So the dreaded time has come.

The holiday celebrating couples and romance is around the corner, and you are single. Well, friend, it doesn’t have to be this way. It can be the best day of the year.

It’s time for a revolution, and the revolution starts with you. Get your single butt off the couch, throw your hands in the air and yell, “Happy Single Awareness Day.”

Yell it loud, because you are a pretty young thing and you don’t have to worry about waking your significant other up from his or her nap, and that should make you ecstatic.

Hallelujah!

I have compiled a list of fun things you can do by yourself this weekend. Remember all that money that might have been wasted on dumb gifts for your boyfriend that you’re not even sure he’d like? Now it’s going toward a mani-pedi for yourself. Or how about that expensive dinner you would have had to take your unappreciative girlfriend out to, where she ordered an obscenely expensive salad she didn’t finish?

Hosanna in the highest; now you can spend it on takeout that you can eat on the couch in your underwear while watching all the “Star Wars” movies.

So, without further ado, let’s begin.

First, take advantage of the sales. Singles Awareness Day is a time to spend your hard-earned money on yourself, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of sales. Buy yourself a bag of discounted chocolates at Safeway or go bigger with a new discounted iPad at Best Buy, which you can use to watch all the Netflix shows the “he” in your life wasn’t interested in. If you’d prefer a Singles Awareness Day event that doesn’t require you changing out of your onesie or leaving your home and cats, Amazon.com is also offering sales on many of its products.

Next, plan the day around you. Do you want to sleep in until noon and then go on a long bike ride with your dog and then spend the rest of the day learning Japanese on your new Rosetta Stone? Whatever the case may be, no one can tell you that it doesn’t work for them or that they’d rather do something else. This is your day, and you play by your rules because you are a magnificent spaghetti squash that doesn’t need other spaghetti squashes ruining its plans.

Next, plan a nice dinner for yourself. The definition of “nice” is completely up to you: If nice is a home-cooked meal set on the table with cloth napkins that you sewed yourself, great.

If it’s a heart-shaped pizza (so that you remember how much you love yourself) delivered to you at 2 a.m., awesome. Plan something special for yourself.

If you already treat yourself on a regular basis and would rather do something a little sneakier, you could always grab a friend, dress up, and pretend to be a couple while gossiping about the real couples around you, unless of course they are also pretending because they, too, are all about that Single Awareness Day scene.

Alas, if you celebrate Singles Awareness Day with happiness and vigor, with other single friends or by yourself, the day will be over before you know it and you won’t remember why you hated February in the first place.

The opinions expressed in Keating’s column do not necessarily reflect those of The Daily Barometer staff.

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