Valentine Cards - An urge to go out to dinner last nite in the brrrr-cold - Poem: Dinner for One at Ming's

I accidentally deleted all my Valentine Cards. Above is a b'day card for my friend Judy.

Mom just called to say she loved my card.... very clever, she said. Other cards mailed to Sandra, Ada, Wendy S and I forget who else. These were my labor intensive cards since I wrote poems. Other cards I mailed were to Freda and Bernie and Tom and Shirley.

Scott came over yesterday, said nothing about the card he received. Nothing! Finally, I said, Did you get anything from me in the mail?

He started laffing and couldn't stop.

"I didn't know my dog could write," he said.

I wrote it from the vantage point of his late dog Spanky.

Before it got dark, I drove to Hatboro. I do like The Hat which is why I went there. Cold out? Of course but we're only outside a lil while.

I'd forgotten all about Ming's Chinese Restaurant. The last time I went several yrs ago, I did not like the food at all.

Should I give it another try?

What do YOU think?

Here's my Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce. Absolutely superb! Plus plenty for the next day. 

 Yes, I continued reading while awaiting my food... and then my really sticky dessert.

Isn't that white cup a thing of beauty? It was too big to stuff in my pocket book.

 Dessert menu on back. They were out of their fruit dessert which I would've gotten. So

Here's their carmelized sweet potato.

It's very hot, said the waiter.

Getting my stick out of my pocket, I injected anudder 6.

Got some reading done as I did not want to burn my lizard of a tongue. I drank their tea but I also ordered coffee for $2.50.  A C-plus cup of coffee. Am making my Sweet Potato Coffee now as I have a HUGE  - said the Bernie Sanders way -  YUGE amount of work to do.

Well, lemme say this. It was good. It was fun to eat. I couldn't stop eating it, but I will never order it again. It wasn't all that good.

Ming's was absolutely mobbed. I was shocked. After I chose my seat in the window, I got up to look in the big room next door.

"You see!" said the waiter. "It is all filled."

Before I left home, Scott urged me to take my camera.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

The point of this pic was to get the girls in the corner of the restaurant. If you can make out people there, you've got the eyes of a cat.

Four young college girls, I thought, laffing and talking.

And you know what I thought?

Wouldn't it be nice, The Beach Boys, to meet friends once a week to dine out.

A Diner's Club.

More people pouring in.... letting in cold drafts. I wore my warmest sweater with a tiny yellow stain on it.

May I have this dance? (Wonder how she dances, he thinks, in those sexy neon green diabetes sox)

My supply is dwindling... holes in the bottoms. I could order more online, but, then, my money supply is also dwindling.

This a m  I ran after Mailman Justin to deposit a $116 check at my bank. It's from the United Way. I have NO IDEA who donated it. To find out, you play a puzzle game, going online to find out and entering different alphas and numerals.

I do not play that game.

Sipping coffee slowly.

Right next to me, within earshot, dammit, sat two girlfriends around 30, discussing their love life. Both of them were in therapy. So were their exes.

Should I try to write a poem about Ming's?

Of course.

DINNER FOR ONE

At dusk, as the deer in the little woods
behind me were bedding down for
the night

I backed out of the drive
and headed to Hatboro
the little main street town

where, above ground, are
The Wawa, the post office,
nail salons
and car shows in the
summertime.

My boyfriend says,

I wish it were spring.

Enjoy every single day
whether it's 19 degrees
Fahrenheit or you're

sweating from every
pore  in your body in
this climate changed
land.

The lights are bright
as the midnight sun
in Alaska - hello
Facebook friend Bill Hess -

as I two-step into Ming's
a lady in red, smiling,
escorts me to my seat.

I push away the fried
noodles, delicious when I
was a child, but now
I am a woman, and
think of womanly things.

And diabetes.
In my car across the street
I have injected 10, which
is only the beginning.

It takes but a moment
to order the Chinese eggplant
with garlic sauce. I read book
while they prepare it

And try not to listen to
the girlfriends at the
next table

He texts me, I text him
back, we both worry if
the texter takes too long

We discuss this in therapy.
She says your relationship
will never work out, you're
on the rebound

Eating alone or with
friends at a restaurant
hearing the buzz of
conversation, like a
symphony warming up

Reminds me of
childhood
in Cleveland
before any of us
fell off the planet
pushed,  without
mercy, by Mr Death.