Happy St. Valentines Day

A Very Happy Day to all...



I really don't do chocolate ...I mean I like it...but it really has little to say to me. So Richard has been off the hook for many years now...does not have to seek out that fancy heart shaped boxes filled with bon bons....but he always gets me a beautiful card and it ALWAYS has a black background (he knows how I enjoy my color black) I am not sure where he finds them each and every year ... but they are always beautiful , frilly and filled with loving rhymes. On valentines day I would rather have a picnic, watch a movie or have friends over...and the later it is.... Tonight we will have some local artist friends of ours over for a tipi sit ...there will be six of us ...I will be making my Red Bell Pepper Pasta Sauce (YUM!) Caesar Salad, Garlic bread... did I mention I love to cook! Anyway, after dinner we will all sit and sip wine in the tipi around a warming fire and just relax... I look forward to it.






My memories of childhood Valentines day are strange and funny ones at best...when kids use to sit up all night signing little Valentines day cards for classmates and dropping little candy 'I love you' hearts into each (two for the boy you loved a little more) ...I actually liked this part the best...I think I was a very organized child (not sure what happened) ...I liked sorting and organizing the cards and nicely placing into a box according to the school desk order... well we were up in Reno (one of Dad's music gigs) and of course there was slush and snow around in February...I came bounding out with neat box of cards in hand to the car my Mother was warming ....when.... Slip***Swosh*** SPLAT!! I fell and all the Valentines Day Cards went flying up in the air (to me like slow motion in one of those movies) and all came falling down in various slush puddles....man was I ever bummed...all my work, all those candy hearts now dissolving inside each tiny hand doodled envelope...and one particular one with TWO hearts...the one the little boy would never get and thus never realize my true undying love via the extra candy heart (a kid signal for LOVE) ... OK...I was Late, I had no Valentines Day Cards to share and I had a scraped knee and bruised ego. So my dear Mom stopped by a local store and purchased 27 little 'special' foil wrapped chocolate covered triple fluffed marshmallow Heart Treats... (+ one extra for the little boy I told her I was going to marry one day) ... I arrived late...made a grand entrance ...handed out my little treats to all (held the extra one for the little boy until after class...so no one else would know my intentions) and was very popular that Valentines Day... Needless to say my Mom saved the Day, my humility was in tact, my popularity rose a notch or two ...and the little boy knew I was serious in a big way.. AHHHHH is was a Grand Valentines Day Indeed.

A week later things were back to normal ...kids turned back into kids....the little boy dumped me for a girl with red hair whose Mom made Chocolate Chip Cookies for the class...and I'll be damned...she used my M.O. ...she gave him TWO COOKIES!!! He dropped me like a hot brick.... so I slugged him in the arm and never thought of him again....until now of course...AHHHHH....love never dies really...and sometimes the first ones are the hardest to shake off.

Love can tie us in knots, it pokes our heart till it hurts, it promises and many times never delivers... yet it can be the most wonderful thing there is.... the one true emotion that can set you free...I think the Beatles said it best....

"All You Need Is LOVE......."



Later ,

Jodi