I was really busy so I had to really focus and buckle down. For 5 months. Not that I could do anything from home to make work easier. Mostly, I was focusing on sleeping and eating enough. Eating enough entails grocery shopping enough. Then cooking enough. Then not poisoning myself with under cooked food. Then not poisoning myself with trans fats.
And I have to do all this around about 3 16-hr work days per week (as well as a couple of shorter 9-ish hr work days). I would gladly trade it all for 5 8.5-hr work days in a row as opposed to working long shifts every other day. The place is only open for 12 hours, but I come an hour early (because that’s when the electronic inbox starts filling) and stay an hour or 3 late (because I don’t want to leave 50 things to do for the next morning). So my days are somewhere between 14 and 16 hrs. I know I can leave anytime after close. But I don’t because I come back in 32 hours and the more stuff I leave for the next day, the more stuff they leave for me. So really, I’m just watching my own ass… recursively.
On the plus side, I save so much money by not eating lunch or dinner. Just blowing it on sugar-free Monster Energy drinks and Cliff bars. On my days off, I’m trying my hand at new recipes. I spent about $45 on spices. I made a chicken pot pie casserole.
It was awful. (So dry. Not enough sauce.)
I tried chicken soup.
It was awful. (Waaay too salty.)
I tried a Mexican rice crockpot recipe.
It was awful. (Way too watery.)
I tried chili.
It was alright. (Even I can’t screw that up.)
Also, BLTs, oatmeal and cereal. My old accidental weight-loss diet. Only now it’s steel-cut oatmeal for a lower glycemic index. And kale because it doesn’t go limp. It just goes rotten. But it’s a dark leafy green and I like it.
And danville. Ah, danville. There is no Starbucks. I don’t even like Starbucks, but I like having them around. It stands as a watermark for how civilised a society is. It’s a sign you’re in a “nicer” neighborhood. Something a Steak’n’Shake doesn’t quite live up to. It’s the retail operation equivalent of a seeing someone driving a Prius. Thank Zeus then for the Mad Goat Coffee Shop, an independent outfit that makes banging lattes. Now if only they would install a bike rack.
*I will capitalize danville when it starts acting like a real freaking town.