How to survive to this year's Valentine's Day

As I never remember exactly what I did on New Year's Eve, in the same way, there's always like a sort of fog surrounding the ghosts of past Valentine's Day. Not because there was actually something to forget, but because February 14 for me - and for many girls of my generation - is a day like any other. Disillusioned, realistic, not particularly romantic or dreamy, that day never meant big dates similar to those you see in movies, made of red roses and candlelit dinners, but of continuous and desperate attempts to avoid dating, especially first dates, on that fateful day. 

The past year, however, has reshuffled the cards on the table, making us doubt (and miss greatly) for our previous life. To avoid basking in the memory of past February 14, especially if at the time with a boyfriend and now single, or at the time simply able to lead a normal life, we have to run for cover. If last year I had been quite ruthless in the judgments and advice on how to spend a good Valentine's Day, avoiding in the same way too romantic situations and then no sense hookups, this year I feel much more benevolent and condescending, so much so that, in the light of 2020 just passed, not even a first date on February 14 seems to be such a bad idea. Have we gone completely crazy? 

Between DPCM, areas of different shades of colour and curfew, Valentine's Day 2021 offers multiple possibilities, to be commensurate with the degree of intimacy you share (or would like to achieve) with the partner in question. If you feel like it - but you have to be really sure - you can organize a trip out of town, within the limits of your region, a nice ride away from the city whose climax will coincide with an informal lunch that will dissolve any doubt on the afternoon programs thanks to the amaro offered by the waiter. Pro tip: the advice is to travel by car so that if the last liquor does its job, you'll have a safe place to indulge in nasty thoughts. 

If the prospect of a whole day to spend together seems too much, you can fall back on a lunch in the city, informal, chill, without too many expectations, or on dinner at home. I'd avoid the aperitif given the difficult procedures and time restrictions, or even just for the fact that various coats and jackets would hide your awesome outfit. When it comes to dinner, a multitude of possibilities opens up: at your place, at his place, you cook, he cooks, should we order? One thing is certain: if you'd like dinner to continue after dessert (and curfew), you have the perfect excuse to spend the night together (I don't need to explain further what I mean). The program is already there, you have to admit it, aware however that if the evening doesn't go as planned you would be willing to face an entire army of police just to go home. 

In the event that this pandemic year had deprived you of all the desire to interact with the other sex - a very understandable feeling for sure - here the possibilities are even more numerous: video call with friends, lunches, aperitifs and dinners with them, evenings at home with your sex toys and a nice glass of wine, a healthy sexting session with the guy who lives outside your region, a blind date on Clubhouse, to feel enchanted only by the voice of a stranger, the thrill of re-downloading Tinder to see who is left - almost certainly your friend's boyfriend, who assures you he was there by mistake. 

Without open bar happenings, events, club nights, and all those opportunities for human interaction belonging to our previous life, all we have to do is find new ways to make up for the lack of human and physical contact, as long as we want to, of course. What is certain is that after a year basically spent on the sidelines we just want to go out and make some noise, on February 14th like any other day of the year.