Sure, today's non-stop chocolate-and-bubbly fest is great for couples. But what about those who travel alone? Don't they deserve attention on February 14? Sure, says Charlotte Eulette, national director of the Montclair-based USA Celebrant Foundation, who's come up with a list of 10 things you can give yourself this Valentine's Day.
1. Go Spa yourself. Indulge in the great spas around town.2. Go to the Montclair YMCA for yoga. Breathe in all you need and exhale all you don’t need. Yoga teacher extraordinaire, Diane, turns the lights down low and always opens or closes the practice with an uplifting poem.
3. Splurge and get yourself a bottle of Chateau Y’Quem, sauterne, and enjoy it with a nice piece of chocolate from the new West Orange, Whole Food’s exquisite chocolate bar.
4. Take a Sunday hike up at Eagle Rock Ridge at Normal Avenue behind Montclair University. The mile and half lofty trail runs north and south. It’s a beautiful walk, busy on the weekends with dogs with their humans. Pocket a pomegranate to eat along the way and wear good walking boots.
5. Take a friend in need to the Clairidge to see a soon-to-be Academy Award winning film. Let’s face it, the Clairidge is our NYC version of the Angelika Film Center so show your love and see a show.
6. Live theater, what better way to out-do the drama in your life than to see it depicted on a stage bigger than life. Get decked out and do the theater, babe.
7. Whether for mailing or just for yourself, write a letter for someone you deem special.
8. Be passionate about peace by lending a hand at Montclair based, NJ Peace Action organization, they always need help stuffing envelopes or you might want to caravan it down to DC with them for their next scheduled march for peace.
9. Build a dual altar shrine that represents your life, one that holds your hopes and dreams for the future the other for those things that you would like to release and let go.
10. On one of these brisk Essex county nights wander out, look up to the sky and introduce yourself to the stars above.
11. Shut up and make me a chicken pot pie.
And get me a beer.