Feb Hating

Where is the love????

February 14 is so not my day. After the hoopla from the holidays brought by Christmas and New Year, February brings the kind of air that is most unwelcome for me.

Once February starts, everyone goes into “in-love” mode and red is the “it” color of the month. I’d hear friends asking each other, “What are you going to buy for ______?” or “Where will you and _____ go?” It’s like, the world suddenly stopped and everything else is about dating and giving unnecessary gifts.

So love should be commemorated by the teddy bear that sits on your bedside given to you by your honeybunch a year ago? Where is your honeybunch now? With some ugly girl who likes politics and everything that used to make you sick?* Let’s say it’s the thought that counts, but then, will a stuffed toy suffice? Does it encapsulate everything, your loved one’s dreams and hopes; and does it symbolize his fervent feelings for you? It’s the kind of thinking that manifests how much we love “love” and get carried away by the feeling. Everything is magical, and each gesture is a big deal.

We spend and spend on everything Valentine’s Day. Businessmen capitalize on heart-shaped stuffs and cupids and red things and greeting cards. The week sees people busy checking out gift shops and malls, looking for what are fitting for them and their significant others. Do we have to let other people say what we want to say? Is money the operative word in a relationship?

On Valentine’s Day, reservations are made, and surprises are executed. If everybody with “that feeling” would die in an instant, the world would be glad for the extra space. Superficial is how to describe a lot of people on Feb14. Days into this day, I’d hear a lot of those “Sinong date mo next week? Hanap mo naman ako ng blind date oh. I don’t wanna spend it alone sa house e.” It’s just having a date that matters. No one doesn’t want to feel left out the next day when friends start sharing what a wonderful time they had, how nice the food they ate or how soothing the background music was.

Is it becoming a prerogative for everyone to go out on Feb14? The loser status is forged on your head if anyone happens to find out that the previous night you were at home watching Sex and the City reruns. They’d say, “Oh really? I miss Samantha and Co.” But they mean, “Ho-hum. Should I tell her Lance gave me a necklace last night?”

*pardon to Fleming and John