I'm tired, of course; I almost always am at this time of night. But I'm not the kind of tired where I could go lay down and fall asleep easily. It is because of this that I come here and attempt to blog about the events of the past two days or so.
Daisy got here around 11:30 on Tuesday night and hadn't yet eaten, which is unusual for her. She'll usually stop at the Subway in York on her way down here and get a veggie sub, and because I knew she would be getting here later than usual (she did contact me shortly after I finished my last post here on Tuesday) I hadn't planned anything for last night's dinner. Daisy, being vegan, requires an extensive amount of planning for meals for her, since I myself am not vegan and don't generally think about that sort of stuff. I'd gotten spaghetti and sauce, along with the elements for a good garlic bread, several nights ago when I'd gone to Walmart, as I figured the only really "big" meal I'd have to plan for would be on Wednesday night -- what would become our "dinner and movie date night." While I do keep a lot of stuff in the house which is vegetarian, outright vegan stuff you almost have to look for and plan for, because many things that you wouldn't immediately think about have animal products in them.
For example, most potato chips that have any sort of seasoning or flavoring on them whatsoever usually contain milk. No, that's not a joke. Go look at the labels in the snack aisle the next time you're at the store. Special care has to be given in selecting breads and pastas as well, to be sure that they don't contain any milk and/or eggs, and so on and so forth. I've gotten pretty good at this "spotting non-vegan" stuff from a mile away at this point, since Daisy and I have been together almost a year now. I know what to look for even in the complicated ingredients listed on a food label, and I know what to avoid. She's trained me well. Shopping/eating vegan is a challenge for the uninitiated, but again, after planning meals for Daisy for the past year or so of visits, I've pretty much got the hang of it now. I have my "go-to" dishes and foods I can prepare that are either inherently vegan or can be easily veganized, and we do well -- Daisy never goes hungry when she's here, just like I never go hungry when I visit her family in Omaha.
Anyway, because she hadn't eaten anything, once she'd settled in and had been able to relax and get off the road for a while, her empty stomach necessitated a trip to Walmart. At 3AM. Which, of course, I was fine with; that's my normal shopping time, as you know.
I thought Daisy would want something quick and easy, something we could make in a few minutes, eat it, and go to bed. I had forgotten that Daisy basically keeps the same sleeping schedule as I do now, which is "stay up most of the night, if not all night, and then go to sleep in the morning." She's used to being awake all night now because of her job. I, on the other hand, am usually in bed before 4AM on most nights, even though I really don't have to be anymore.
When all was said and done, Daisy had gotten a lot of stuff, and I had as well. I made sure to get some broccoli and some lettuces for salads and sandwiches, and Daisy got frozen Arby's curly fries (which, surprisingly enough, are vegan), tortillas, vegan hot dogs, turnips and turnip greens, blackberries, and a decent selection of other small items. She wanted us to cook when we got home. In the middle of the night.
Look, I'm all for cooking, of course, but the middle of the night isn't usually the time I do it. I got slightly miffed at that, but quickly got over it; again, Daisy operates on a different schedule than I do, so if she wanted us to cook in the night, it was fine by me. So, we purchased our stuff and went out to the car. We both got a few items that weren't food items; I found a dress shirt for $1, for example, and she got a swimsuit top that is just plain adorable. And bright red. Red is a good color on her.
Last night, there were storms raging about the area -- there was a large line of them that spanned the height of the entire state of Kansas, slowly, slowly moving across the state. We didn't know when they'd hit; they were half a state away when Daisy got here at 11:30, and I summarily stopped watching the weather at that point. Daisy later told me that she drove through a few small, nasty storms on the way out of Nebraska to get down here, but they didn't last long. Anyway, these storms decided to hit juuuuuuust as we were exiting Walmart. At 4AM. With a shitload of groceries. We barely got home and got them all in the house before the torrential rains and loud thunder/bright lightning started. It lasted until long after we'd gone to bed around 5:30.
She ended up having some of the turnips/turnip greens and some of the broccoli I got, and I had vegan Boca Burgers left in the freezer from her graduation trip down here, so that's what we made. I wouldn't make the fries/hot dogs for her until this afternoon for a late lunch.
Daisy is really curious and worried about my eating habits. Not what I eat (though she does tend to be worried about that too), but the frequency. I've mentioned before that I usually only eat one meal a day, with a snack or two thrown in there somewhere. This is true; I barely eat at all, and when I do, I eat a somewhat large meal and then usually go to sleep shortly thereafter (which, yes, I know, is apparently horrible for my metabolism). I've eaten this way for almost as long as I remember -- since long before high school, even. If I eat more, I tend to crash and/or get sick to my stomach. I can't do a whole lot about that, really. Trying to eat several small meals a day isn't how my body works. I can't eat when I'm not hungry (part of what makes me sick to my stomach -- it feels forced) and I'm just not that hungry, really. Ever. When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm not, I don't. I subsist so much on coffee and cigarettes anyway that my appetite and metabolism at this point has probably been permanently altered. No, that's not necessarily a good thing, of course, but it is what it is. At least it keeps my grocery bills relatively low. I spend more money on cat food and litter than I spend on actual food for myself -- on the whole, anyway.
I have a well-stocked pantry and fridge/freezer; a few nights ago, for example, I took a big ziploc bag of frozen soup out of the freezer and made a big bowl of it for dinner. I save stuff when I can. There's a bunch of pasta and frozen vegetables in there as well, stuff that I will slowly work through over the summer months to save money. I have stuff to eat. I just eat it very slowly.
Anyway.
Daisy's visit has been delightful; I finally have someone to talk to and interact with in person again aside from the cats. And, on the plus side, when she's here I actually have motivation to get up, leave the house, and do something on a regular basis. For example, since we went to Walmart last night, I was able to get stamps. We went to the Dollar Tree this afternoon before going to see Iron Man 3 (which I'll get to in a bit). We tried to go over to the discount grocery store after the movie, but they'd already closed for the night. When Daisy's here, I tend to have a bit more energy and vigor in my daily tasks than I normally do.
As mentioned, we did go see Iron Man 3 this afternoon. Afterwards, Daisy took this picture of us with her phone outside the theater:
Note: there appears to be grey in my beard and my mustache. There's not. It's the glare from the outside lighting. I think it's a great picture of the two of us.
"Your beard is just epic," she would later tell me as we were cooling off from the mugginess outside after we got home.
"It's coming off in another week or two," I replied. "I have to start looking respectable in case I get some job interviews soon."
I love my beard. I don't want to take it off; I look like I'm twelve when I do, and if my hair is still long (which, as you can see, it is), I look even worse. It also takes a few months to grow back out to its former glory once I do shave it. Still, there's not a whole lot else I can do to make myself appear somewhat professional.
As for Iron Man 3? I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would. I went into the film with no real expectations -- my expectations were high for Iron Man 2, and most of them got dashed upon seeing that film, as it was a mostly terrible picture. I was also let down a lot by The Avengers, as it didn't live up to nearly the amount of hype it had (at least not in my eyes, anyhow). Iron Man 3 takes a few maaaaaajor liberties with two of its main characters, including the movie's "villain," but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. As I told my mother, I liked it a lot more than I liked Star Trek Into Darkness. I could write a dissertation on all of the things wrong with that movie.
As an aside, I think I should write a book full of these sorts of dissertations -- dissecting good, as well as bad, films in much the same vein as Chuck Klosterman dissects pop culture. I bet I could make a shitload of money from a book or three like that.
Ahem. Anyway. It's a decent film, and it wraps up the trilogy of Iron Man pictures pretty well. Up next, of course, is Man of Steel, which not only opens next week but will be a movie that more than likely I will see alone -- I'm not going to wait a month to see it, nor will Daisy be here when it opens. I went to see Superman Returns on opening day, and was glad I did (despite all of the flaws with that picture as well). I asked Parker if he'd be game to organize some sort of dinner/watching party up here in Newton with me, as the theater here is much cheaper than the ones in Wichita (the Newton theater has shows that are basically $5 or so at all times), but he's going to see it at the 3D IMAX theater down there. Looks like I'll be nerding out to Superman all by my lonesome.
So that's what's been going on since Daisy arrived. In the morning or early afternoon, she will set off for Omaha once more, as she has evening plans with two friends (both of whom I met/know), and the house will return to quietness again. I should probably go to bed now, actually, in order to get my last few hours of sleep with her for what will probably be several weeks.
Fare thee well, my friends.
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