As I stand here, looking down at the various people scrambling about, What I see is people in a mad scramble to find a perfect gift. The annual quest to exceed the standard set the year before. Men who have become obsessed with the want, no, I say, the obligation to prove their love to that one special woman on this day. An obligation that sees them bring forth every last ounce of their will and strength to hopefully stand triumpant and gain the right to claim the highest honor of love from that one woman they hold above all others. As I see this, one singular thought enters my mind. A thought that is becomes more truthful with each passing year. It is this thought, this truth that while immaterial, becomes more and more solid with each rotation of the year to this day.
…Batman, you were right. You were always right. Make cash, wear weird clothes, stick to the shadows unless you have to come outside, avoid getting trapped in a relationship, and most importantly, fuck what others think. "
I like Valentine’s Day. Some people just aren’t romantic. And at least as many people aren’t with girls that make them want to do nice things for them, without expecting much for what is ultimately a throw away “holiday.”
Our first Valentine’s Day we lived together, I spent the whole day figuring out how to make a lasagna. That was the big gift- just the gesture. She blushed big and was like, “***You made lasagna?***” I’ll never forget that.
(I can cook things at this point.)
But, yeah. I get disliking the holiday. I think I always liked it, though. Ninja Turtle Valentines, candy, and all that.
Was in the process of learning a single song my girl likes on piano. I’m super far behind, and don’t think it’ll be completed in time. Thank God she works that day, or this would have been a difficult year for me. Still think ima grab something on the low for her, just gotta do that ninja research.
(Oh, hey. An Obligation Day thread. I was wondering when one would pop up.)
I guess I’ll provide the immediate counterpoint to our resident ginger–now that Weeks posts so infrequently–while also keeping this as brief as possible (for me):
Valentine’s Day is a wretched, manufactured holiday that has nothing to do with “love” or even “lust” and everything to do with a commercialism that attempts to get people to buy into it by shaming both single people and men in general. If it had anything to do with either of the saints it was named after, then it would just be another religious holiday where you honor the dead and their sacrifices or something along those lines rather than the less than subtle reminders about how you’ll be “forever alone”. Instead, it’s basically a miniature X-mas with all the bullshit of it a month and a half after suffering through two whole months of Christmas proper’s bullshit. Hell, you don’t even get the day off despite the fact you’re supposed to run around like an idiot looking for the “perfect”, materialistic gift, including likely trying to book some overbooked, over-expensive restaurant that gets to raise its prices for the day since it knows you have no other choice in the matter. And by “you”, I obviously mean “the guy in the presumably heterosexual relationship” since women don’t have to do anything on this day aside from sit around and look pretty–as per usual–if they’re coupled, to point of being somehow “justified” in becoming indignant if the man fails to please her finicky, probably ultimately worthless ass; if the woman is single, then she is encouraged to mope about how useless she is by stereo-typically eating sweets and watching Lifetime if not just straight up kill herself (like St. Valentines before her).
Back in high school I actually used to loathe Valentine’s Day even more than I still do now, to point where I told off a teacher for sending out condescending Valentine’s Day bullshit even though we weren’t in elementary school anymore; that never happened again afterwards, thankfully. By not watching TV, however, I avoid most of the ads for it, and by not being coupled I have no additional pressures. Well, I have no additional pressures beyond being vaguely worried if some of the few people I know who are in relationships will have their ended by Valentine’s Day pressures given it’s the “end-stretch” of the holidays that supposedly measure and “test” your (romantic) “love” for someone. This when if you actually “love” someone, you should try to do special things for them whenever instead of feeling obligated to do so on some particular, stupid day.
Being almost entirely apathetic to everything now just means that, for the most part, my hatred for it is conveyed merely by just rolling my eyes whenever anyone mentions it and acts like it “should” be romantic. It can be romantic, but forcing romance is pretty much anathema to what romance supposedly is–not that I would actually know I suppose, much less care, given single people supposedly can’t know anything about relationships since we’re not in one. In the increasingly unlikely case that I ever date anyone, then I’m letting them know ahead of time that I neither expect nor want anything on Valentine’s Day and that the same should apply to whomever it is I’m telling.
I tend to spread my romance during the year instead of going all in on one day. Plus can’t complain on the lol that come with FB posts complaining someone you know hates the holiday. Also cheap candy the day after. Plus Deadpool + SF V= <3
I’ll be grilling a couple tenderloins and then going to see Hail Caesar.
We’ve been together for eight years and will be getting married in October, so it’s more of an excuse for us you eat steak and go to the movies. We both love the Coen brothers and would probably have gone that night anyway since Monday is a holiday.
I’m definitely a holiday person like Vynce, but yeah V day is just a normal ass day to me, if I feel like doing something romantic or extra nice with a girl it will be because I feel like it not because some fake ass holiday tells me to. I’ll be working and afterwards I might see Deadpool with a girl or I might stay home and play video games, or maybe I’ll spend the day cooking something GDLK who knows lol.
