It's coming around again: everyone's favorite failsauce greeting card holiday: VD Day! Wait, one too many D's. Here at Blogher we decided it would be fun to take a look at the best and the worst the holiday has to offer. Desperately in love, or just desperate? As usual, bloggers reveal all.

Live From the Wang of America brings us a funny Valentine's story about her husband and what he did for her one year. Are kissy prints romantic when they're from men? Jury's still out on that one, but it charmed Gidge, so he must be doing something right:

But one of my truly favorite Valentine's memories was from when we still lived in Kentucky. I woke up for work, stumbled into the shower - realizing that he had just recently come to bed. After my shower I put on my robe to walk down stairs and when I got to the head of the stairs, I saw little Post It notes going down the steps. Each one had a red lipstick smooch on it. I picked them up as I went down the steps - and followed them to the kitchen were there was a card and flowers for me. He had left the romantic holiday channel playing music for me on the stereo - in short, he'd started my busy, hectic day with a huge swoosh of sweet, silly romance.

I went back up stairs to him and he was half sitting up in bed, with the covers pulled up to his nose.
I said something like "Oh honey......that was so sweet" when he dropped the covers, revealing his RED LIPSTICK SMEARED lips and face and says "I can't get this red lipstick off - it stained my skin!"

I still crack up if I think about it too much. It was hilarious.

Four-Inch Stilettos gives a shout-out to her ladies on Mean Girls' Guide to Glory. Valentines Schmalentines!

I blame elementary school. After all, isn't that where it started anyway? Candygrams, handmade valentines crafted from nothing more than a few pieces of construction paper and doilies and those heart-shaped candies with phrases like "Be Mine" and "I Love You." Those you were secretly crushing on always received extra special attention on this particular day, which usually came in the form of a couple "x's" and "o's" before your name and a few extra pieces of candy. Since schools are all about equality, no one was ever left feeling unwanted or sent home empty-handed. Ah, if only those same principles still existed in our adult lives, right?

And then there's dates. Ohhh, dates. They can be beautiful or a disaster, right? I think there is way too much pressure put on the V-Day date. I know, I have been there. I once had it really bad for someone and had my fingers crossed he would sweep me off to something at least a tick above Denny's, and instead he showed up with a pineapple as a gift (?) and "What are we doing tonight? No real plans." I was crushed.

Camera Obscura, like me, was hoping for a little fun and romance, in spite of her recently mended broken foot and her husband's questionable track record. What she got was a filthy food court and more!

Since half the joy of having a babysitter was not putting the kids to bed myself, I refused to go home. We ended up at another mall, where we ate at the food court because we still couldn’t get a table at a restaurant. While I was admiring something at one of the stores, my husband announced that I should get it, since he had not bought me a Valentine's Day gift, either.

Napping at Red Lights reminisces about her first date with her husband, who was two hours late! Not a great start, but proof that the first date is not always an indicator of things to come.

Tarie talks about her best Valentine's Date ever, which was bookended by bombing attacks on her city.

Right when I finished my ice cream there was commotion in Glorietta. Everybody was scared and running to the exits. I thought it was a fire, and Peter heard it was a bomb so we starting running out like everyone else. There was also commotion near the MRT area and in SM. They closed the MRT station so we had to take a bus back to my place. It's a good thing traffic was very light.

When we got home we shnuggled for an hour or so then Peter had to go home to Manila. Later we both found out that a bus blew up in the Ayala Center area. =( That was what all the commotion was about. It was scary when we were running out of Glorietta. For a second I thought we might die. I was okay with dying, but I was worried about JP and Brian becuae they didn't know I was out that night. They didn't know where I was. I also found out that there were simultaneous bombs set off in Davao City and General Santos City that night. =(

Today I saw a woman standing outside a chocolate shop. She was dressed like a giant red heart and was holding a large sign that said "Don't get yourself in trouble." I suddenly realized that this is the first time I've been single on Valentine's Day in about fifteen years. I have bought myself some chocolates, which I would be likely to do on any day of the year. It just so happened they were in a heart-shaped box since those were on sale. To paraphrase Tom Waits, I am also going to ask myself out to some class joint and spend some time with myself.

Lonely Day?

"To all who reads this, Happy Valentines and I hope you had a good day. To those who didn’t, go find someone who will make you smile. And if in the end you really can’t…

I Love YOU. Because today is a really crummy day to be alone and have no one tell you that they love you. A good friend had said that Valentine’s doesn’t have to be a day for lovers, it could be a day for good friends too. I in turn replied, “Friends with benefits?” It turned out she didn’t know what “benefits” specifically referred to."

So, a lonely day? Maybe. But I am glad there are still people in love, chasing love, and throwing themselves at life. Happy Valentine's Day.

Related:

Five Worst Valentine's Day Gifts, via Funky Brown Chick.

The best xkcd comic on the subject of love.

Disney's VD attack plan!

SJ also blogs at I, Asshole, where she is now 47% less bitter and about the same amount more chocolatey.