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Don't look now, but it's coming. February 14th - Valentine's Day.

If you listen closely you'll hear 90% of the population grumbling. You know why? Because the very idea of Valentine's Day is horrible for the majority of people.

In fact, it's much easier to ask who actually likes Valentine's Day: retailers and people who are goo-goo-gaa-gaa in love. That means about 10% of the population is actually looking forward to the day.

Let's face it if you are single on Valentine's Day the day is an absolutely torturous 24 hours. It's like going stag to the prom while your best friend is going with the hottest person in school.

All you want to do is crawl under a rock and sleep the day away. Yet everywhere you turn people jam Valentine's Day into your face.

Then you have people who are in a committed relationship. I admit that many women look forward to this day but it rarely lives up to the hype. And if you're a guy forget about it.

It doesn't matter what you do, it probably won't be good enough. Valentine's Day puts you on the spot to be romantic and that's never a good thing.

Think about it.

Take your girl out to dinner and give her a dozen roses on any other day and she'll be loving you. Do that in Valentine's Day and she'll be secretly asking: Is that the best he could do?

And don't even get me started on eating out on Valentine's. You get crammed into a table (that oh-by-the-way wasn't there yesterday and won't be there tomorrow) and then you get overcharged for a dinner that was much too small to be called dinner on any other day of the year.

Finally, we have the people who just started dating but aren't all that crazy about each other. Man, does Valentine's ever cause a lot of undue stress for these people.

Should you buy a gift? If so, what? Do you go the movies? Do you give a mushy card that is a bunch of lies?

I think we've all been there. I hope we never have to go again.

I think you get the point. I didn't even mention married people who could actually fall under just about any category. Basically it's just an occasion where each spouse is forced to spend money on a gift that they don't really need.

And I won't mention the strained nighttime routine when it seems like you need to finish the night right but you both have work in the morning and you just wish you could get to February 15th.

I guess I sound pretty jaded. But excuse me. I've been in every situation mentioned above and I've learned to hate Valentine's Day.

There's no hope for me, really. Unless, of course, I open up a romantic gifts store or a restaurant. But that's not going to happen.

So I guess I better get out to the store and look for a gift for my wife. Otherwise, my opinion of the big day will plummet even further.

Learn more about this author, Charles Rose.
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