Monday, October 27, 2008

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe

I have been loving living alone. Maybe because last year I lived with 10 other people, and the kitchen was never clean, and there was just so much stuff everywhere that you could hardly focus, but now I have my own place and it's great. I've been noticing that a lot, lately. So often I am content to reject invitations just because I want to go home and do nothing. Yesterday I didn't even leave my apartment at all (okay, it was kinda a disgustingly lazy day, and I slept a lot), and I cleaned everything really well, and did my laundry, and laid down my new rug. (I bought a rug! It was an impulse purchase! It was great!).

Now my current thoughts are how to sell my couch so I can buy a bed like thing to put my futon on so I have a floor, and if I should buy another futon for guests, and what sheets do I want, and blah blah blah blah blah.

I think it's because I'm so happy to be responsible for only myself. I have my own apartment, that I decorated and bought things for (okay, mostly bought for myself), paid for with my salary. Especially with what has been happening with the economy lately (oh! and I have a newspaper subscription that I pay for that I bring to school and read while drinking coffee. Wish I had a pipe.) that I'm just so grateful to be financially stable right out of college.

But Saturday I went shopping and spent soooo much money. I think because I've been stressed lately I've been really into retail therapy. The main things I bought were a down coat, a leather jacket (I know, I'm sending myself to hell), a rug (yay! It's pink with pinwheel-like designs on it and the fibers are about 1/2 inch long. Sooo soft.) a welcome mat, a bath mat, and two towels. I had to have the store clerks put my bags behind the counter because I couldn't carry them when I was shopping. Now I'm going to work on my sleeping arrangements. Turns out I'm missing a piece of my futon, which means that what I thought was the part that is super fluffy mattress is actually the comforter, and I need to get another part of the mattress to make it super fluffy.

Also, my life is so comfortably domestic. After school I went to the home goods store and and bought such boring items as leather protector, a strainer, spatula, back scrubber, a kitchen towel rack that I already stuck to the cabinet, etc. When I got off the bus in my neighborhood, I went over to the street stall and asked what he was selling that made it smell like he was melting sugar every day and bought some roasted chestnuts. Then I went to the bakery and bought some bread, a maple roll, a donut, and CROUTONS!!! Then I stopped by my little old lady produce stand and we talked about the weather and she told me what to put in my curry that is boiling right now. She told me to put apples in it, so I'm trying that. Then I came home, and the chestnuts had cooled off, so I had to bang them on the desk a lot to crack them open. I always thought chestnuts would taste like tree bark, but turns out they taste like butter maple potatos. Yum.

Today I had the hard of hearing girl. She can't hear well enough to have English class with the other students, so I go in about once a week with the other teacher to have 2 on 1 class with her. She is one of the cutest things I have ever seen. She says "August" like "O-gat-o" and stuff like that, I don't even know how to type it because her trying to pronounce the words after us always ends up a weird mix of syllables thrown together. But last time I was with her she did stuff like write down the Japanese translation of words while looking up at us and smiling to show us that look she was doing it! But sometimes she really can't hear and she skips ahead to another part because she's guessing that we must be there by now and we have to bring her back. She did something else really adorable today though, and I can't remember what, and now that's going to bug me.

Now I'm eating my curry. I don't think I put enough mix in, and the carrots are a little underdone. Oh well.

Friday night we went to a bar, and I talked to a really drunk middle aged guy about McCain and Obama, and he was like, "Negro, OK?" and we laughed and said "Yes, yes, negro OK!" and bitched about McCain's policies and the guy really didn't like Sarah Palin and I was really impressed with how much he knew about all of it, and how much Japanese views on American politics are in line with my own.

I'm gonna eat my curry now.

2 comments:

nadyac said...

Here's a good curry recipe for you:
Just buy yellow curry powder
saute whatever veggies and meat you wanna use and when they are soft or cooked add a can of coconut milk, then add the yellow curry powder, and some cumin (haha) and stir together and cook for a few more minutes and serve with rice! This is really the way people in curry in southeast asia but it's a lot easier than those curry stock blocks they have in Japan, it's too hard to cook that stuff sometimes. John's mom taught me that recipe and shes Vietnamese but it's really good and easy, you don't have to wait for those cubes to melt or add any water.

Kimberlina!! said...

ooooh, that sounds gooood!