Patch Picks: Valentine's Day for Singles

Shoot to Thrill
Fly! Enroll in trapeze school, or go skydiving andbungee jumping in the same weekend. Take risks, seek thrills, and experience the euphoria of embracing a challenge and its accompanying adrenaline surge. Imagine how beautiful life will look when you’re soaring through the air with nothing between you and the ether except whatever small piece of equipment is helping you stay aloft.

Fall in Love
The Animal Adoption Center of Camden County (856-435-9116), the only no-kill shelter in South Jersey, is in dire need of volunteers. Give your heart away to one of the sweet animals currently housed there. The Center offers Saturday orientation classes and Sunday dog handling classes from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. No pre-registration is necessary—just show up and make some adorable new friends.

Change Your Life
It’s never too late to make a change, and since V-Day is all about love, it’s the perfect time to reassess what you love to do. Stop with the excuses and get motivated to follow that elusive dream. This Valentine’s Day, give your boss the pink slip, call your Realtor, and get going. Enroll in school, take up karate, open the computer to start that novel, join the gym, or pick up the phone to make the call that you’ve been meaning to make. Change can be difficult, but it can also deliver true happiness.

Spoil Yourself
Call a bunch of friends and plan an extravagant evening at the fanciest restaurant in town. Dress to the nines, splurge on Godiva chocolates to give to each other, and have a dozen roses delivered to your table while you’re there. Indulge in gossip, expensive champagne, and toast to your freedom and independence. If you want to throw in a tiny bit of snark, do some couple-watching and create funny backstories for them.

After dinner, go dancing, catch a late-night movie or hit the casino. After all, no one is looking over your shoulder with a banker’s hat counting how much money you’re spending, how many calories you’re ingesting, or what time you’re coming home. Top of the evening with a 5:00 a.m. breakfast at a 24-hour diner. As you watch the sunrise, you’ll feel completely exhilarated. The next day, lounge in bed all day to recover and enjoy the “good for the soul” benefits of your adventures.

Get Your Groove Back
Hop on a plane to a location you’ve always wanted to see, and when the stewardess comes, order a celebratory drink with an umbrella and some deep-fried snacks. There is nothing quite as life-changing as travel, so don’t be afraid to make this trip count. Forget driving “down the shore” or going to that same old vacation house with the 1970’s paneling. Instead, think Cairo, Paris, Rio.

In the words of the late, great John Hughes: “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”