Happy Valentine's Day

It's us single kids and independent kids who are most vocal about how Valentine's Day is just a commercial ploy and we insist that we never make a big deal out of it.
And yet, by making those claims, we do make a big deal out of it. I wonder how far back I can remember all my Valentine's Days...
2006: Washington DC. Dinner with Voula, Biddy and my doppelganger, laughing at how stupid boys can be sometimes.
2005: Chateau Nice. Dinner with the roomies and our beaus at the time. One year later, we were all single. But I wouldn't blame this event. A more interesting gathering we had was in December of 2004, when we had an Italian girls send-off/tree-trimming party. All of the couple present then are no longer couples today.
2004: Toronto. Met the aspiring paramedic at Smokeless Joe's, where we chatted over beer and mussels before sharing crepes down the street. Up until this point, things had been pretty G-rated with this guy. It was my last night in Toronto before moving to St. Catharines to serve a six-month term. Nothing ever happened with the paramedic. He quickly lost interest and I slept with a 34-year-old who still lived with his parents in Stoney Creek a month later.
2003: Taipei. My first night there but my relatives were at their Valentine's parties. So Ruthie and I spent many hours going though my aunt's closets trying on all of her shoes.
2002: New York City. Weeks after meeting the New York businessman off Lavalife phone, he bought me a plane ticket to go visit him in Manhattan. He greeted me at the aiport with red gerber daisies. I love daisies.
2001: Kingston. Sebi and I went to our weekly salsa class (neither of us had any clue), then got our $0.99 Whoppers at the BK on Princess.
2000: Kingston. Jon and Linda, both single at the time, invited me to join them at Megalo's for dinner. Jon swore there was sexual tension between the two of us -- but he was the kind of guy who would think that of any girl who talked to him. A few months later at our staff party, a friend of mine went into her boyfriend's room, only to catch Jon and his new girlfriend (now wife) having sex on the bed that was clearly not their own -- my friend was not amused.
1999: Toronto. The man told me he that the pipes had burst in one of his buildings and that he had to fix the problem. So I waited at his studio for five hours. I figured he wasn't fixing pipes when his ex-girlfriend called to gloat. He'd been at her home, trying to reach some kind of closure. Nothing was reached. He made it up to me by getting us a room at the SkyDome Hotel -- quite the treat from the usual motel room at Lakeshore and Parklawn.
1998: Montreal. Reading Week with Young, Isaac, and the boy who wanted to marry me. Young and Isaac are now married in Rochester. The other boy was dumped in June -- he seems to be much happier now, living in Portrero Hill with his girlfriend and cat named Kathleen.
1997: Kingston. Dinner at Greco's with the boy from California. He gave up the sun to live in K-town with me for two months. I punched him hard in the arm once, for eating all of my Peek Freans fruit creme. This was one of his annoying little tendencies: To stuff himself non-stop if he liked something -- and to not save even a crumb for me.
1996: Kingston. Not quite sure here, but 90% sure that I was sitting alone in the cafeteria, eating my second bowl of ice cream. Frosh 15? Hah. More like Frosh 20.