Glenn was talking about when he said I have the best stories about my brothers. I think his stories are more interesting than mine, but I also know all my stories back to front, and front to back. Well, let's see where break takes us this time. Last time I saw the Empire State Building, this time I got a mini-half-assed tour of Jersey. We'll just see.

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I actually just remembered the best/worst part of our Christmas Tradition. My Mom and Aunt Cheryl staying up all night trying to finish wrapping our gifts. We would always have to wait until they woke up after they stayed up until like...3, 4, 5 am. It was always funny, but annoying, but it happens damn near every year. For as long as I can remember they've been doing this shit, and my Aunt just said how she was going to have everything wrapped early today, and failed so she's going to be up half the night wrapping gifts for people.

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Adios for now
:salute and bow:
Jasmine P.