Outfit Details:

Kate Spade “fit to be veiled” hat (as seen on my Westfield Style cold weather accessories round up)

Ray-Ban sunglasses c/o Sunglass Hut

ASOS coat

Forever 21 dress

Lipstick combo of MAC “Unlimited” and Make Up For Ever #4

I already dress like every day is Valentine’s Day; it’s actually a little ridiculous how much of my closet is some shade of red or pink. But as much as I love the theme of it all, and the ubiquitous hearts and chocolates that come with, I am actually a little more jaded than I let on. Maybe “jaded” isn’t really the word – it’s more of an indifference to the actual day, the typical gifts it requires, and the overpacked restaurants with prix fixe menus. It’s just that at some point, I realized it wasn’t even about love or lack thereof – many of my friends call it “National Singles Awareness Day” – it’s about having so many of my favorite things in one giant, overdone theme. That’s why I was quick to jump at the opportunity to attend Sunglass Hut’s offbeat V-Day party, which was based around Drag Queen Bingo and lots of sweets. Drag queens, bingo, sunglasses, and cupcakes? What’s so bad about that? It sounds like heaven, and it was. I actually won one round (and got these Ray-Bans as a prize). I have never won Bingo, before – it was a valentine’s miracle.

I wasn’t always so quick to embrace V-Day, as my friends and family (and longtime readers) know. It was fun when we were little and there was a rule that each student had to give every single classmate a valentine. But even then, I was always disappointed when whatever boy I liked would inevitably choose a way too platonic card for me. Heartbreaking. Young love is positively brutal, isn’t it?

Flash forward to high school: I used to wear all black and a shirt that said “Anti-Valentine” on Valentine’s Day. I wasn’t one for subtleties. I also had one that said “HATE ME” – so as you can probably deduce, I was a very pleasant teenager to be around. Back then, it was all about getting a carnation delivered to your homeroom from your high school sweetheart, or collecting hearts from boys in all of your classes and putting them all over your shirt. Yes, that was a thing, and no, I never got any. The most action I got was when I was forced to dress in a renaissance getup and perform sonnet-grams, which is just as humiliating as it sounds. It was the worst, and I gave up on ever finding romance in the form of a flower or a paper heart. That is, until walked into my Physics class and found a bouquet of roses on my desk , with a note that said it was from a secret admirer. For about five seconds, I was overwhelmed with the magic of this Valentine’s Day miracle, until my teacher spilled the beans and told me that my gay best friend left them for me. It didn’t make me sad, though – it made laugh and feel lighter. Someone loved me enough to try and make my day brighter, even if it was based on a little white lie. I carried those roses around all day, and hoped that my high school crush was wondering who gave them to me and kicking himself for missing his chance (he wasn’t, but a girl can dream). In that moment of fictional romance and sweet aromatics, I came to the conclusion that maybe Valentine’s Day wasn’t all that bad. Or perhaps it was when I realized that as soon as it’s over, all of the candy goes on sale and you can have chocolate forever and ever. Either way, I’m glad I came around to it…if only because I no longer have enough black garments in my closet to make a decent outfit.