No, I Did Not Forget V-Day

We went to Nashville about 30 hours after we got home from Valentine’s dinner, so I put these photos aside until now. Rest assured, I will never NOT post about Valentine’s dinner. It’s what I do, so here it is.

Like last year, I chose to wear my candy, conversation hearts Bow Tie o’ the Day for the bigly event. It’s one of my jumbo-sized bow ties, which are especially fun to wear because no one can ignore them.

I was lucky to get Suzanne and I dinner reservations at CURRENT, in SLC. The minute we walked in the door, we were accosted by admirers of my cape and Bow Tie. I always like to give proper credit to Suzanne, as the cape maker of my smashing frocks, so I love for her to be around when I get cape compliments. It’s so much better than just telling her about the accolades I hear when I’m out alone in a cape. Sometimes when I relay a cape compliment I’ve received, I think she doesn’t believe me that her seamstress ability is as eye-catching and successful as I try to express. But she knows how to create a fine cape. If ya wanna cape made, Suzanne is definitely your man.

Once we were seated upstairs for our din-din, Suzanne promptly managed to order a bottle of wine that cost more than dinner. She’s always thoughtful enough to let me smell the adult beverages. I can vouch for the fact that expensive wine has an expensive smell. And the aroma will have to be enough for me.

I ordered an appetizer which was mostly a mystery to me—even after I ate it. I recognized most of the words on its menu description, and I knew from dining at CURRENT in the past that it would show up looking glorious on the plate in front of me. It would be pretty and safe—whatever it was. I can attest that my appetizer had pesto and butternut puree and grilled bread, among other things. It was yummy. Suzanne had the crab bisque, with puff pastry crackers.

You can guess Suzanne had the scallops, and I had the prime rib. Always guess that’s what we had for a fancy dinner, and you’ll be right more often than not.

We didn’t decline dessert, even though we were stuffed. Our desserts were extravagantly pretty too. Mine was called Persian Love Cake, and I can’t explain it except to say I know it was covered in pistachios and fig jam, and at some point I was eating rose petals as part of it. ‘Twas tasty. I was so focused on my own dessert that I didn’t really pay attention to what Suzanne had. It was some kind of chocolate torte. I think.

At some point during dinner, my cheeks got kissed. I’m telling you right now that I did not wash my cheeks that evening. I did not wash the kisses off my cheeks the entire next day either. I finally did wash the lipstick away before we went to the airport to fly to Nashville.

It’s so much work to be loved.😉

I Mean It In A Good Way

TIE O’ THE DAY recognizes the power of words. Yup, the pen is truly mightier than the sword. Sometimes people use language to attempt to defeat our efforts to create a happy life. You women, especially, know how that “b”-word can get thrown at you at key moments of your triumphs. We mostly hear it when we step out of line to stand up for ourselves. We mostly hear it when we are inconveniencing the status quo— when we say, “Nope, I was not put on earth to always take care of everyone else but me.”

And so we learn to take back the b-word. We begin to wear it with pride. We wear it in the way only tough broads can. We learn to take it as a compliment. It is in this spirit that I fell in love with these socks. I decided to get a pair for each of the crafty bitches in my life, starting with Suzanne—Queen of the Crafty Bitches. She can craft up food, quilts, capes, scarves, etc. But as I tallied up all the crafty women I know, I realized—to my delight—almost all of the women I am related to, or otherwise consider friends, are of the same tough breed. There is no way I could afford to buy that many pairs o’ socks. The store where I found this pair certainly did not have enough to fill my order. So the photo of this pair is for all of you ladies who know what I’m talking about. May the b-word be with you!