For those in the throes of mutual loving devotion, Valentines Day is the time of year for which no amount of flowers, e-cards, teddies and other mass-produced tokens of sincerity is enough.  It is the annual perfect storm formed when fronts of love, guilt and seaside tat converge in a high pressure atmosphere of dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin all presided over by by the benevolent Love Gods of Hallmark – the supposed corporate progenitors of this ‘fabricated’ holiday. (Not entirely true, St. Valentine’s day has been celebrated as a veneration of courtly love since the 14th century. St. Valentine is also, quite interestingly from a life sciences point of view, the patron saint of Epilepsy.)

Its well documented that love can be reduced to the aforementioned constituent chemical parts not to mention evolutionary reward systems, but it’s difficult to appreciate this when you’re sitting eagerly awaiting your first date with a certain some one or into your third hour of a ” you hang up, no you hang up” scenario or drunkenly spray-painting “I’m in like with you” on the drive way of their parent’s semi-D.