V-Day or D-Day?

For the mother of all holidays, Valentine's Day, I was a guest author for the3six5, a blog featuring 365 days of posts, told by 365 different people, from 365 points of view. A very cool and innovative concept. 

My post for February 14, 2012...

February 14th. Such a polarizing day. Whether you are single, committed, casually dating, happily married, recently divorced, or pretending to be (or not to be) in love with someone, you can’t avoid the day.

Valentine’s Day shows up on the same day, every year, mocking or celebrating your life choices.

And I’ve been in both boats.

Today, as with every day, I spent a great deal of emotional and strategic energy planning my outfit. Ever since I closed the door on my Catholic uniform-wearing days, outfit selection has occupied more time than I’d like to admit. But today’s mental tug of war pulled me between the two polarizing personas I could choose to be perceived as embodying today.

If I wore red, I would be implying that I supported the day; that I was on their team. One of the people with romantic dinner plans and a dozen roses on the way to her stark desk. One of the people who cooed at the Hallmark commercials, instead of scoffing at them. One of the people who didn’t “see red” when she saw red.

If I wore black, I’d be pegged a cynic. A soon-to-be spinster. Miranda Hobbes' understudy…untrusting, unhappy and one candy-coated heart away from a public mental breakdown.

I wore neither.

I settled on a colorful, non-black, non-red, patterned dress. My outfit screamed effortless ambivalence. What? TODAY is Valentine’s Day? I totally forgot. I would fool them all.

But I soon realized it was I who was the fool. Everywhere I turned, I couldn’t escape it. My StarbucksTall Blonde was served up in a cup littered w/ hearts and sweet nothings. Forbes “thought of the day” discussed love at first sight. (Or as I like to refer to the theme of relationships in my younger days: love at first slight.) #HappyValentinesDay was trending on Twitter worldwide.

I may have not made a choice to be on the Lovers or Haters team with the choice of my color palette. But the world was forcing me to make the choice now.

So to keep this V-Day from turning into D-Day, I’ve decided.

I choose red.

I’m thinking a nice California Cab will do just fine.