5 Ways To Get Through Valentine's Day Without Looking Like A Total Jerk
LatestValentine’s Day is a holiday of embarrassing cliches, yet as Gawker’s Brian Moylan recently pointed out, being anti-Valentine’s Day is just as cliched and tired. So can one get through the holiday without looking like a complete tool? Perhaps!
1. Make It A Kid’s Holiday: Jennifer Howze of the Times of London’s Alpha Mummy blog suggests sidestepping both sides of the adult Valentine’s Day conundrum by making the holiday one for children, though those of us who don’t have children, or have other people’s children in our lives in some direct way, might not be able to shift the Valentine’s Day goofiness over to the land of construction paper hearts and classroom cupcakes that easily. That said, I don’t have any kids and my niece and nephews live hours away, but that’s not going to stop me from making cupcakes. Ever. EVER! TEAM CAKE FOR LIFE!
2. Embrace It: Singles Edition: While the anti-Valentine’s day train has been parked at the station for the past decade or so, perhaps its time to just embrace everything stupid and corporate and annoying about the holiday in a different way. Sure, you can still hate Valentine’s Day and all it stands for, but there are only so many times one can burn letters and rip pictures before the endeavor becomes a bit sad, no? Instead, throw a Romantic Comedy Cliche party, and invite everyone to show up in character as a high-powered magazine editor with a designer wardrobe (just get a t-shirt and write “Dior” on it) who can’t seem to get lucky in love. Then get drunk (on wine or Cosmos, of course), sing Motown songs into a hairbrush, watch the worst romantic comedies ever, and be happy knowing that as shitty as your love life might be at times, it’s nowhere near as dumb and formulaic as that of every character Kate Hudson has ever played aside from Penny Lane (and even then, kind of, you know?). The point is to celebrate love, your friends, and your future. And also to get a bit trashed and laugh, a lot. Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be about dwelling on your past—it shouldn’t be about ANYTHING, really—so why not just have fun with the goofiness of it all?