VALENTINE

Happy Valentine’s day!
My smile pin was PINK, my bed sheet is PINK, my dust bin is PINK, my left hand nails are covered with transparent nail polish decorated by little PINK flowers on top, and our office cook has a PINK eye today!
Well…well…I guess Santo Valentino is really coming, at least in my small world. And do I expect a bouquet of roses, a heart-shaped chocolate, a romantic dinner with a violinist playing a beautiful music as the background, or a serenade under the moonlight and my balcony (if I have any)? Not at all. This would pass like any other day. I’ll go to the office at 9, and then occupy myself by making appointments for this week. Nothing romantic will happen, I suppose.
One of my girlfriends in Bandung often calls me Miss Romance (guess why??). Well, part of me is still that way, but another part has also grown cynical to anything cliché that I used to fancy. I wish I still could believe in love at the first sight, or romantic fairy tales, but I don’t, unless I experience it myself.
Now I remember the Valentine story of my dear Korean friend, Mrs. Shin. She told me that when she was a teenager in Korea, the girls who didn’t get anything on Valentine’s day would hold a party (maybe to cheer themselves up) on Friday, a week after Valentine’s day (it is called Grey Friday or something like that). And she blushed when I said that I was sure she never had to attend that kind of party, guessing that many guys must have been in line to ask her out (for she is such a beauty).
February 14 is also a great reminder that my best friend Sarah’s birthday is only two days away. My present for her arrived too early this year. I made her a crocheted scarf with little flowers and fringes on it, knowing that Switzerland is still cold in February. And guess what the main color of it was? Yeah, you’re right. PINK!