I've Gone Bananas Over You.

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and if you listen carefully you can hear the sarcastic sighs and pessimistic groans of those who do not have a special someone to spend the holiday with. To them, Valentine’s Day is consumerism’s way of shoving their singlehood in their face. With every heart shaped candy and every mushy card on display, these anti V-day warriors point and shoot their cynical guns, while all I want to do is put a daisy in the barrel and give them a lame Hallmark card with a monkey saying, “I’ve gone bananas over you”.

I personally love, dare I say “heart”, Valentine’s Day. Always have and always will. It has been my favorite holiday, even trumping Christmas, since I was chubby, snaggle toothed kid and if I remember correctly, I wasn’t in a serious relationship during my elementary school days, and the only man in my life that tugged at my heart strings was Big Bird... and did Big Bird even have a sex? I mean, the bird didn’t even wear pants for God’s sake.

So why should you embrace Valentine’s Day with or without a romantic rendezvous?

As a child, Valentine’s Day was just another reason to celebrate and get hopped up on sugar, and unlike the anticipation of Christmas that causes young kids to lose sleep over a fat man with a cookie addiction, Valentine’s day has a quick and simple arrival with limited stress, and instead of reindeer with lethal antlers, you get a cute little cherub flying around with a painless bow and arrow. You would share cards with your entire class and for once, everyone felt included... even if that meant you gave all the boys and that girl who smelled like cheese the “ugly” Valentines with the non-chocolate candy.

As an adult, Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to get in touch with friends and remind those around you how much you love them – and I’m not talking about the romantic, mushy love, I’m talking about the relationships you have with your friends and coworkers. Who doesn’t like a little card every now and again? And that’s all you need to give – something small and sweet that does NOT force you to take a hammer to the good ol’ piggy bank. And when Valentine’s Day comes to an end, you aren’t left with two months of leftovers, two months of debt and post-holiday depression.

All of this goodness aside, there are still people out there, primarily women, who when they start seeing the red of Valentine’s Day immediately get the blues. Some people feel that if they don’t have someone special to share the romantic time of year with, then the holiday is a complete bust. Yes, Valentine’s Day is obviously a very couple oriented holiday; however, you need to look beyond the dinners for two and make time for a dinner for 6 and get together your close friends and family and celebrate.

So this year, don’t decide to sulk on February 14th, don’t stay in and rent sappy love movies and don’t sit around with equally bitter people and moan about the woes of love. Go out, be happy, send a friend a funny card and enjoy the stressful, cheap holiday. You may even be pleasantly surprised to learn that someone has “gone bananas over you”.