Teddy Bear Aphrodisiac

Late Saturday night I was flipping through TV (I swear there's never anything on except Chronicles of Riddick and Good Times reruns–oh, Psycho IV was on last night, and it tickled me to no end to see a younger than I ever remember him looking19-year-old Henry Thomas in action. I mean, I have the VHS tape somewhere in a box on the west coast, but it's a rare treat to randomly catch a teenage boy dressed in a granny dress and bun wig at 1am on a Sunday. Now that I think about it, Valmont was on Saturday afternoon. H.T. 4 EVA!) and though I'd had a few drinks, I certainly wasn't drunk. But my judgment must've been off because I got hooked on what I thought was a lame comedy sketch like from the last half hour of SNL or something. I was trying to figure out what exactly the joke was, there were these trashy office ladies (I don't know, I work in a fairly conservative climate–maybe this is how women dress in companies around the country) one in a poly-spandex mini dress, oohing and ahhing over a teddy bear with a mask on who was supposed to be a bandit and came with a message about how she'd stolen someone's heart. I thought they were spoofing Valentine's gifts and this was some bad parody of office culture, but then I realized this was an actual ad for something called Vermont Teddy Bear. Is anyone familiar with this company? The commercial really freaked me out, it showed guys excitedly ordering these fur balls like they'd be a sure fire path to fur pie. Furries aside–do women really put out for stuffed animals? How did this myth get started? I get the candy or flowers concept, but where does the Red Hot Redneck fit in?

I honestly have no idea what I'll be doing for Valentine's Day. I trust that something is planned since in years past it always has been, but you never know. (Maybe it would serve me right to have nothing happen on Feb. 14. Do you ever feel like punishing yourself because things are too smooth and complacent? No, right? Well, I do. Like in the old days I'd be shocked when given gifts or taken out on a proper date, but now I expect traditional courtesies and I'm afraid that I'm forgetting how to appreciate little niceties. I'm talking about relationships here, not other aspects of a well-rounded life. I'm certainly not at a financial or career point where I feel like I need to punish myself to remember how bad it used to be because I still live it every day.) And I wouldn't ask because a. I like surprises, and b. because James would probably want me to ask and by ignoring the holiday I'm thwarting him at trying to thwart me. If that makes any sense. Of course I want something for Valentine's Day, but I'm not going to ask or seem eager. Is that any way to run a relationship? Don't ask, don't tell. Likely not, but it's gotten me through six Valentine's Days and will probably get me through my seventh tomorrow.

I took the snow blasted weekend as an excuse to stay in and catch up on the sorts of compulsive things that only I care about but still push on the small public forum here. I added restaurant write-ups (I hesitate to say review, as the level of critique is dubious to nonexistent) from the past couple weeks: Yemen Café, Chili's, Pioneer BBQ, Outback Steakhouse and La Flor.