After an eventful past couple of weeks, I'm actually just starting to feel relaxed and settled. I am sans pants (yet again) as I type this. I must say though, every bump I hear, every time I hear someone walk by my door, keys jingling in hand, I get nervous and reach for a pair... I try to have some nearby and at the ready, just in case. One never knows. Lately, as I blogged before about living alone, sounds outside my door have started to unnerve me a bit, particularly late at night if I still happen to be up. While I enjoy living alone, I think my nerves are just a bit frazzled and overworked so I've been feeling particularly susceptible to certain vulnerabilities. In any event, I'm feeling better, my heat is restored, I've got running water, without elaborating, I've gotten sexy, and I feel warm and toasty. Valentine's Day has come and gone without leaving any significant or indelible marks. I went to CVS Pharmacy after work, on Valentine's Eve, no less, to purchase some dark chocolates to smother my single sorrows in, and was greeted by a large, undulating mass of frazzled bodies, scrambling to buy cheesy long stemmed chocolate roses, snatch up boxes of Whitman's, and related tacky cards. There were wall-to-wall people, and it just made me feel even more agitated about Valentine's Day. I love to indulge in Cadbury's milk or dark chocolate bars and was chagrined to discover the shelves completely empty! My first thought was to push the store's candy shelves over in a fit of rage but instead, I just sighed heavily to show my annoyance to no one in particular, just to anyone who wanted to note it. I didn't have much of anything to choose from due to this cursed day. No more Toblerones, no more Hershey's dark chocolates with the dried fruit... Someone had to pay dearly for this! I finally settled on a bag of Lindt Dark Chocolate Truffles. One lone bag, and a long wait in line where I fluttered my eyelashes and deadpanned to make my annoyance known... The following day, I awoke to our first (and hopefully last) big snow/ice/sleet storm of the season. I was also jostled wake by my cell phone's ring tone (Aphex Twin's Windowlicker, thank you very much) and my supervisor's voice alerting me not to go in, because we were remaining closed during the storm. There were parking bans all over the state and school closings abound. Good times. I had my chocolates, I had my magic fingers, I had wine, but I couldn't help but think that my evil, bitter, witch ways willed it to snow so that it'd ruin Valentine's Day plans for all... across the region. As a newscaster on Good Morning America, made note of that fact (along with a story about an anti-Valentine's Day special at Crunch fitness facility in NYC), a sinister smile spread across my face... I felt triumphant.