Season's Greetings

I've always loved Valentine's Day.  Well, that isn't entirely true.  Back when I was a lovelorn teenager constantly unable to understand why women weren't interested in a squeaky-voiced physical wreck, I disliked it intensely.  Hell, I still celebrate St Skeletor's Day, though mainly because the cards are so much more fun.

Over the years, though, I've found myself appreciating it more and more, irrespective of whether I've been in a relationship at the time.  If your anniversary is the birthday of your love affair, then Valentine's Day is its Christmas - one day set aside for the entirety of society to simultaneously celebrate how amazing it is that the person you love allows you to follow them around without calling the police.

It is not, I concede, a perfect metaphor (especially for those who, unlike me, impart religious importance to the Yuletide season). People might think Christmas has gotten too commercial, but common opinion has it that Valentine's Day started out that way.  It's also true that Christmas is (in theory) a time for families, which one would hope are a more constant beast than one's romantic dalliances.

Even so, there are people out there who either lack families entirely, or (for whatever reason) consider them blights upon their very lives.  We can understand why these people exist, and why they might hate Christmas (or at least choose not to celebrate it), but generally speaking we don't use them as arguments for cancelling Christmas entirely (something which in any case can only be done by Baby Jesus or Alan Rickman).

I say: ignore the nay-sayers!  Let those as yet unattached do as they will! Valentine's Day is a time of celebration!  It's probably not a time of actually going out, because people are bastards and everything is expensive, but is a night in with a good film and plenty of cuddles too much to ask?  I say thee NAY!!! /Romantic Thor

Besides, if not for Valentine's Day I wouldn't have had the hilarious experience of trying to explain to the Waterstones staff exactly what I was searching for and get the response "Just how old is the child in question?"

Nuts to you, Waterstones staff! Must one be a child to realise that this book is the most awesome one ever written?  It has baby aardvarks!  Baby freaking aardvarks, people!

Tonight, it's just me, The Other Half, some cocktails, and Grosse Point Blank, my choice of non-romantic romance film.  Everyone have fun!