Happy Singlehood Awareness Day!

No one ever, ever cared about Valentine's Day until Hallmark came around. I want to tell Hallmark to jump off a bridge.

Valentine's Day puts an extraordinarily high value on gifts, spending money, saying "I Love You" even if you don't really mean it, women and men manipulating each other for stupid stuff, and the world of the unattached falling into a tremendous depression. All the money single people save on Valentine's Day gifts for a non-existent sweetheart is spent on ice cream anyway.

Singlehood Awareness Day is the term I prefer to apply to February 14. It is the day that professional advertising agents and greeting card companies live for the other 364 days a year. It is a ridiculous holiday that makes couples who haven't been dating very long suddenly have to define their terms and create labels and boundaries. Couples who have been together a long time have to outdo last year. Couples on the brink of breaking up use it as a Band-Aid to attempt a relationship repair "Hail Mary." Couples who have recently broken up suddenly feel the urge to call up the immediate ex and pretend that everything that was wrong 2 weeks ago is better than being alone on February 14.

And people who are just well-adjusted, individual people (like me), are pressured everywhere to have a date on the hook by 7 PM so that the world doesn't interpret my ALONENESS as LONELINESS.

Make it STOP! Stand up for your right to NOT be attached on February 14. Tell the world it's OKAY to enjoy your OWN COMPANY! Make the most of Singlehood Awareness Day by doing something you love, reading something you enjoy, viewing something you appreciate, eating something delicious, and counting your many blessings...all by yourself.