I do wish I owned stock in Hallmark...

I'm not going to go off on some long rant about Valentines day. 'It's not a real holiday, it was made up by greeting card companies to make money', blah, blah, blah. It's all been said. The truth is, I don't have any strong opinions about it one way or the other. (Full disclosure: I say this as an Anti-Valentines Day cake bakes away in my oven.) In fact, I rather selfishly enjoy it for the wide variety of candy available.

I've had good Valentine's Days and bad. Single and coupled. One of the best VD's I ever experienced, was when I was a junior in high school. My fellow rebellious, anti-everything, goth-punk boyfriend at the time, who I'd been dating for a month or so, presented me with a beautiful black rose with a chain wrapped around the stem, after school that day. (We were so hardcore.) It was the most amazing gift I'd ever received from a boy, and I floated off to detention in a state of bliss. How simple things were back then... After high school, my girlfriends and I, who were perpetually single, took to holding annual Anti-VD parties. If memory serves, these soirees typically included condom balloons, cake, copious amounts of tequila and a whole lotta' bitchin' about not getting laid enough. Those were good times...

When you work in the restaurant industry, it's pretty much mandatory that you work holidays--understandably so. They are the busiest days of the year, particularly VD. Last February 14th, I was employed at a low-end, corporate Italian eatery, where I found myself scheduled for a double-shift. At any other restaurant, this would have meant big bucks, however in my experience, the cheaper the food, the cheaper the customers. Over the course of the night, at one of my tables, I actually had a guy propose to his girlfriend. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but if I were dating a fella and he chose to propose marriage to me in the middle of a loud, crowded, crappy restaurant, over $8.00 bowls of mediocre spaghetti and jug wine, I likely would have walked out the door and hitch-hiked home. But bless her heart, she said yes! (We comped their tirimisu.) I'm sure they'll have a wonderful life together and ultimately, they happily went home with each other that night, whereas I went home with sore feet and cold chicken cannelloni.

More than anything, I think the reason people (singles especially) tend to hate this holiday, is because it gets them thinking about whether or not the right person is out there. Lately, I feel as though I've been wasting so much time hung up on the wrong ones, I wouldn't know the right one if he smacked me upside the head with a box of chocolates. When you're single, this day does nothing except make you more aware of that fact. Everywhere you turn, there is a giant, heart-shaped something in your face and couples as far as the eye can see. It can be both overwhelming and nauseating. So, I will go to work tomorrow and face the inevitable. I can only hope the night goes by quickly and I make enough money to buy myself a decent bottle of wine with which to celebrate February 15th or "50% off candy day".