Jumbo red Bow Tie o’ the Day and candy hearts Lapel Pin o’ the Day were a fitting combo for our February 13th brunch reservation. The bigly Scrabble board behind me is a sure sign we’re at Hotel Manaco for a meal at Bambara. We ate a tasty Valentine’s Eve brunch there at the absolute best time to have an up-scale restaurant to ourselves: Super Bowl Sunday. While everyone else was home or at an all-day Super Bowl party stuffing themselves with Buffalo wings and pizza and every variety of chip and dip known to humankind, we had a hoity-toity restaurant almost completely to ourselves. We didn’t plan it that way, but we had such a fine time I can guarantee fancy dining out on the day of the NFL Championship is going to be an annual tradition. 🏈 💘
On this Monday after the Super Bowl, I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks for their League Championship win yesterday. I would like to, but I can’t—since my Seahawks were not in this year’s bigly game. ‘Scuse me while I sob about it for two whole seconds. Oh, well. There’s always next year. Go next year, Seahawks!
Candy conversation hearts Tie o’ Valentine’s Day is joined by my Suzanne-sewn pink hearts Cape o’ the Day. As far as love itself goes, I say, “Go bigly, or go home!” If you’re not willing to put in the effort that love of any type requires, don’t even attempt to get involved in it. If you aren’t in it for the long-haul, you’ll surely end up inadvertently hurting people who don’t deserve it. And you will just as certainly end up dooming yourself to regrets. Once embarked upon, love is a deepening and complication of every decision you will make thereafter. If you’re loving another person properly, you’re always juggling your own goals, feelings, needs, and wants with those of someone else. To keep a relationship alive, you must nurture the closeness between you and your beloved, while at the same time maintaining clearly defined boundaries that keep your own soul free, independent, and accountable. That nugget of wisdom is as true for loving your companion, as it is for loving your kid, your parent, or your neighbor. Maybe even your football team.
Loving someone is a wondrous task. It demands work. It requires regular attention and ever-evolving interpersonal skills. It requires selfless passion and pointed self-reflection. It also requires unending resilience, because no matter how much you care and how hard you work at a relationship, you will sometimes get hurt—as certainly as you will cause pain to whoever you love. When human beings are involved in an endeavor, pain and loss are inevitable. The distress that comes out of plain old human imperfection can be intentional or unintentional (It’s mostly unintentional, from what I’ve observed)—but if you love somebody, you will experience it from both sides. Remember: you are perfectly you, but you are not perfect. Let me yell that thought boldly, so you don’t miss it: YOU ARE NOT PERFECT! No one is, so it’s a good idea to always love with a dollop of forgiveness handy. Continue to love onward, with your trusty shield of resilience at the ready. Resilience won’t keep you safe from the pangs of loving, but it will help you survive pain like the Adult of God you are likely trying so hard to become. 💝 ❣️
So far, no one has ever left a baby on my front step. Sometimes, however, I open my front door to find that some anonymous but wonderful delivery driver has left me a bigly package like this. This one hails from ties.com—one of only a handful of companies with whom I will do neckwear business. They were having a clearance sale on their website earlier in the week, and I ended up ordering nearly 40 new neckties. Most of these ties were thriftily priced at $2.18 or $3.28, so y’all can see why I had to stock up. A star item in this particular crop o’ neckties is the bacon tie you saw in this morning’s TIE O’ THE DAY post. That bacon tie is normally $38.50. I’ll tell you a little secret about collecting just about anything with a price tag: the key is to be patient about prices. Everything goes on sale at some point. Of the thousands of ties and bow ties I have in my collection, I have paid full price on maybe a dozen. For all of my alleged extravagance regarding my neckwear, I am truly a thrifty chick. 💸
I wish, I wish, I wish. If I could, I would send a Valentine to my true friend, bacon. It’s the best. It has been around for me through every twist and turn of my life since I grew teeth. It has been with me during every manic or depressive ride I’ve taken on my bipolar merry-go-round. It has been a comforting companion through every relationship I’ve had—success or failure. I’m not embarrassed to say it: I love bacon. And I know most of y’all are right there with me on this. To bacon, I say, “Be my Valentine!” Tie o’ the Day is a symbol of this tasty true love I will always feel for bacon. If only bacon could hear me, or read. Alas, this thing I feel so deeply and consistently is destined to be a case of unrequited love forever. Must. Make. Breakfast.
I took my hearts Face Mask o’ the Day and my hearts-and-arrows Tie o’ the Day to my appointment with the dermatologist this afternoon. My doc relayed to me the final results of my biopsies, and now the rash on my torso is diagnosed. For those of you who want me to violate my own HIPAA rules, here’s the name of what I have: disseminated granuloma annulare. According to my dermatologist, it is not something she usually sees. It is not common, nor is it rare. She last saw it on someone over 5 years ago. It’s just rare enough that it can be difficult to diagnose without all the biopsies and x-rays I just had.
The good news is that disseminated granuloma annulare is a relatively harmless condition, although my doc says I need to be vigilant about having mammograms and “lady parts” exams more frequently than is generally recommended for a chick of my age. But here’s the bigly annoying thing: there is no cure to make my rash go away. It will go away on its own—just as it came to me—whenever it dang well wants to. If it decides to go, it can also decide to come back—repeating the process over and over. Or it might disappear tomorrow—never to recur again. Or it might decide to never leave my body at all. So I finally know what the malady is, but there’s nothing anyone can do to eliminate it. My rash has a mind of its own. Fortunately for me, it does not hurt or itch. It simply covers part of my belly and back in patches of red bumps. All in all, I remain grateful my rash is neither dangerous nor hideous. I’m also happy to report that the rash is not contagious. As long as the rash remains innocuous, I guess it’s okay if it hangs around here with me and the neckwear if it really has nowhere else to go. The more the merrier, I always say.
[Here’s a much-requested Valentine repeat post. Enjoy.]
Tie o’ the Day is content to hang in the background, while Mom stars in this morning’s pix. These are evidence of Mom’s alluring ways. Dad was born into a beekeeping family, and bees were his thing. He was crazy for bees from the minute he could toddle. Based on that fact, I have no doubt Dad thought the photo of Mom dressed up in beekeeper attire was the sexiest of these two pictures. Mom does have nice legs though.
Dad’s family lived in Delta. Mom was from Oak City, a small town about 15 miles away. In Oak City, at that time, the kids went to school there until high school, then the Oak City-ites rode the bus to Delta High School every day. Mom and Dad didn’t know each other until that came to pass.
But they had sort of met once before high school. One summer day, Dad and his pals happened to be at the Oak City swimming pool when Mom was there with her friends. Mom was standing by the edge of the pool when Dad walked by and rudely pushed her in.
Mom was ticked off, turned to her gal pals, and said, “Ignernt Delta boys!”
Dad smiled, turned to his friends, and said, “I’m gonna marry that girl.”
Personally, I am not a fan of being matchy with my attire, as y’all well know by now. However, I can whip up an entire outfit in accordance with a set theme, if I so desire. With creating a singular, comprehensive theme in mind, one might ask the following question: “Exactly what is the appropriate fashion move to make when one’s newest golf pants are peacock-y?” TIE O’ THE DAY is pleased to impart a spectacle-worthy answer: one must go with the bigly peacock theme at least once in one’s life. One must surely create one day’s worth of all-out peacock-y attire to be gawked at. To do this, one must don one’s peacock-y Bow Tie o’ the Day, one’s peacock-y Face Mask o’ the Day, and one’s peacock-y Suspenders o’ the Day—in addition to one’s peacock-y Golf Pants o’ the Day. If one follows my advice, one will be both peacock-y and forever unforgettable. Indeed, one will become a legend—if only in one’s own mind. 🤣
Valentine Teddy bear Tie o’ the Day knows that having a good thing can make you downright speechless. Whether you’re contemplating love or a pair of golf pants, sometimes words can’t convey its singular splendor. So shut up about it, and behold its glory. Bask in its beauty. Love. Golf pants. And a necktie. Stand all amazed—at peace in content silence—in your luck to have found what you were looking for. 💝👖👔
“Cupid” rhymes with “stupid,” but they are not the same thing. However, Cupid-covered Tie o’ the Day will be the first to tell you that sometimes loving someone can certainly make you feel stupid. When you love someone, you’ll forever find yourself running into burning buildings—or jumping in front of speeding bullets—to save your beloved from all possible harm. Your wallet will inexplicably look anorexic because you’re paying bills for two. You will learn how to be content with sharing almost every bit of your very time, space, and air. Cupid can make you almost glad to regularly endure someone else’s all-night snore-fest: you’re simply so grateful to be snored awake right where you are. Yup, love can be loud and demanding. And yet, I highly recommend not wearing Cupid repellant. I recommend jumping head-first into the deep end of love. It isn’t always easy or fun to grow an enduring relationship. But a relationship full of devotion and respect will turn you into a stronger, wiser, more patient person than you ever dreamed you could be. Whether or not you want to evolve, if you’re working at love, you will. You must be brave for the duration. Love done right, in its truest sense, will transform you into a childlike grown-up. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll get frustrated. You’ll fume. But even the most difficult times you share with someone you adore will be packed with perpetual wonder. Love has the power to do that—if you pay meticulous attention.
I have included here a copy of one of my favorite e.e. cummings poems. I am happy to report that when you are in love, flowers really do pick themselves. I see it happen every day. Enjoy the poem.
Heart-covered Bow Tie o’ the Day is here to remind you you’re running out of time to make your Valentine’s Day plans. It’s a hokey holiday, created to sell cards and flowers and chocolates, but it’s a day that can hold profound meaning—if only symbolically. Decide to make the day matter. That’s how meaning is created. Just decide it matters, and act accordingly. 😍
