Valentine's Day....Bah Humbug!!!

Every Valentine's Day is the same. I tell myself that it's all a commercial gimmick. A pseudo-holiday invented by retailers to steal even more of our hard earned money. Well, at least that's what I tell myself.

Then the advertisements start.

You know what I'm talking about. The commercial where a guy rents a movie theater just to play a home movie for him and his girlfriend. Then he pulls out of his pocket a honking, mega, slap your mama diamond ring and asks her to marry him. Then there's the commercial where a guy buys his wife diamond earrings from Kay's Jewlers. The diamond earrings seem to make the whole family sooooo happy. My brother-in-law sums this type of advertising up very succinctly. He says, "I hate those stupid, pussy whipped guys in the commercials. They make us all look bad."

It never fails though. By the time Valentine's Day rolls around my resolve is gone. I find myself feeling left out because I didn't get roses, chocolates and diamonds. Even when I was married, I never got those things for Valentine's Day. After a decade or two of adulthood I'm beginning to see that almost no woman gets that stuff. It's all fantasy.

It's not fair that all my friends and I feel like lesser women because Madison Avenue tells us to expect something that never comes. Even though I know all of this, every year I still hope for diamond earrings, 2 dozen roses and chocolates. But then again, who wouldn't?