It took years of sitting home alone watching TV on Valentine's Day, tallying the reasons for our involuntary solitude - Is our hair too flat? Are our thighs too big? Is that smell coming from our couch or these pajamas? - before we realized the problem was not us. It was Meg Ryan. Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle; Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally; Meg and her top-of-the-Empire-State-Building rendezvous; Meg's big blue eyes welling with tears as her co-star confesses his eternal devotion. She and TBS are in cahoots. Their mission: to convince singles that their life is hopelessly lackluster. Well, Meg, you are not going to get us down this year! We are going to KUPS 90.1 FM's fabulous "Cheap Date" Valentine's Day dance at Grit City Grindhouse, and you are not invited. We are going to dance to house, electronica, soul and hip-hop spun by Donny Vegas, Dirt P, Kirby "Big Kribb" Lochner and maybe find a leading man to watch your sappy movies with.

CHEAP DATE, 8 p.m., all-ages, bar w/ID, Grit City Grindhouse, 311 S. Seventh St., Tacoma, $5, kups.net