The lights of Mary Maestri’s glowed like soft lanterns through the glass windows of the McDonald’s where I chewed some fries and sipped a dr.pepper. I thought of pasta, a lot actually. I asked Ben if we were some bad “you know you’re a redneck when…” joke by eating here. He disagreed. The staff at McDonalds started singing “Single Ladies” when a friend of the manager came by to pick her up for what I’m sure will be a hot night out on the town. Ben started joking that we should take our sick child over to Mary Maestri’s and ruin Valentine’s Day for all the other couples on a romantic date. We chuckled together at the misery we had the power to wield over unsuspecting couples… seriously, think of us how you will, we can have a somewhat jaded sense of humor at times!
So, I hate Valentine’s Day. I used to like it, but now that I’m a cynical, older person I see the rampant commercialism of it and think oh-so-maturely to myself, “I’m NOT buying into it!” while secretly coveting some $200 a plate jazz at Bordinos. OK, so perhaps honestly my poorness is more of a factor here than my high-falutin’ morals!!! We don’t have a lot of money at all right now, my getting replaced at work came at a bad time, as did Summit getting sick so this week so we’re skipping the whole wine-ing and dine-ing romantic biz and jumping straight to the we-are-middle-aged-and-Valentine’s-Day-is-a-family-affair thing. Which can be fun actually! 
Gentry Animal Safari. A fun place! That’s where Ben proposed to me so already romance is back in bloom. Snot-nosed kid crying through the whole thing- not so much fun. The sheer hilarity of it though came as a slight moral boost especially when Summit screamed until he could “drive” the car. He didn’t like the animals coming up to the window, then he did. Then he was scared again. Whoops, another snot bubble. I think he may have had a mild fever too, he was coughing up a storm but he’s so miserable at home and the only way to make him happy the last couple of days was to take him out. That’s my excuse for dragging my sick kid to the safari. Ben and I both forgot to get him a coat too, go figure, so the times we were out of the car looking at the baby goats and smattering of other animals, it was him sans coat. I felt so irresponsible!
There were other families at the safari so I was glad at Ben’s choice of activities for the day. Also, just seeing animals, in their furry cuteness, was like the food equivalent of eating a chocolate sundae. Ben and I are such suckers for animals! There is something so endearing about them. Watching Summit’s reactions to them was equally amusing. Towards the end of the driving part of the safari Summit patience, and thus mine, had run dry though. “Drive Ben” became the most oft uttered words as he would pause in admiration of one of God’s great carnivorous creatures sitting in a tightly fenced in area sadly looking the antelope grazing next to their cage. Oh how the mighty fall. They didn’t have a changing area so we had to stop at McDonalds on the way back to change a rather odorous diaper and what do you know, the cheeseburger just looked delicious…