The subtle light setting the room gently aglow, a single red rose in the center of the table, chocolate covered strawberries, jazz music setting the tone and a glass of white wine. Sounds like a seduction scene from a romance novel doesn't it? Should be but I like to spoil myself. I'd already taken myself out to dinner and watched all the madly in love couples. The girl crying tears of joy after accepting a proposal of marriage or even the cute elderly couple in the corner that are content just holding hands after all those years.

This really isn't about romance. It's about me. Brian. I've never really had anybody on Valentine's day. And it's not because I couldn't, it's because I didn't want to. I always figured it's the one day I could fall in love with myself over and over again and nobody could tell me it's wrong. Sure I sing about the stuff all the time and I do believe in it. It's just an overcommercialized holiday now for something that never started out as a romantic thing to begin with.

I know you really don't want a history lesson but here goes. It started as a pagan festival called Lupercalia in ancient Rome. It was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman God of Agriculture as well as the Roman Gods Romulus and Remus. The festival started at a cave where the latter two Gods were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf.

The priests would sacrifice a goat for fertility and a dog for purification at the entrance of that cave. After the sacrifice, the boys would slice the goat's hide into strips and dip them into sacrificial blood. The boys would then roam the streets gently slapping both woman and fields of crops. Women were not afraid of this practice because they believed it would make them more fertile in the coming year.

According to the legend, later in that day all the young women in the city would put their names in an urn. The bachelors of the city would then choose a name and become paired with the young lady for that coming year. Most of the matches worked out but around 498 A.D. ,it was deemed Saint Valentines Day by the church due to the fact that this lottery system of sorts was un-Christian.

It wasn't until the Middle Ages that it came to be considered a holiday of love by the French and English. February 14th was considered the beginning of the bird's mating season and therefore it added to their idea that it should be considered a day for love.

So if you ever find yourself lonely on Valentine's Day, just remember how it got started.