Valentine's Day/Singles Empowerment Day

​Normally, I create two separate blog posts for Valentine’s Day and Singles Empowerment Day (the acronym for Singles Awareness Day is horrible, so I had to change it), but since I’ve gone back to teaching in-person and have been socializing a lot more than normal, my energy’s a bit sapped, so I’m combining. 
 
Valentine’s Day wasn’t that exciting.  I taught in-person; when I got home, I remembered that Seinfeld episode where George Costanza’s boss, a fictionalized George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees, had him buying him a daily calzone, with hilarious results, and I had a craving for a calzone.

​Upon seeing this behemoth, I knew I wasn’t going to finish it in one sitting.  So I had part of it and froze the rest.  From there, I indulged in some lovely Valentine’s Day chocolate. #allforcraig
 

​I’m part of an Aces Meetup Group out of New York, and they sponsored a “Palentine’s Day” movie screening during which we watched Moana, a delightful animated tale about a teenager’s quest for self-discovery as she navigates across treacherous waters.  The thing that makes it fit: no romantic subplot!
 
Singles Empowerment Day was slightly more exciting.  I don’t teach on Tuesdays, but my office hours were packed with students needing assistance with papers.  A power nap followed this, then a run, then more work emailing.  From there, I made my way to Washington, DC’s Chinatown (not at the level of New York or San Francisco’s Chinatowns, but not bad either).  Upon walking around, I picked a palatial-looking building in which to have dinner, which turned out to be Tony Cheng’s Seafood House.  The place was near-desolate, which I both expected on a Tuesday evening, and enjoyed.  With all the garbage I had eaten over the weekend (fried shrimp, the calzone, chocolate, Super Bowl food), I wanted something with vegetables, so I ordered a beef with broccoli platter, part of which I ended up taking home.  As I ate, I listened to a group of what appeared to be sales representatives talk in numbers. I love listening to others’ conversations, even if I can’t understand the content; it reminds me I’m just one piece in a very, very large puzzle that is the world’s population.

​After that, I headed back to my place; the nice thing about Singles Empowerment Day is that it also falls on that day after Valentine’s Day when all the candy goes on sale at half-price.  As a confirmed chocoholic, I made my way to the Giant Food at 9 a.m., just on my work, to pick up a few items, which I indulged in as I watched The Karate Kid Part 3.  Now, it’s a pretty bad movie, but it came when I purchased my Karate Kid collection, just after watching the first season of Cobra Kai back in 2018.  There were two things about that movie I liked: 1) no romantic subplot; Daniel’s “interest” is a platonic one; and 2) Thomas Ian Griffith’s fun performance as Bondesque supervillain Terry Silver, who was made three-dimensional in the latest season of Cobra Kai.  It was interesting watching him, knowing about his background and dynamic with Kreese.

​Overall, it’s been a crazy time, but I was glad to have a relatively mellow last couple of days.  But it goes back to full speed this upcoming weekend with at least two social outings.  But, for now, I have some evenings in with protein and green vegetables.  And Chester.