Groceried

Countdown to Spring Semester: four days

Daisy arrived last night as planned, and we did our grocery shopping at around 1AM. I now have a refrigerator and pantry fully stocked with foods and food-making commodities, at no small expense to me -- another $129 charged on ye olde Discover card. Again, for the moment, it can't be helped; even though I start teaching again on Tuesday, I won't be paid for the university for another two weeks. It's hard to believe that it's (still) been less than a month since my last paycheck when all of the bills start piling up, demanding to be paid. My Citi card bill and my cable (read: internet) bill both came in the mail yesterday.

In addition to our shopping, Daisy's mother sent a big bag of groceries and stuff out of the fridge/pantry with her so that we could cook even if we didn't really do a lot of shopping. This included several heads of lettuce, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and a few other little things, as well as some oranges. She also sent a loaf of bread dough for us to bake while Daisy was here. Again, I adore Daisy's mother. I love her whole family.

We have a few little errands to run today; Daisy is showering before breakfast, and then we're going to go to the Dollar Tree (as I usually save that trip for when Daisy is here). We also have to briefly return to Walmart, as last night when we were there, they were waxing the floors around the dairy cases, which means I couldn't get the almond milk I need in order to make her/us waffles. Tonight we're having a "veggie bake" for dinner, though I'm not sure exactly what that entails (she's going to do it) and Boca burgers. Mama sent some spaghetti and sauce as well, and I was going to make that for us last night when we got home from shopping (as Daisy was hungry) but instead she had black beans and salsa with chips and lettuce. I myself am not hungry at the moment, even though I haven't really eaten anything since yesterday afternoon. So, tonight when we make dinner, it's going to be good.

Once we get the almond milk, of course, I'll be able to make Daisy some waffles and she'll be able to have breakfast in the morning before she leaves for Omaha again. She works tomorrow night, as tomorrow is Friday. I don't think she even gets Monday off for MLK Day -- unless she gets holiday pay or holiday time off that night, she'll work straight through 'til Tuesday morning, when I begin teaching my classes for the semester.

As for the other stuff I got while shopping, it was all necessities and the like not just for our cooking today/tonight, but for the next week or so. When I go shopping, I can't just do it for a day's worth of food and groceries -- I have to plan ahead, and plan ahead even more so when I'll be returning to work and won't have time or energy to make a Walmart trip at 3AM anymore. This means I had to get cat litter, toilet paper, cigarettes, bread and rolls, and stuff for rather quick, easy meals for the foreseeable future -- like $1 "rice sides," Hot Pockets, steam-in-the-microwave broccoli, a bag of potatoes (I can make a baked potato in the microwave in five minutes), etc. That's why the shopping trip last night was so expensive -- if I'd just gotten stuff for today and tomorrow when Daisy is here, it would've been much cheaper. However, as I was basically out of food and necessities in the house, it couldn't really be avoided. I have to eat, wipe my ass, and be able to plan out meals while I'm teaching, and the cats have to be able to use their litter pan.

I still don't have access to my classes' rosters and the like, but I'm guessing a big part of that is because there was a posting yesterday that said the English department was closed, as both administrators had migraines. However, as I wrote last night, all of my class prep stuff is done now but the printing and copies of the syllabi and lesson plans. To be sure that I wouldn't lose all of my new work from the past week or so (regarding those lesson plans and new syllabi), I made a backup of all of it this afternoon. I'd want to kill and/or destroy something if, after spending hours plotting out the first half or so of the semester, I lost it all. I probably won't get the chance to check up on my rosters again until Daisy goes home tomorrow. We still haven't gotten the finalized teaching schedule either, though I would imagine if there was any problem with it (at least for my own classes) I would've been contacted long before now.