February 14th, 2010

The girl sighed as she clutch ‘Anne of Green Gable’ closed to her heart. She wondered when will she meet her ‘Gilbert Blythe’ and live happily ever after. She imagined their white wedding at a meadow and what a perfect picture it would be with their children playing catch at the front lawn while she and ‘Gilbert’ hold hands and drinking tea at the porch of their beautiful mansion.

Many, many years later, that girl, now a woman, let’s call her Optimistically Blinded, sighed deeply as she switched from one TV channel to another, wondering why there is nothing to watch on Valentine’s Day. Thank goodness for her [single] friend, let’s call her Long Island Iced Tea, they went out to look for coffee and a peace of mind.

Unfortunately, the Universe has nothing better to do then to mess with them, and all their favorite coffee places were packed with people having the CNY night outing with the whole village. “Don’t these people have open houses to go to?” sighed the two women and crossed their fingers that the beach would not be crowded by couples who somehow managed to knot themselves together during the most romantic day of the year.

Or so says Hallmark.

Despite the starry night, the beach was somewhat deserted. The two women chose to seat at a table near the staircase to the sandy beach and realized it was a big mistake as an elder woman yelled at her children to get their ass off the sand right behind Optimistically Blind which nearly made her optimistically deaf too.

A three piece band, which sounded more like wedding singers, tried their best to convince everyone but them themselves that it was indeed the most loving day of the year. Their choices of classical selections which no one has heard before were questionable but they were rewarded during their Rock & Roll attempt with a couple who looked like their had too much Mandarin Orange doing ‘line dancing’ on the sand and another lady who obviously had too much Margarita doing the ‘Jane Fonda’ while her date who was clearly embarrassed, looked away. If that is not love, Optimistically Blinded has no idea what is.

As the two women discussed about common sense, a red colored lantern floats from the sandy beach, released by a couple, who are no doubt in love and looked absolutely pleased with themselves. Optimistically Blinded and Long Island Iced Tea wondered if it was a smart thing to do as the airport is just at the other end of the beach. Another couple, with a blue colored lantern did not want to be left out, set free their testimony of love, only to watch it plummeted into the sea minutes later. Optimistically Blinded watched, big eyed and wondered if it is not a [bad] sign, then what is.

Optimistically Blinded noted there were plenty group of men enjoying their night out and wondered if they too needed their peace of mind or were they celebrating their [temporary] victory for escaping the corporate manipulation of Valentine’s Day. One can only guess.

As Optimistically Blinded lay in her bed that night, she wondered how her next Valentine’s Day will be. Will she be sipping her Kit Chai Ping under the starry night with another single friend? Will she watch her floating lantern crashed into the sea? Will her date look away as she does her ‘Put A Ring On It’ routine? Will she and her ‘Gilbert’ do ‘Dirty Dancing’ under the starry night while the rest of the world watched in envy?

Optimistically Blinded is optimistically optimistic.