Alone on Valentines Day
The worst thing about being a 23-year-old who loves Valentines Day is being single. Especially when everyone in relationships seems to hate the day of love and say people who care about it live sad, sad lives – gulp.
But I love this day because there’s nothing I enjoy more than spoiling someone and then maybe, just maybe, getting a single rose in return.
Plus, I see no harm in being a little bit more kind to your loved one for one day of the year – even if someone else is making money from it. If you’ve made someone smile, there’s no loss.
As for the chocolates, flowers and love in the air on Valentines Day, it does make me a little sad I’ll be sailing through the day by myself.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy in my singledom. But spending the day of love alone can be hard because I can’t help but think of all the things I would do if I had someone to do them with.
For a start, I’d make the most of the warm weather, get a takeaway from one of New Plymouth’s amazing restaurants and lazily watch the sun go down from the cliffs at the city’s picture postcard Back Beach.
At least I have time to daydream.
For florist Nicci Goodin, Valentines Day is one of her busiest days of the year.
‘‘We might get to sleep,’’ Goodin says, but then they might not.
She orders in thousands of extra flowers to meet the huge demand for bouquets.
‘‘We’ve got extra hands on deck too.’’
As countless men roll through Goodin’s door placing orders, I eye up her flowers with what I must admit is a longing smile.
Were I to walk into work to see a bunch of flowers waiting on my desk, well, you wouldn’t be able to wipe the grin off my face for weeks.
But my grin is already wiped because I know the best I’ll be getting is a bunch of dishes on the bench from my two verymale flatmates.
In fact, Thursday evening for me will be spent cleaning the flat for our upcoming inspection and playing a 9pm game of indoor netball.
I did consider buying myself some Valentines Day treats until I mentioned my self-help plans to my workmates and got very strange looks in return.
Sadly, buying yourself a bouquet is often frowned upon, too.
It looks like I may spend my day of love alone, empty handed and not even my immense amount of positivity will help that.
So maybe it’s time to avoid the lovey-dovey stuff other people are doing by phoning in sick and deactivating Facebook and all other social media while I’m at it.
You’re right, I hate Valentines Day, too.