This year Valentine's Day was different for me than the norm because it was the first time in many years that I was single. Put your violins away, I was actually really looking forward to the experience. So much emphasis of this holiday is placed on having that special romantic someone, but I wanted to be able to celebrate loving myself and others I care about! So I started it off by giving myself the perfect Valentine's pedi, whilst mindlessly singing Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill you Makes you Stronger," until I realized that song would probably subconsciously damper my Valentine juju. So I started singing "All you Need is Love" and promptly stubbed my toe and chipped the paint job.
Then I got started on my big plans in the kitchen. Originally, I thought I'd make these homemade peanut butter cups and give them to my friends. But they were amazing and I'm not even gonna make it seem like I didn't eat all twelve of them myself within 48 hours, long before the 14th even arrived. So... sorry, friends deserving of homemade peanut butter cups, you lost out and I didn't. But what I did wait to do was make cupcakes. And to honor the hipster buried not-so-deep within me, I made them vegan and gluten-free. They were a hit with my various friends with dietary restrictions, and then I made sure I left a cutely packaged box of them on my next door neighbor's doorstep. My neighbor is awesome in that he has let me steal borrow his internet for the past two and a half years, and has literally saved me over $1000 bones, so I figured the least I could do was throw him this bone. And I'm pretty sure he was either thoroughly touched and/or creeped out by it.
Then I allowed myself some quality me-time. I'm normally not one to read romance novels--coughfiftyshadesofgrey-- but when Nicholas Sparks' new novel "Safe Haven" arrived on my doorstep the day prior to V-day, I knew how I would spend my afternoon. And evening. And night while I should have been sleeping. And I didn't stop until the next morning when it was finished. I started reading it thinking, much like his other novel "The Notebook," it would be the perfect love story for a day like Valentine's day. What it turned out being was a book about a young woman fleeing from a physically abusive marriage she was trapped in for years, and the aftermath of what it's like to try to hide from someone looking to hunt you down and kill you. And like most trainwrecks, I had to keep looking until I found out who lived and who died. So, Happy Valentine's Day to me.
I'm a one-time book reader, except for certain faves like my personal Bible "The Devil Wears Prada," so my copy of Safe Haven immediately began making a cameo here. And I will say that I thought the last couple chapters of the book were. JUST. AWFUL. Feel free to bid, despite my rave review.
If anything, this book did allow me to reflect on some things I normally don't think about, like how lucky I am to still be able to use my original birth identity despite having one or two fucktard mentally unstable ex-boyfriends on my rap sheet. That the only black eyes I've ever received were given to me by myself from my own ridonkulous physical shenanigans, or simply drawn on with makeup for the many spun-out ho's I've played for the camera. Or the fact that I carry a can of pepper spray with me everywhere, but the only time it's ever gotten any use was from the one time I accidentally sprayed myself in the face. So yes, I did feel the love this Valentine's Day. Because I realized my friends, family, and home have always been my Safe Haven.
I wish I could be there to sample the cupcakes! I just wrote a seduction scene in my latest book, and you are just the uncoupled one to read it and let me know how I did ;)
ReplyDelete