This morning, I awoke for the first time to my new alarm clock, which was sitting on top of a box of dusty books, VHS tapes, and seldom-watched DVDs moved off of the bookcase the former girlfriend took with her -- a box that now serves as my nightstand. It was 9:30, and I was still tired. However, all three cats were in the room with me, watching me as if I were some strange alien being who had just stirred from beneath the depths of the earth.
I had a plan for the day, though, a plan that would not be enacted if I didn't drag my ass upstairs for coffee.
I have dubbed today "Replacement" Day, as it is the day where, more than anything else, my plans were to replace some of the stuff I needed that I'd either run out of, needed to take to school, or things that the former girlfriend had taken with her in the move. This, of course, entailed going to Walmart with a 30-item-long list, and getting what I could and/or actually wanted to spend the money on today -- and, of course, remembering that I still had to put gas in the car if I wanted to get to Wichita and back tomorrow. So, around 11, I left the house. When I returned at 12:30, this is what I came back with:
1. Two bags of cat food and a tub of litter
2. Coffee
3. Mayo, hot sauce, and ketchup (or, as I call it, "the three-condiment holy trinity")
4. Boil-in-bag brown rice
5. Tissues for the office
6. Air fresheners for the office
7. A gigantic, 40-gallon-trash-can sized laundry hamper
8. A birthday card for my Godfather (which went in the mail ASAP when I got home)
9. A set of 10" x 15" bubble mailers for larger thank-you items/packages
10. Three packages of steaks ("Beef. It's what's for dinner.")
11. 7 packets of Buddig beef lunch meat (y'know, the little packs that are 58 cents each)
12. A pack of sharp cheddar cheese
13. Four different varieties of those Knorr/Lipton noodle side dishes
14. A set of plastic cooking spoons (like wooden spoons, but plastic, dishwasher-safe)
15. A pack of teeth flossers
16. A can opener
17. Two small bags of chips
18. Two different kinds of body wash (Ivory and Axe, if you were wondering)
19. A new bottle of Listerine
20. And, finally, a bottle of Pantene conditioner for my head.
Total cost of these items, before tax? $131.09. Yeah. Living alone is expensive. The hamper alone was $15, and it's just a piece of plastic. It's not like there's anything special about it, it's just a much taller, wider laundry basket. It cost me $26 to fill up the car, too, but at least I was able to put in the much-needed fuel system cleaner when I did.
The search for a free or cheap TV did not go well -- I got two replies to my Freecycle posting; one of them was from a teacher at Newton High School who said a janitor had left him a TV and he'd had it in his classroom to use with the kids, but even I have enough of a conscience not to take a TV from a high school teacher who probably not only needed it, but more than likely also actually used it in the classroom. I'm not that cheap. The second reply was from a woman in Hesston (a neighboring town within 20 miles or so) who said she had a Zenith from 1985 that she'd give me, but it had seen better days. At least with the high school TV, there's the possibility that it wouldn't need a converter box if it had a digital tuner, but that wasn't going to be the case with a TV from 1985.
Just a show of hands here, but how many of you (aside from me, of course) were actually alive in 1985, and/or remember what TVs were like then? Maybe, say, five of my readers? Yeah. Let's just say that since then, television technology has significantly improved. I didn't want to drive all the way to Hesston to pick up a TV that may or may not work correctly, drive back home, then have to buy yet another converter box just to get it to pick up signals. So, I kindly told this lady that one of my friends had given me a TV this morning (read: I lied) and posted another Freecycle message as an update to my first saying that a TV was no longer needed.
Then, I bit the bullet, went to Amazon, and bought this. It arrives on Friday.
I weighed my options. I didn't want to get stuck with a thrift store or giveaway TV that I would more than likely have to get another $50 converter box for, only to have said TV die or otherwise stop working properly within a few months. Also, despite my penchant for retro styling, I certainly don't want one of those huge, wood-paneled floor model TVs with a channel dial that includes VHF and UHF frequencies. My parents have a little flatscreen like this in my old bedroom back home, and I really like it, so I figured okay, what the hell, might as well get it.
On the plus side, well, it's new. And it won't require a converter box. And it's two inches larger than my old TV that the former girlfriend took with her, with the benefit of weighing about 1/4 as much. I should be able to put it on the TV stand, plug it in, plug in the new antenna and perform a channel scan, and go. At least I didn't have to spend a ton more money on it -- this was, indeed, a large purchase for me, and it means I'll probably have to wait another month or two before I can purchase larger items I need (like a lawnmower or vacuum), and possibly wait until after Christmas or longer before I can replace my laptop. I'm mostly okay with this; for a single man living on his own, a TV in the living room is sort of essential.
The kids (read: cats) are slowly getting used to the way the house is set up now that the former girlfriend has moved out; Maggie, the fat white-and-grey little girl, was wandering around all hunched down and cautious for most of the day yesterday, as she'd noticed that the futon and old end tables were gone -- and she liked to sleep under those (I'm guessing because it was darker than the rest of the room). She later got over it and got back to her normal self, flopping down under my new coffee table. Sadie (or, as I like to refer to her, my shadow or the dumbass), found a big pile of boxes and trash to flop down on while I was cleaning and rearranging the place, and happily passed out -- oblivious to anything going on. Pete, now bereft of anywhere off-the-ground to sleep on since the window table, freezer, and old side tables are gone, has now taken to sleeping on the new coffee table that Andrea sent me -- despite the fact that a soft, comfy couch is literally eighteen inches behind him. Sadie, at least, is smart enough to sleep on the couch during the daytime.
As you can see. Pete is on the coffee table in this picture, if you look close, but as he and the table are both jet black, it's like cat camouflage.
Yes, by the time I got up this morning they'd already found a way to pull the sheet off the couch. May have to get a proper cover for that.
So, where was I?
Oh yes. So, I came home, put away the groceries and the like, and sat down. My back was still aching from yesterday's moving, and I was tired. I didn't sleep that well last night, which will work for me tonight because I need to go to bed early, but it wasn't working for me this afternoon. I was also hungry.
It was at about this point where I realized hey, I have steak. MEAT. Meat to cook.
I spent an hour cooking; I made a pack of steaks, chopped five potatoes into hand-cut French fries, cooked them in oil, and ate. After that, I was too tired/full to move once I put away the leftover stuff. It's the first real "meal" I've cooked in several weeks; as of late, I've been living off a sandwich or two a day, a handful of Cheez-its, and coffee. Even when coupled with my daily vitamin regimen, it's still not good for me. Aside from today's steak and potatoes, I'm making a conscious effort to eat better; I'm trying to incorporate more fruit into my diet, and trying to eat smaller meals and smaller portions when I do eat. As mentioned before, this is partially laziness and cheapness so that I don't have to buy so much food -- or spend an hour or more in front of the stove every night once I get home from work/school -- but I intend to keep up the habit as much as I can.
It is now 6PM. In a short eleven hours, my summer vacation will officially end, and I will force myself out of bed to get ready for a morning/early afternoon of orientation. It's sort of exciting, as I'll finally be reunited with my friends I haven't seen all summer (as well as some I have), and I'll get to meet the new recruits. It's also sort of groan-inducing, because it's not like I haven't done this "orientation" thing before. In order to get some good, quality sleep, I'll probably go to bed tonight around 8 to properly recharge my internal batteries and reset my circadian rhythms to the ones I'll need to keep throughout the next four months or so. I was originally planning to vacuum off the stairs with the Dirt Devil I (finally) received in the mail today, but I'm just too tired. I am, however, planning to put together my new nightstand -- which also arrived today -- before I go to sleep, if I have the tools needed to do so.
I will, of course, return here soon enough for updates on the new recruits, as well as the new semester.
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