Valentine’s Day is quickly looming over the horizon here at WSU, and it is eagerly anticipated with all the delightful stress of midterms and the financial strain of Christmas. 

Between the stress of finding gifts for significant others – or actually finding significant others – the day itself can be quite intimidating.

But whether you are planning on painting the town red, or cuddling up next to a half empty fifth, Feb. 14 doesn’t always have to be all crimson or all gray.

Below I have detailed some handy tips for most relationship situations, designed to help you have the time of your life this year. Or at least survive.

For Singles:

For many of us, dating can feel like something that always happens to other people, like illness or car crashes. On the bright side, you don’t have to worry about any financial commitment for this particular holiday, other than some on-demand movies and a massive amount of alcohol/tissues.

Hanging with just friends on Valentine’s Day can easily be as fun as a dinner date, I am hoping. Even if those friends like silly games involving string, and fancy feasts and are actually cats. That’s OK. 

For Not-Singles:

Planning romantic evenings can be difficult in general, but it can be especially challenging if you are constrained to the interior of a residence hall. Fact is, making out in a twin bed is about as comfortable as throwing two octopuses in a bucket. However, a good tip if you find yourself in this predicament is to maybe build a “blanket fort” on the floor of the space, and make it as comfortable as possible with pillows.

Another potential difficulty that you should avoid complaining about to your single friends is finding gifts. While this may sound a bit out there, a good approach for this issue can be to actually just buy something within your price range that you think your significant other may enjoy, and hope that they buy into all of that “it’s the thought that counts” business.

For those of us who maybe have someone, but we don’t know for sure if they are thinking the same thing:

Then, for those people who don’t know which category they fit into and subsequently have no idea whether or not to purchase an almost-maybe but neither-of-you-know-for-sure potentially special someone, a good strategy is to just purchase a box of chocolates. Then, if they surprise you with something, you are prepared, and if they didn’t get you anything, you lie and say someone else bought YOU the chocolates. And you get the chocolates.