By Amie
Valentine's Day, in my opinion, is the worst holiday ever. Despite the murky legend put forth by American Greetings that attempts to justify the celebration, I refuse to believe that any day with so much pink fluff and romantic schmoozing is necessary. Really, it's a holiday created by greeting card companies, florists, chocolatiers and jewelry manufacturers to make men fluster and stress out and to make women upset when their man's flustering and stressing out fails to produce a stellar evening. (Do last-minute roses and 10 p.m. dinner reservations ring a bell?)
My disdain doesn't stem from bitter jealousy or resentment of those lovey-dovey, make-you-ill couples who envelop themselves in the above-mentioned fluff and schmoozing. I've simply refused to buy into the whole chocolate-and-dozen-roses business.
No, rather than join the schmooze fest, I much prefer to join an old teammate for our anti-Valentine's Day run through Northwest Portland - a hot spot for posh dinner dates and romantic sidewalk strolling - in which we sweat and spit as we weave through dress - and suit-clad twosomes. There's no better follow-up to my run than joining my fellow English Society members (yes, I am that big of a nerd) at the Un-Valentine's Day Poetry Reading. "Celebrating" the holiday by making a farce of sickeningly sappy odes is a priceless experience - especially when joined by the majority of the English professor staff. Yes, I'm quite fine without the pomp and circumstance of heart-shaped cookies and silk roses.
So, with my anti-Valentine school of thought in mind, try to imagine the internal struggle I had when my boyfriend presented me with the gift of a much-needed night of blissful rest and relaxation at the Hotel Monaco- complete with a wonderful dinner, champagne, bathrobes, slippers and the removal of our cell phone batteries - on Valentine's Day.
"Amie, its OK to celebrate Valentine's Day," he told me. "Look at it this way. We aren't celebrating Valentine's Day. We're celebrating being together, and it just happens to land on Valentine's Day."
Maybe it really isn't all that awful and atrocious for the entire world to devote one day to making mushy, puppy-love faces at their loved one over an overpriced dinner and a few glasses of bubbly. Maybe it's OK to indulge every now and then on a candlelit room and a bed scattered with rose petals. I mean, just to slow down, r-e-l-a-x and, most importantly, breathe with the one person who makes you glow down to your very core. Yeah, that's all right with me.
Just don't ask me to start chomping on those pastel candy hearts - I don't think I'll ever be a fan of eating chalk.
?Amie Dahnke is the Copy Editor for The Beacon. She can be ?contacted at adahnke@up.edu.
