I am Red DeVine

Singles Awareness Day

Valentines Day is just around the corner…again. For millions of people, the chaos of planning for this special day has begun. The awkward feelings of finding an appropriate gift. Flowers or chocolate. Dinner reservations at the “right” place.  After all, you must admit what a consumer oriented holiday this is. Restaurants are booking tables and preparing special, more expensive menus. Jewelry stores are selling out of every heart shaped piece of jewelry in stock. Florists are taking endless orders for over the top arrangements of red roses. Victoria’s Secret is sold out of everything and Hallmark is getting even richer, what with singing cards and all.

I’m sure V-day is just as annoying for some people in relationships as it is for some single people. This year, I fall into the ‘Single’ category. *insert sad face HERE*  Single is ok. I mean, it is what it is, right? Better to be single than be living with someone in hell, I’ll tell ya that much.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not jaded. I dig that we set aside a day to celebrate love and recognize those who make our hearts smile as much as our faces do. If you are someone’s “better half”, you deserve to be celebrated! (Notice there is no celebratory day for the “worse half”, simply because when you suck, you gets no celebrations.)

Unfortunately, if you are single, Valentines Day can totally suck and that’s why I call it Singles Awareness Day. Not that we aren’t already aware that we are single, because we are, and Valentines Day is just another reminder of a bum fact that you didn’t need to be reminded of in the first place. Relationships can be complicated enough, without all this “Valentine’s Day crapola”  flittering around, all heartsy-fartsy and cherubs and oodles of candy I don’t need.

If you are single and happy, I commend you, and will promptly seek your advice on the matter, as I’m not enjoying it as much as you are.  

On this Valentines Day, I wish all my friends and loved ones, single or not, a day filled with happiness and cheer.  Fill out silly Valentines and give them away. Take a few minutes to remember why your sweetheart is so great, and then TELL THEM. Make them a list. Write in the sky or on a cake.  Hold them tight in that hug for just a bit longer. Blow too much money on a special dinner. Eat too many chocolates. Buy a whole damn rose bush. Make as many happy memories as you can. In the future, I hope to have many Valentines Days as great as all those sappy commercials that currently make me want to throw up in my mouth.

Hearts and kisses,

Red

My life has been compiled of some rather drastic changes over the past few years, and I am ALIVE. I am breathing and smiling and living and laughing and enjoying, and I am ALIVE. Altho there are constant changes, I am approaching them with the right attitude, a positive attitude. This life is mine for the taking, for the making, and I WILL take it. I will make it mine.

I am a silly girl, always smiling and laughing, maybe to a fault? I am a day dreamer. I am happy inside my own head, its comfortable there and everyone knows me. I look back on the hard times I braved. When I thought I would never make it, when I thought misery and misfortune would continue to follow me. I think back to friends who told me “a year from now, you’ll look back on this and smile”. And I did. At the time I thought I would never escape, but I fought hard and I did escape. I am proud of the woman I got back, myself. I am proud of the woman I am, the woman I have become. I am me and I love me. And I am ALIVE.