Stupid Cupid

If you slag off Valentine’s Day you will be called a cynic. Even if you know it’s got nothing to do with you being single or not, face it: everyone else will presume you are bitter and alone and spiting the rest of us for being too happy. Nobody wants to hear you hark on about it being a stupid corporate holiday so you might as well save your breath.

Knowing all that, you can imagine that I’m not one to make a show and a dance about not being the Valentine’s Day kind of girl. I'm single now but otherwise I'm definately one of those irritating girlfriends that wants the genuine romance, the spontaneous stuff and all that which boys must presume is a bit high-maintenance. So even if I did have another half at the moment (sob! don't remind me!) I think I’d probably suggest we by-pass the whole thing.

But just when I thought another February 14^th was passing me by like those before it, I realised that the day had not always been such a non-event for me.

It started with my first Valetine’s card from a secret admirer in Primary School, which I only found out about years later when the boy in question confessed he’d retrieved it at the last minute – so  he could confess his love for my best friend instead!! Not a good start. And so it began…

2006 – The first Valentine’s with a boyfriend; the first red rose.

2007 – The boy-who-never-turned-into-a-boyfriend posts a card to my home-address; cue ridicule from older brother.

2008 – Receive an anonymous love-note in the post, hand delivered to my door and signed with: See you on the bus. Never worked it out (and felt really awkward on the way to school every morning, all year)

2009 – The second Valentine’s Day with a boyfriend; struck through the heart with Cupid’s Arrow and convinced that the picture frames that I had bought for him would one day showcase our Wedding Day shots. So naive! We probably just lazed around all day eating French Fancies and watching films, and that would have been more than enough – as it should be.

2010 – A triple whammy. A few days before the 14^th I end up on an accidental date with an old friend; the night is very much “Will he, won’t he?” and nothing comes of it until a few months later.

Then we reminisce about the stranger who approached us in the restaurant that night; he couldn’t talk, but convinced us to write our names out on a post-it and later, he returned with a hand-made card addressed to both of us, signed from Bob.

And thirdly for 2010 – a busy year! – After I (wrongly) conclude that the accidental date was just a figment of my imagination, I meet a guy on February 14^th under the conditions that we don’t even mention the V-word. And ironically it’s all romance from start to end – the end being the moment when it turned out that it was, in fact, too good to be true.

Stupid Cupid, picking on me!

So now, 2011; no rose; no guy; no Valentines.  But you know what, who cares?! It’s a stupid corporate holiday anyway!

Nah, just kidding.

If it's your kind of thing, enjoy it. If it's not, ignore it. And if you do decide your Valentine's best mate is more your cup of tea, maybe just write her another anonymous card - keep everybody happy!