How apt that the first post should be something close to my heart. Valentine’s Day has somehow never garnered much significance in my S.A.D. life, though it has always brought many pensive sleepless nights every year in the days leading up to VDay (with exception to 2005, when I was stranded on a certain island. VDay was spent as a romantic evening under the stars with bald companions). “Should I ask her out?” wasn’t really the dilemma in question, I would definitely pop her the question unless I already knew she was unavailable on the day or already taken (definitely a choice day for blatant snatching if I was that kind of a person). Somehow I have never had the opportunity to ask the girl out on VDay, because somehow the 2 previously mentioned scenarios keep happening, and therefore I have never spent a VDay with the girl that I like.
The SADness continues this year, although I did what I was supposed to do.
“Love ACtually” was the slogan of the day, emblazoned on the optional attire for the day in ACJC. Love ACtually for the students’ council, with an excuse to add another “collectible” to your bursting AC wardrobe for $12, flower sales and song dedications, VDay commercialism at its finest. Whether you have a sweetheart or not, it’s hard to be SAD when there’s cakes to be shared, cheesy love songs to laugh with on the air and gifts aplenty from panda-eyed girls. The scandalous are teased and shocking revelations made, all make delicious fodder for ‘void deck’ gossip. Reminiscing as well as reliving the AC VDay atmosphere made the trip back all the more worthwhile.
There’s lots of cash up for grabs on this Hallmark holiday but the florists probably hit the jackpot. What clever marketing, throw in a bunch of meanings for rose colours and numbers and the bouquet suddenly says more than I love you. I too was taken in, contributing to the windfall of one happy florist in Novena, placing my hopes in a message carried in a flower.
