Mellow day at the office
Kind of a mellow Friday. I did what I think are final edits on two proposals, then final edits on the thank-you emails we’re sending to people who donate to the university’s emergency relief fund. Worked on a short bio about a person who’s the namesake of a chair I helped land. We’re talking about a gift in the millions.
I still worked kind of slowly though. One of my goals this weekend is to work on my workspace so it’s a little more comfy than it is. I suspect some of my slowness has to do with not enjoying my workspace.
Chicken and oats
Breakfast was overnight oats. Lunch was an enormous bowl of steamed broccoli and asparagus on brown rice with garlic butter. I had tortilla chips and fresh salsa for a snack. Dinner was (oh no) a ridiculous number of Chicken McNuggets from McD’s. It was a late dinner; I just finished it half an hour ago and it’s a quarter past midnight.
I took some ground turkey out of the freezer so I can make turkey chili tomorrow. It’ll be the first time I make my chili in the Instant Pot. I have a feeling a thing like that is much better slow-cooked, but that’s how I’ve made it for twenty years. I have a new toy with a pressure function so of course I’m going to use it.
I’m having Kafka dreams this evening; I’d almost bet on it.
Exposure? No thank you.
I really wanted to try the drive-up shopping at Target but of the four things on my list, one was sold out, two were “not available for pickup” (that is, you have to go into the store to purchase them), and the last was just a couple of six-packs of Diet Pepsi, which of course I can get anywhere. So much for that plan.
I need distilled water for the Darth Vader machine, and it’s $.75 more per gallon at the local supermarket than at Target, but whatever. I can sneak into the supermarket fifteen minutes before closing and minimize my exposure. Fair trade.
Of course I got a little carried away, also picking up more oatmeal, some hot dog buns, a gallon of skim milk, a tub of potato salad (seriously; what?) and a couple of cans of corned beef hash just in case the disease erupts in this town and I’m too wussy to run out for fresh food.
And Diet Pepsi, of course.
All that walking I did after midnight meant I didn’t have to go far to hit my goal. Ended up with 15,300 steps without really working for it, and I can live with it. My body wasn’t feeling it this evening.
Children of the next level
New metal releases have been a little ho-hum these past couple of weeks, but Friday brought the much-awaited (by me, anyway) new album by Testament. I pre-ordered the CD from Amazon because Testament toured Europe with Death Angel and another band, and they all came back with the freaking virus. The Death Angel drummer is in intensive care on a ventilator. Ugh. I bought the CD to kind of show them they have a fan who’s pulling for them. Should probably buy a Death Angel CD as well.
I gave it a spin (via Spotify) and it’s pretty darn good. The first three songs are nice candidates for the live show.
I also watched the first hour of The Lighthouse, that movie last year with Robert Pattinson (Support Cedric Diggory, the real Hogwarts champion!) and Willem Dafoe. It’s not as horrifying as I expected, nor (yet) as homoerotic. Then again, I’m only an hour into it and there are still forty-nine minutes to go. That’s a lot of time to disturb the living heck out of me.
Today I traded texts with Crush Girl and the group from the engineering firm. There was so much interaction at work today that it was enough.
Too tired for the Friday 5. I’ll do it sometime Saturday.
It’s only April 4, and we’re pretty much all staying put until the end of the month. If that’s freaking you out or dragging you down or leaving you a mess, and you need someone to talk you through, I hope you’ll reach out. I’m lousy company but I’ve been practicing making sympathethic listening sounds. They’re all yours if you want them. Don’t go through this alone.