Every year for Valentine's Day, I try to give blood. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes I am less so (my iron levels tend to be low).

But my main goal is to ignore the media hype surrounding Valentine's Day (what my father calls a "Hallmark Holiday"); you know, the cheap ass jewelry, the mall advertisements, the pressure to go to dinner with a "special someone," the cheesy commercialized "romanticism" - and to do something genuinely nice for someone I don't know.

Giving blood is just one way to do that. You could make a card for a neighbor, drop off flowers at a Senior Citizens Center or Adult Day Care facility, or make someone's day at work by buying them coffee.

God forbid that you are single on Valentine's Day - it's a whole holiday geared up to make you feel crappy about not being "with" someone - but is that really what it is all about? The Red Cross needs blood. Valentine's Day is just one day out of many that you could save someone's life.