To celebrate, I have gone to Walmart and purchased a ham. Yes, a ham. Yes, of course I realize that Thanksgiving is a turkey holiday. I don't care. I wanted ham.
I have never baked a ham before. Ever. When it came to the big cooking around the house for the vast majority of my entire life, it was done by one of two women -- either my mother, as I was growing up, or from 2006-2011, the former girlfriend.
Neither of these women do I live with anymore (obviously). So, for the baking of the ham I am on my own. Luckily, I picked a ham with an instruction label on it. Properly preparing, carving, and eating it will be my biggest non-school-related project of this next week or so. I see it as a metaphorical, masculine challenge of sorts -- if I can cook such a large hunk of meat, cut it up with a huge knife and two-pronged fork, and then growl as I eat it, I'll feel like a Viking. Bonus points if I break out the meat cleaver while doing so.
So, my break has begun. It will be eleven days long, and during it I will attempt (and hopefully succeed in) getting almost everything done for my classes this semester. Frankly, there's a huge to-do list to take care of, full of everything from reading three different books to writing papers to creating a poetry portfolio. More than anything else, though, Thanksgiving break is a reminder that the semester will soon be coming to an end, and that I'm that much closer to a (cold and poor) month of freedom -- during which I will be working on various personal projects of my own (on my own time), catching up on sleep and relaxation, and getting some much-needed quality time with my kitties.
Most of my friends and acquaintances within the department are leaving town for Thanksgiving or have already left -- some as early as yesterday morning -- to various locations around the country. Me? I slept until almost 1PM today and have spent the day in my bathrobe, doing laundry. Oh, I also ate lunch and drank some coffee, too. I'm actually glad to some extent that I don't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving, and that I have too much stuff to do to really consider going anywhere anyhow. Last year I stayed home as well when the former girlfriend went to visit her parents for the week. My heart's just not in making trips to visit family for the holidays anymore; I don't particularly like to travel, I don't like sleeping in any bed other than my own, my car may commit ritual seppuku were I to drive it more than 150 miles in a day, I don't like being away from the cats for prolonged stretches of time, and I don't like not having the ability to sit in my room, drink coffee, smoke and be on my computer. I'm perfectly comfortable most of the time in my hermit's rut of "don't inconvenience me, and I won't inconvenience you."
Overall, now that I've been able to begin decompressing a little bit, my life is okay. For the most part. This is important because so many people I know are going through all sorts of bad shit right now. These things simply aren't going on in my life. So, right now, my life is okay. Simple logic, yes, but still. It's not good, it's not bad -- it's simply okay.
Because of this, it feels weird to say I'm a little lonely and depressed. This is, of course, why I keep busy most all the time, even when I'm at home on the weekends -- if I don't, not only will my work not get done, but I'll have time to think, time to ruminate...and that's a bad thing. Thinking about anything but what needs to be done or otherwise taken care of generally leads to problems and/or trouble for me and my mental state. This is why, in my downtime, I play my DS, listen to podcasts, clean the house/cook/do laundry, or write here. I also have whatever sporting event is on television at the time to distract me, as well as the cats.
...especially cats like Sadie, pictured above, who decided to lay on my lap/arm this afternoon shortly after I started writing his post, prompting this photo.
Yes, if you look closely, you can see the beginnings of gray in my beard. That's what happens when you get old, folks. Time to order up the Just for Men, I suppose.
I mentioned the ham earlier; I have since put it in the oven according to the directions on the label. It should be done in about two hours or so.
[EDIT] I did bake and carve the ham, and it was awesome.
The rent check has now cleared my bank account; it took the better part of three days to do so, but my balance is now accurate. My officemate told me the only thing he uses checks for anymore is rent. I still use mine for rent and all of my bills. I don't trust those online automatic-bill-pay systems, as I've already had enough problems with money over the years. I'd rather keep track of absolutely everything by hand. I'll actually be paid three more times before Christmas, and with my expenses running relatively light for the rest of the year, I should be just fine for my car insurance payment at the end of December. If nothing else, the paycheck I receive shortly before Christmas will completely cover it.
Taking a cue from my friend Jay, I applied for and was approved for an Amazon-affiliated Chase Visa card. It has a $400 limit. Once they actually send it to me in the mail, this means that I may be able to use it to put new tires on my car and slowly pay them off, depending on how expensive said tires may be. I say may because I'm pretty sure tires for my car will be more than $400. The Monte Carlo has huge wheels and a wide wheelbase, so I don't know how much they'll be, even if I go to Walmart for them (which I probably will, really). Depending on wear/weather, I'll have to do that soon. I drive the car too much to put it off. Even if I have to get the cheapest tires that fit my car, they'll be better than the old, worn ones on there now.
The car seems fine, by the way. I'm keeping an eye on the weather; if it's going to drop down really cold at night again any time over the course of these next ten days, I'm going to stick it in the garage and leave it there until I have to go back to school. I don't foresee myself needing to drive anywhere but to the post office and/or Walmart until classes resume. I say post office because I'm going to try to get some of those packages I've been hoarding mailed out sometime while I'm off, since I have a bit of time and money to do it.
As for the oil change I was expecting to need around this time? I still have about 800 miles to spare before it's necessary, according to my odometer and the sticker on the inside of my windshield. I have also, as you know, put two quarts of new oil in it myself over the course of the past three months of driving 150 miles a week or more, so I'm not exactly sure how necessary it will be to do it "on time" now. I still will, but it's going to be a ways off yet. I can say with certainty that I won't drive 800 miles between now and the beginning of spring semester unless something catastrophic happens. The mere thought of the cost of 800 miles' worth of gas for that car makes me twitch, though. I've spent more money on gas for that car since June (when I bought it) than I paid for it.
And I still haven't gotten the suction-cup handle to put the window up/down in the winter...though I have added it to my wish list on Amazon.
Since I've been home, the cats have barely left my side. They seem thrilled that I'm here and am paying attention to them much more than usual, instead of my usual routine of sleep/get up/go to school/come home/repeat. This is odd because I'd have these days off anyway; yes, I'm off already, but my actual extra days of vacation don't start until Tuesday (because, y'know, I'm always home on the weekends). It's almost as if they know I'm not going anywhere for a while. I told Pete (my big boy cat) last night that I really wish all of them spoke and/or completely understood English, as it would really eliminate a large chunk of confusion for them and/or loneliness in my solitary life up here in Newton.
Anyway.
The presentation Suri and I gave on Thursday night in our Middle Eastern/Asian Lit class went well, I think -- even if my laptop played the part of a POS and refused to work with the projector system correctly (we ended up using our professor's laptop, for which I was infinitely grateful). I was really tired and rushed through my section a bit more than I would have liked, but I was worried that Suri wouldn't have the time to cover her section completely. She did, though, and well; aside from a few small snafus with both the powerpoint file and the both of us, we carried the discussion well. The worst time to give any presentation whatsoever in any class, especially a long powerpoint presentation, is the last night of class before Thanksgiving week at 8:30PM or later. By that time we, as well as most of the class, are loopy and tired and just wanting to go home for the weekend. I'm surprised nobody fell asleep.
This weekend will be the first true weekend I've had to myself since the very beginning of the semester. I'm trying my hardest to do almost nothing related to school so that I can get rest and relaxation. I'll get back to actual work on Monday or so, and begin writing my papers/taking care of everything I need to get done over the week off, but as I mentioned before, this weekend is really just for me more than anything else right now. It's a few days I need to reboot my system before getting back to my writing, swinging and fighting to get everything done. While I have a ton of stuff to do, the vast majority of it will only take a few days if I bust my ass doing it. If I do, it'll free up even more free time for me, leading all the way into the winter break.
One of my old friends (a former editor for a website I used to write for, actually) is making a road trip west over the coming week. I told her if she needed a free place to stay for a night or so to avoid paying for a hotel room, I have a spare bed. Well, I have a bed period. Don't forget that I also have the air mattress in the spare room, too. There's nothing sexual in this offer of a free place to sleep, obviously, despite the fact that she's a hot, buxom blonde. It would just be nice to have someone around for a day or so. Besides, I may be creepy at times, but I'm not that creepy. Any of my friends, male or female, are welcome to visit and always have been. Especially if they're traveling and I can help them out. It's just the right thing to do. No clue whether she'll get close to my area in her travels, but I thought I'd offer, at least.
If nothing else, I've got ham to feed her if she's hungry. That's a plus.
Since most everyone who could afford to do so (or afford to cancel next week's classes they're teaching) are out of town now for the holiday, the 'net has been rather quiet and I haven't had anyone to talk to that much. I did, however, have a long, fairly normal conversation with the former girlfriend last night (yes, I know, it surprised me as well when she messaged me). Other than that and a few random, short conversations with a few other friends, there's been relative radio silence.
If I had more money, I'd get out of the house and wander about the state tomorrow; I haven't been to Hutchinson in ages; it's been almost a year since I was out there to the mall or to Target/Kmart. I'd like to take a day over the Christmas break to do that at some point, depending on what time I have, the weather, and whatever money I have to spare. It's been so long since I actually got out of this house to do something other than go shopping for simple necessities/groceries or school. Despite my cravings for some sort of fast food, I haven't even had a burger or fries that I haven't made at home since before the semester started. If nothing else, that should tell you how much I watch my budget.
So, on that note, I'm off to take care of a few more things around the house. I'll update periodically over the break, of course.
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