I'm familiar enough with loss, and Love Is a Mix Tape served as a reminder of how painful it is to lose someone or something you love dearly--219-pages of vivid, raw words expressing what's at stake when people decide to love.

Part of me is tempted to avoid loving anyone or anything again.

So what?

So what if you're not wearing makeup today?

So what if the number you read on the scale is higher than the day you got married?

Maybe I have a hard time with this because my car is less of a person to me than it is a place. It's not just a vehicle that takes me from point A to point B, from home to work or from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh; my car is its own place. It's not a Who; it's a Where.

Maybe you love it. Maybe you hate it. Maybe you're somewhere in between. No matter what your feelings are about it, I'd like to make a case for Valentine's Day we can all live with.

I'd like to tell you about my new friend, Disappointment.

If that sentence sounds strange, you're wrong--it's straight-up bizarre, bordering on blasphemy.