Wherein I’m practically an adult

Two posts less than a week apart! Whaaaa???

I figured I should update everyone beyond just bragging about a great weekend getaway. Especially since it took place two weeks weeks before I finally wrote about it.

So here’s what’s been happening in my life: trivia, (sorta) adulting and socializing.

Trivia

I’m trying to do two trivia events every other week. I want to test out some locations to see if they make more people show up. Since I already have two spots that work well, it means I need to occasionally try a different one — without making the few regulars I have wait longer than usual for an event in their area.

If I start finding worthwhile guys, I may go back to once a week. But nothing much is happening on that front at the moment, so for now I’ll keep experimenting.

Adulting

Seriously, how do parents get even half of their chores/errands done? I’m having trouble just keeping up with my own stuff!

Cleaning

I’m finally somewhat keeping up on cleaning. It’s usually a day or two later than I’d hoped, but at least it’s something.

Of course, if I have someone over — other than PPG who truly doesn’t care — that motivates me to clean.

And I’m having a game night this coming Saturday. So I’ll really get the place looking like I diligently clean all the time!

Appliance shopping

About two weeks ago, I backslid on cleaning a bit because I was busy checking out fridges.

The one in the guest house is dying. My tenant said she’s noticing food spoiling sooner than usual. Eek!

I can’t complain about the fridge’s demise. My ex-in-laws had just relegated it to the shed and replaced it with a French door fridge when I met them 17 (!) years ago.

So it’s served well and steadfastly. And now it can rest.

The only issue is that the spot for the fridge doesn’t fit quite a few standard fridges height-wise. So I had to do a lot of searching on Home Depot, Lowe’s, Best Buy, a local appliance chain, and some online-only appliance stores.

The bright side is that Memorial Day sales had started early, so I was able to get some savings.

After finding fridges that would fit, I spent a couple days checking reviews. Mostly because I read them and forgot to take notes, so I had to go back in and check them all again.

I ended up finding one with a decent amount of space (15.6 cubic feet) for $648. With sales tax and a $50 haul away of the old fridge, it was about $748.

That said, it never hurts to find more savings. So I took advantage of a special on the discounted gift card site, CardCash Memorial Day 5% off special. Meaning I got $750 in Home Depot gift cards for only $715.85 plus I got 1% cash back through Mr. Rebates.

Altogether, the net cost of the fridge was $708.69.

That said, it’s rare that things are easy. So when I tried to use 15, $50 gift cards (CardCash didn’t have anything bigger), I couldn’t place the order online. You can only apply up to 10 at a time.

So I had to wait until I was already up for running errands to go to the store and have the order put through there.

Lesson learned: If you want to buy discounted GCs for a large Home Depot purchase, get bigger denominations if possible or be ready to go into the store to have customer service put through the purchase.

Feeding myself

Speaking of fridges — and therefore, food — I’m still not able to make myself cook much.

Logically, I know logically that making things will be pretty simple once I do it. But I just can’t seem to get over the “don’ wanna” stage.

But when I think about it, I just can’t propel myself into it. Probably because I feel somewhat indifferent to my dinners at home.

By which I mean that obviously I still enjoy good food that other people have made. But if left to my own devices, I just want to feed myself with whatever is easy.

Trying to decide what to eat every night — or even decide every two to three days so I know to make a particular dish — just seems mentally taxing.

But things have reached a happy medium for the moment.

Several months back, I was making a southwest grain bowl that was delicious. It consisted of quinoa, rice, black beans, corn, cucumber, spinach and tomato all mixed with a very tasty low-sodium southwest dressing.

Then I hit this current food-preparation wall.

I’d mean to make the sauce. And then just never did before the veggies went bad. And I’d end up feeling defeated (and guilty about food waste).

But as the third bunch of veggies were a couple days away from their demise, I finally realized that I didn’t have to make quinoa and rice in order to save the veggies. That, I had some low-sodium salad dressing and that spinach, tomato and cucumber are, ya know, a salad. Which is a meal.

So that night I just had a salad with those. The next day, I cooked a couple of chicken breasts and added some of that into my salads.

Mind you, some of the veggies still went bad, but I at least got two or three meals

And it was such a relief to not have to think.

So now every three days or so, I go get some spinach, tomato and cucumber. If I’m having an okay energy day, I stand in the kitchen and watch TV while chopping the tomatoes and cucumber, then rip off the stems of the spinach and tear up the leaves.

The next day I make the chicken, and I’m set for three to four days.

Incidentally, if anyone’s looking for good, low-sodium dressing:

• Kroger’s Simple Truth brand Rosemary Balsamic is delicious

• Panera’s regular balsamic is also great. I’m guessing the Simple Truth kind is good too, but Panera’s was on BOGO sale when I needed some.

• Because of the sale, I tried a Fuji apple balsamic dressing. I didn’t like it at first, but I gave it a second try and enjoyed it. I think you just have to be ready for a sort of bright, crisp taste.

• The Simple Truth plant Caesar didn’t taste like much. As with the other dressing, though, I’ll give it a second try.

People-ing

At least I’m back to being around people quite a bit. I used to think I was an introvert, but it turns out I was just a severely depressed extrovert.

Now that I’m better, I try to go out and be with people as much as I can. It recharges me.

Though obviously, once or twice a week I need to stay home and snuggle with Josie, watch TV and eat the amounts of junk food you just can’t comfortably do when someone else is around.

Anyway, here’s my people-ing situation.

Dating

There’s not a lot of activity here just yet.

A few days ago, I went back to OKCupid. The answers to questions just save so much time.

I quickly check the section of answers we disagree on, and it can save so much time. If we disagree on things like “Taco or pizza?” no biggie. If they chose “Hell yes!” to Trump… Definite biggie. We will almost certainly not get along.

I also like that it’s free to send an intro message if you find a profile you’re interested in. If the person checks their Intros section, they’ll see your profile without your having to pay to get noticed.

Unfortunately, the intro feature is a double-edged sword. Since I’m trying to keep my number of matches low at any given point, I have to try to make myself not check intros lest I get back on the rollercoaster of “Surely, one of these guys will work out! Surely!” then “Oh, they all either went silent, came on way too strong/intimately or flaked on the date.”

But I’m also very curious. And I end up swiping left on most intros. So part of me just keeps begging to check them every time one comes in.

I let myself do it once when it got to, like, 11 intros. Just so to clear things out. (The number isn’t a brag, by the way. I’m pretty sure a lot of guys send intros to almost everyone, especially since “Hi” is a common message.”) And sure enough, I only swiped on two of them — and only after one match had fizzled.

Still, it’s pretty hard not to check them. Life goes on.

I had one promising date so far, but he’s pretty busy. So I wouldn’t get to see him very often — maybe a couple of times a month. Still, he’s cute and fun, so I figure I’ll just see how it plays out.

I have another guy I met at a party, and I agreed to a date because we had fun chatting. But by his own admission, he’s an intermittent messager, which isn’t great for me.

Also, when I explained in a message that I’d said I had to work from home because I have chronic fatigue (and working from home lets me have the energy to have a social life) his reply was “Bummer about the chronic fatigue” and then a second message addressing something else I’d said.

So that happened. (And before anyone says that young guys can be dumb, know that he’s 52.)

Anyway, we’ll see what the app brings my way.

Socializing

This has been great.

Trivia

This has meant I’m hanging out with people at least once a week, occasionally twice.

So that’s good as a baseline.

Pirate Party Guy

We’re still seeing each other twice a week. And I don’t even have to leave the house! The best of both worlds.

Party animal

Okay, not really. But the Gods & Goddesses party was great.

However, it was also a 10-hour event, and my ride (much like myself) likes to show up at the very start of a party, before there’s a wall of people.

Also, since the host is now charging $15 (requests for voluntary donations weren’t cutting it, I guess) I really got my money’s worth. I couldn’t eat most of the food (veggies and fruit only), but all the booze was free.

Thankfully, the host set aside a room for people to get away from the noise/lie down. So I did that a couple of times when I started to flag.

I was useless Sunday and Monday, but… worth it!

There’s another party there July 1st: Rainbow Unicorn, aka “wear bright, fun and/or gaudy colors.” I’ll reuse my dress from last year. And rest up really well beforehand.

Tonight (Saturday) I’m going to a (normal-length) party. Looks like it’ll be well-attended but also chill. So that’s good — especially since I had zero weekend plans outside of seeing PPG on Friday.

And hey, this party made me actually get off my butt and make some tzatziki sauce. Mostly because I probably won’t be able to eat most of the stuff people bring, but still, it’s (sorta) cooking! I’ll bring veggies, pita and also some ranch dressing for people who don’t like tzatziki.

On Wednesday, there’s a happy hour event through a MeetUp group. I like that crowd, so I’m going to that. And I’ll have that game night on Saturday.

So all in all, I’m doing well at maintaining the socializing level I need for my best mental health.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my chicken is done, so I need to cut that up, chop/tear veggies and have a salad before the party. And make tzatziki, of course.

How’s everyone else doing with life stuff?