Just about at your wits end with cabin fever? Has snow, cold, ice, and more cold kept you prisoner? Breathe deep, we’re heading to the end of winter and soon the snowdrops and crocus will brighten every frostbitten life. Before you boil old shoes for entertainment and take an axe to your long suffering best friend forever, buy some chocolates. Chocolates cure every ill, and if not curing, certainly relieving. I’m a chocolate man from dawn to dusk and know what I’m talking about. Let’s take a look at the year’s shortest month and pack it full of fun and adventure. Come on, let’s kick out the jams and get the hell out.

future. Find yourself garden catalogs and get lost in page after page of fantasy. Fill sheets of paper with wish lists of plants for your garden. Draw a map of your garden, as it is and as it will be. Consider light, soil and always, those plants and flowers that make you smile. Depressed? Soon your spirit will rise as each plant makes its way onto your list. Use scissors and cut out the written sections of each plant and append the descriptions to your map. Steaming mugs of coffee are perfect for this project, and everyone knows chocolate compliments strong black coffee. Not a master gardener? Don’t worry about it. Each of us has the ability to garden, and there’s nothing like frostbite and chilblains to inspire visions of sunny warm days in a garden paradise.

One always wishes to hold hands while strolling down the primrose path. Cabin fever does that to you; never is loneliness so profound.

Get out there and find someone supportive, loving, and kind. Someone who sees your inner light and appreciates thousands of crunches, step classes, and sacrificing Reese’s peanut butter cups when nothing else makes sense. Is the perfect one out there? Of course they are; and they are looking for you.

I suggest the card aisle and the fruit section of the grocery market. Yes, go right to the red ribbon section full of love’s most heartfelt prose, the Valentine Day cards. Hope is everyone’s birthright, and now is the time to be most hopeful of all. Forget long-term relationship as dull and tarnished.

Brighten it up a little, hell, brighten it up a lot and buy not one but two cards. Love cannot be overdone. Is there too much space in the bureau and the closet full of empty hangers? Yes, the card section is just right for you. And the grocery market? Even the most enchanting shop for broccoli and celery; you’ll want to be in the strawberry section. Strawberries are dreadfully out of season but don’t let the higher price deter you from this most important mission – strawberries are best dipped in chocolate. Get a card and something to dip into chocolate.

Take the shotgun approach and send a lot of Valentines. Love is a numbers game, and the more cards sent to happy, happier, and happiest will cascade in return numbers. Does a walk to the mailbox seem like a long-distance hike from sitting by the phone? Ok, it’s time to leave the all too fever-ridden cabin. March on up to the Statehouse and participate in the annual Marriage Equality Valentine’s demonstration. Demand action from our recalcient lawmakers.

Party animals are alert creatures. Mardi Gras is on its way, and there’s a plethora of events just for you. Aids Care Ocean State is having its legendary Mardi Gras bash on the 21st at the Down City Diner. Gay Bingo on the19th demands costumes and regalia for the cabin weary. And if you haven’t yet, become part of the Guerilla Bar movement and take over a bar on the 13th. One must enroll (check out Guerilla Bar on Facebook) to learn of last minute announcements for a gay takeover of a straight bar.

The winter doldrums are often best cured with a makeover. Redecorating is genetically wired in gay people, the pillow gene being dominant on our double helix of DNA. Running a bit short of ideas and frightened from all the bad news we hear each day? Run; don’t walk, over to Kyureo at 13 Angel Street on the East Side. The shop is chock-ablock full of stunning pieces and has expert decorators on hand to guide even the most jaded. You will find that special treasure so essential to peace of mind and calming heart. Peace of mind and calm hearts are quintessentially pure, and the purist knows is best taken with chocolate. Cabin fever and February cold confine too many. Get out there