Year after year Valentine’s Day comes and I pretend not to notice. If someone asks me about it I play it cool. I don’t mention the types of things I’ll really be doing. I don’t mention all the rationalizing I‘ll do so that I can convince myself of several things. By the end of the day I’ll convince myself that being single is ideal. I’ll convince myself that eating a box of candy or some other fried, fatty or sweet abomination is perfectly acceptable because it’s a holiday. I’ll convince myself that next Valentine’s Day will be different and I’ll believe it all. At least I will believe for a little while… usually until the 15th.
As it turns out if I look back at the last 10 Valentine’s Days I’ve only had a real honest to goodness Valentine for 1 of them. That’s not a good percentage. Today I mostly managed to avoid the chocolate. I did sample a little cake this morning at brunch, which by the way if you’ve never been, you’re missing out. This morning I went to Rizzo’s for brunch with several friends. Not only was the food quite good but the price was great ($14). It was nearly half the cost of the “famous” brunch at Shanghai Reds and the food was comparable if not better. Plus there was a guy singing standards over pre-recorded music at a low soothing level where you could still easily talk over it. It was quite the relaxing experience.
This evening I saw Casablanca for the first time. I haven’t been avoiding it all these years or anything, in fact I’ve watched a little bit of it here and there over the years but I generally have a policy regarding movies: if I don’t watch it from the beginning then I can’t watch it to the end. Call me a traditionalist but I love to see a film from beginning to end. If I turn on a movie and it is half way through I’ll most likely change the channel within a few minutes, even if I’m enjoying what I see. If it’s really good then I usually make a definite plan to see it in its’ entirety.
My thoughts on Casablanca is that it is very good. Ingrid Bergman looks like an angel in it and I enjoyed most of the characters and the story. Growing up I didn’t watch many old black and white films. I’ve probably seen more the past few months than I had the last decade. As some of you know I joined a movie meetup group and one of the series that I am addicted to is the UB film seminar at the Market Arcade each Tuesday night. This husband and wife team of professors teach a film class that shows up each week to see a classic film and to discuss and ask questions about it afterwards. The movies themselves are great classic films but the discussions afterwards are pretty cool too. If you are free on Tuesday nights and like classic films, I highly recommend it. Plus there are half price concessions at the Market Arcade on Tuesday nights.
Starting this Saturday or next I’m going to be playing on an indoor coed football team. It’s the same league I play in during the fall and spring but now there’s a short term winter indoor league and a few teammates and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get that exercise and sharpen our skills a bit for the upcoming spring season. I don’t believe I will play quarterback this time so I have a long way to go to get into shape and improve my stamina and speed so I can be a more effective receiver but I am very confident in my hands, courage and route running so I’ll get there.
To cap off my VD I think I’ll pop in another romantic movie. From my collection it’s between House of Flying Daggers, Say Anything, Better Off Dead, The American President, When Harry Met Sally and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Yes I have too many movies. Unfortunately there will be no one to kiss at the end but that’s okay. I am however now accepting applications for next year’s Valentine. Won’t you be mine?
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