Hey Sugar Lips! You Rock!

Do you despise Valentine's Day? It seems more and more people hate it these days.

Me, I'm not a Valentine's Day hater. Not a lover of the day, but not a hater either. I just try not to take it too seriously.

And really, how can I take it seriously with a pile of conversation hearts sitting on my desk?

As I chomped on the "Sugar Lips" heart, I tried to remember my first real experiences with Valentine's Day. By real, I mean that I wasn't taking a Valentine with a cartoon character on it to school.

It was taking me forever to remember my formative Valentine years so I decided to have another conversation heart. While biting into the "You Rock" heart, one of my colleagues got a bouquet of flowers delivered to her. Ah-ha! The memories suddenly came rushing back. You see, the last and only time I got a really gigantic bunch of roses on Valentine's Day was in high school.

In my sophomore year of high school, my friend Tanisha's brother liked me and I liked him too. It could have been a happy ending...except for the fact that I wasn't allowed to go out on dates or have a boyfriend. He was an "unofficial" boyfriend, if you know what I mean. He was the boy I only saw when I went to my friend's house. To top it off, he was an "older man". If I remember correctly, he was a sophomore in college at the time.

Valentine's Day rolled around and he showed up at my high school with at least two dozen red roses. Everybody around me oohed and aahed over this. But I was not so happy. In fact, I was mentally freaking out. Not because this guy gave me flowers. No, I was freaking out because I knew I was going to have to get rid of those flowers before I got on the school bus at the end of the day. There was absolutely no way I could go home to the most strict parents on the planet and say, "Hey, look who gave me roses today!"

I couldn't give the roses away at school because I knew my friend would tell her brother. So, I remember hastily stuffing them in my locker and then, I threw the flowers in the trash right before I jumped on the bus. He called me and asked me how I liked the flowers. I don't remember what I told him but I know that was the beginning of the end of whatever little crush he had on me, and vice versa.

It sounds sad, and it is a bit sad, but I still don't hate Valentine's Day. I just have to keep it all very light-hearted and not take it seriously. I mean after all, if there are small, heart-shaped bits of candy that say "You Rock!" on them, how serious can it be?

I hope you take a moment out of your haterade to eat some conversation hearts. If you didn't, come on, you have to seize the moment! Just do it quickly because I think there's an unwritten rule that a candy heart with the phrase " Soul Mate" on it is only cute and romantic on or around February 14th. I have a feeling that if you decide to eat these in July, everyone's going to look at you like you're crazy.