This is one heck of a romantic place. Italy oozes love and passion. The slogan for the Torino Winter Olympics is, “Passion Lives Here!” They’re right. It does. Torino, so the locals say, is the birthplace of solid chocolate. The city motto is, “Make chocolate not war!” Not really. I made that up.

So anyway, V-D day is not always happy, is it? For those of you floating on Cloud 9 involved in the dream relationship of your life, stop reading this journal and come back tomorrow. Count your blessings and spread some love to others. It feels amazing doesn’t it? Good for you!

Most of us have had some lonely Valentine’s Days in our lives. I hate that it happens. But it does. I’m not going to tell you I think that lonely Valentine’s Days are good for you, that they teach you important lessons. That’s a load of crap.

What I do find true is one of the important lessons in my life is that being alone is different than being lonely. I’ve been in the middle of large loving crowds of family and dear friends, even been married and still felt lonely. And I’ve been single, not dating and by myself, even on Christmas Day and felt full and happy, alone but not lonely.

I’m not the brightest puppy in the litter. I’m the runt. I hit my head on the same wall a number of times before I realized it wasn’t going to move so I better make some changes.

But what I wish for you all is not a passionate love, though I hope one finds you. I wish you something better: contentment. I know I’ve said this somewhere in these journals over the past four years. When you can be by yourself and not be lonely… you have arrived at a special place… and no one else can take you there. You either get there on your own or you never get there.

Loneliness is like a funky smelling flesh eating virus. And no one wants to be smelly. When you’re gripped by pity and loneliness everyone around you can smell you coming. It’s not a real smell of course, though that would be kind of funny if it worked that way.

What if for every emotional or psychological problem people emitted a strange foul odor? And each problem’s odor was unique. Someone walks by and you smell burned rubber and you know, well, that dude is a self-centered jerk. Another person smells like wet dog hair and you know she’s a bitter soul. Smell old cheese and that person lives life like one big pity party. Goat turds? That would be a gossip… and so on.

Maybe if all these problems had a terrible stench attached people would do the hard work it takes to fix the problem instead of being emotionally screwed their whole lives. Be thankful I’m not God. My warped sense of humor would have this place reeking to high heaven.

For those of you with no amore today, there is always Hagen Daas ice cream… unless you’re trying to fill your sadness with food. That smell is “rotting dead cat.”

Tonight I will get back to my dorm around 1 AM. I’ll light a scented candle to hide my monkey urine odor (that’s because I’m an arrogant jerk) tune my television to the Olympic flame (we have a dozen channels that broadcast fixed Olympic beauty shots) so it’ll be like a fireplace, drink some red wine and be content.

Ciao, everyone!