ConNiPtioNs

Bittersweet

It is February 14th again, Valentine's Day--a cruel holiday. I have always hated this day.

From elementary school when we would all show up with our little cut-out hearts for each classmate, to high school when you had to be either a popular kid or in the band (or bowling team) to have a love life, to now.

Though I am in a long-term relationship, it is also a long-distance relationship. So, as I walk across campus I notice the couples holding hands or sitting together between classes in the union and I wish it was that easy for me. Not that I have so bad. We see each other for about a week at a time every month or so and we talk on the phone almost every day.

Anyhow, back to Valentine's Day. I remember learning about Lupercalia in my tenth grade Latin class. This was a Roman spring festival celebrated on February 15th (yes, February was springtime on their calendar) and it involved (among other things) young men running around nearly naked and whipping women with straps of goatskin. This was supposedly a way of purifying them.

Today Valentine's Day is big business. You are supposed to send a HAllmark card to your sweetheart, send flowers through FTD, make reservations at a fancy restaurant for a romantic dinner, then take her to a get-away bed and breakfast where there is champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting by the jacuzzi, and don't forget to get her the Victoria's Secret lingerie.

I will spend my Valentine's Day at home--alone--and in the library. I'm not complaining...really, I'm not. I would like for us to live in the same town and see each other every day, but I am lucky to have her at all.