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The good thing about not having a man in my life is that Valentine’s Day is not experiencing the unmitigated disappointment that the day was in my past. When I was at the academy it seemed that the guys, who sent me flowers and candy on the day, were never the guys I wanted to hear from. Maybe it would have worked out better if I had dated the guys I was crazy about instead of dating guys I thought would make them jealous.

After the academy, when I actually dated the guys I was crazy about all they tended to do was send a funny card. Oh, I wish I had never read during my psychology class that funny cards showed hostility. Later when I learned in my sociology classes not to commit psychology, it was too late. My dislike of funny cards was quite ingrained.

Then there was the guy, who I really thought was the one, until Valentine’s Day. He gave me a friendship present. Not long after, he told me he was going into the seminary to become a catholic priest. I can sure pick them!

My worst Valentine’s Day was the first one after I married. We had been married for just under a month, but he was back at his duty station. I sent him candy and cards. He sent me nothing. He tried to make up for it every year for the rest of our marriage, but you can guess how effective that was.

After my marriage was over, and I started dating again, Valentine’s Days got even worse. I fell madly in love with a guy, but our life paths didn’t cross, and neither one of us would give in to change course for the other. This went on for over ten years, until I had gone from madly in love with him, to mildy fond of him. Finally I packed a bag and became a nomad, leaving him to find his own way. In all the time we were involved his most heartfelt Valentine’s greeting was a text: HAPPY VD DAY! In my six months of being a nomad, I realized I am not missing him much. I do hear from him from time to time and I enjoy his chat. This Valentine’s Day went by without a text, sticker, or emoji. So I guess he realises that what we once had, as tepid as it had become, is over.

So enough of the past. This year I had a great Valentine’s Day. I got up and made myself a mushroom sausage verde cheese omelet and spent the morning totally goofing off. After I had enough coffee to float a boat, I walked down to the local store and bought the rest of the ingredients I needed to make my shrimp scampi. I knew that wouldn’t get around to making the pasta until dinner time I picked up some potato chips to snack on at lunch.

The omelet was overstuffed, so I didn’t need to eat much lunch.

The locally made potato chips came with little packets of “hot” sauce. It wasn’t very hot, but was very flavorful. At first, I thought that two packets wouldn’t be enough, but it turned out to be just the right amount. I put a tiny drop on each large chip, and hovered up the small chips without sauce.

The shrimp scampi turned out well. I put all the shrimp on this one plate, but put half the sauce on the remaining pasta to eat the next day will some of the remaining fried portobellos. I fry the capers for the scampi to give them a smokey flavor.

How did I manage to get so much stuff dirty making one dish?

The white roses were from my ex, sent in a round about way. I guess he is still trying to make up for that first bad Valentine’s Day.

Scampi, white wine, and white roses, spending the day not working on anything, watching YouTube and working jigsaw puzzles; It was about the best Valentine’s Day I have ever had.