February 7, 2019

I just read that there is a zoo that will name a cockroach after your ex and feed it to a meerkat on Valentine’s Day! I heard on the radio this morning you can get free wings at Hooters if you come in and shred a photo of your ex in front of them! Valentine’s Day is not the happy holiday most think it is! And let me tell you with opportunities like this and so many more out there…I am not the only one with a bad Valentine’s Day record. Apparently, it is common.

It does make me a little sad. I think it may be nice to have a little Valentine’s Day date and go somewhere special. So, what I am about to do with you is EXACTLY why I became a writer. Here I was a young romantic with no romance on the horizon, because I was so young and I wanted to write because when you write, like when you read…you can go anywhere and anything can happen…

So, we are going to go on a short adventure. If I had a date on Valentine’s Day and chocolate is the “traditional” Valentine’s Day treat…if I were in New York. I would want to go to LeVain’s on the Upper Westside, and either get a dark chocolate chip cookie that is thick like a hockey puck and the chocolate oozes out of them or a chocolate brioche, which always ends up on my chin as sure sign of my delight. I may go downtown to City Bakery and sit in a cozy corner and sip hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows. If I were in Paris, I would go to Laduree and sit in one of their fancy dancy rooms and sip a pot of that thick, luxurious hot chocolate or as the Parisians call it…chocolat chaud. Maybe I would go to Angelina’s and have chocolat chaud and eat a monte blanc…not a pen, but a divine dessert. If I was in Italy, I would go to Venice and share a plate of cuttlefish in black squid ink and hope he would eat it with me like Lady and the Tramp. If I were in Switzerland, I would want to sit at the top of the Swiss Alps and share a dark chocolate candy bar. If I were in Brugge, I would want a plethora of their chocolate AND their waffles on a boat going down a waterway. If I were in Hong Kong, I would want dumplings. I know, I know it isn’t chocolate, but I loved the dumplings in Hong Kong…they rocked! Shanghai has killer dumplings too! But I digress…I don’t have to have Valentine to go around the world…I just need my imagination…and that makes me smile. However, I must confess, I am still thinking about naming a cockroach after the ex that really hurt me and letting him be fed to a meerkat…I mean come on…who can pass up on that one!