Chocolate Fountain

I was already having a very pleasant Valentine's Day. Unexpected flowers arrived from a friend, delivered to my Prindle Institute office, to congratulate me on making the Chicago Public Library best-of-the-best children's book list for 2011, and there is nothing like the squealing fun of having flowers appear on the morning of February 14th. I enjoyed reading everybody's Valentine posts on Facebook. Email brought the announcement of the birth of a dear friend's baby, so now she has two little boys. Class went well.

Then, as I was leaving class, I was accosted by a faculty member who works at the DePauw Writing Center; she was standing outside the center door to invite everyone in for their Valentine's Day open house. Of course I accepted the invitation, only to behold a table covered with adorable little pink cupcakes, miniature brownies, and a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN, surrounded by plates of dippable objects: strawberries, pink and white marshmallows, bite-sized chunks of angel food cake.

Not only did I dip away merrily myself, I became the chief recruiting officer for the chocolate fountain. I ran down to the political science office and brought Deepa and Krista back with me. I ran up to the philosophy department office to share the news with colleagues there. I bumped into Lili from creative writing on the stairs: did she want to come see the chocolate fountain? Indeed, she did. I think I made four visits to it all in all.

The day finished up with session two of my Cheshire Calhoun reading group, this time discussing her essay, "The Virtue of Civility." I supplemented the usual wine and cheese and other munchies with a heart-shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates and a bowl of those little conversation hearts (which I can't stop eating). No chocolate fountain, but maybe four trips to the chocolate fountain were enough for one very happy Valentine's Day.