Valentine's Day

Today is the big 'V' day, but I didn't get anything for Melissa. No, I got her something yesterday, but that was just any other day and thus it does not count against me since she is anti-Valentine's Day due to all the commercialized guilt trips and propaganda. We're told we must buy something shiny and expensive, and if you're not really sure what you're doing you just follow this cultural path without thinking about it or even meaning what you do.

This was never more apparent then when I was in Utopia browsing for something fun and girly and definitely not a gift for Valentine's Day. There was a young fellow standing akwardly amongst the cases of jewels with his smart phone held casually with one hand. It made the sound for incoming message or whatever. I wondered what he was even doing there until ...

"Do you need help, sir?"

"Uh, no, I am asking her now what to get."

Wow, he's asking his significant other what to buy them? Then he's actually talking on the phone ...

"What do you like? What do you want me to get for you?"

Quotes like that float around during his short conversation until it ends and he says lamely:

"She won't tell me what she wants."

"Oh," says the sales lady with obvious false sympathy (dumb ass). "You could always get her a gift card."

A nervous smile appears: "Oh yeah? That would be great."

Ah, a romantic solution for the inept nerd unwilling to buck any sort of tradition and yet still failing to correctly follow the gimick set forth by "He went to Jered". He mustn't realize that it's the time you spend and the choice you make which constitutes a personal and loving gift.

Poor bastard, gift cards don't get you points, but he'll realize this soon enough. Unless she's a greed gold digger, but then he might as well just put his money in a pile and give her a shovel.