The Vday Series: A different perspective

After a long (and I do mean long), I went home and crashed on the couch… literally. I woke up a little disoriented, and hungry…and craving for Baked Zitti with meat sauce from Sbarro. Specifically. 

The sun had set and my plans of going for a walk and casually taking pictures (of people on the street mostly,of course) were dashed, and I instead decided to go run some errands and finally buy those folders like I had planned all week.

The National Bookstore was crammed with the regular paper-loving crowd… Valentines’ Day themed décor was all over the place. I suppose Valentines’ Day preparations were in full swing by now, considering “D-Day” is next week. I chuckled to myself. Hearts and red were all the rage, and there were stands everywhere selling everything from buttons to heart-shaped boxes to well, Valentines’ Day whatnot.

I somehow wandered onto a stand with a couple of self-help books on it. “Lovedecisions: A dad talks to his daughter about love relationships”. I remembered wrinkling my nose. I have a weird aversion for self-help books, because I’ve always thought that they’ll only say what you want to hear. Perhaps it is my stubbornness, or my impression that these kinds of writers just want to make a quick buck,  but really, I don’t know the real reason why I don’t really like them.  Still, I got curious… I’m a daddy’s girl kind of girl , but my father and I never talk about boys. Not as a lifetime partner or relationship or anything like that. Maybe in retrospect yes, but I don’t feel comfortable enough talking to my father about boys I currently date. (I think he’s pretty strict, which helps sometimes, especially when I don’t like the guy.)

I got a text message from one of my co-residents asking about dinner.  I was supposed to meet someone earlier, but it didn’t fall through, so I said yes. (And yes, I had him go over to Sbarro because of that silly post-nap craving I had.) Anyway, yes, I DID order baked Zitti with meat sauce. We were just hanging out, so it was kind of cool. He was supposed to stay off carbs, I found out later, but anyway, it was ok.

The conversation got down to Valentines’ day, and he asked if I had any plans. Apparently, he was organizing a “Singles Night” kind of thing with us single people in the call room, as there were a few of us there. I told him about one time when I had to brave the Valentines Day throng of people in MOA (The SM Mall of Asia) one Valentines Day. It was my friend Floyd’s birthday, and he was inviting med school friends, me included for dinner at Racks. I didn’t know where Racks was at first, so I had to go looking for it, and that meant running into Valentines Day revelers, of all forms and sizes…and ages.

There were couples in “couple shirts”, girls bringing all sorts of flowers, most of them bouquets. There were lola and lolo types wearing the same color shirt (98% of them were wearing red), there were whole families celebrating Valentines day together (all three generations, mind), couples were wearing “arrow shirts”, i.e. “mama/papa” and all that… nevermind. 

Valentines’ day is not really a big thing for me, I suppose, as I am kind of jaded. I recounted my above experience to RG as seeing Valentines as almost comical, a highly-commercialized holiday that was only propagated to increase horticultural and stationery sales the world over. Defensive, aren’t I? Well, I suppose. In my less than prolific dating history, or flower-receiving history, I had either had someone I liked give me the roses that I wanted (but he ended up breaking my heart), I had a friend give me roses (but I didn’t like him), and I had someone I really liked give me…well, let’s just say it has been only a partially-satisfying receiving history, and it seems I haven’t gotten it out of my system yet…

Anyway, RG laughed when I told him that story in my usual zany way, and then he told me that he had at one time during Valentines’ day, when he was getting flowers for his then girlfriend. He was at Farmers’ Market on Valentines Day, with a bunch of other guys who were also getting flowers for their ladies. The place was jam-packed, and everyone was hurrying, but surprisingly, there was not an irate customer in sight, he said. He told me that there seemed to a collective feeling of excitement and, well peace, as every guy there was happily content waiting their turn, eagerly awaiting their chance to get the blooms they had ordered to please their lady love.

(Oh boy, here’s another romantic. Haha.)

I suppose that was it, if you were doing something for someone you really loved, then nothing would be too corny, nor too burdensome for you to make the effort. I sincerely believe that. So it got me thinking, that even though I won’t be spending Valentines Day as a…ahem Corny holiday, at least I’ll be able to see things from a different perspective this time, that, well, people, when in love just want to make the people they love happy too.

And that’s good enough for me.

Love,

S.

P.S. Off the record? white roses mean “I’m worthy of you.”  Now those, I wouldn’t mind having for Valentines Day. :-)