DEC 07

2023

Thursday: started the morning slow thanks to my late night last night. I was able to get out the door by 2 for my appointment at the stylist. There was a bit of a wait, so I had lunch at Subway first, though I experienced a bit of sticker shock when I realized how high local prices have gotten compared to the days when I'd have Subway every third day for lunch, fifteenish years ago.

After my late lunch and my haircut, I went shopping for lunch supplies and Julie's baking ingredients. While wandering the aisles, I found the Poptarts thought-provoking: just ten years ago, I was eating these on a daily basis on my first break at JCB. After I quit that job (and after the local grocery stopped carrying the s'mores variety), they exited my diet. Enough time has passed that the prospect of purchasing them now feels alien. I had to wonder what other foods might be undergoing such a process of alienation. Breakfast bars? Kroger vitamin water? Apple juice, oranges, Dr. Pepper?

After I got back home and unloaded the groceries, I cooked the veggie pasta with feta for dinner. This time around, I still had too few bell peppers, and I forgot to get peas, but we had some edamame in the freezer that we thawed instead. However, I did cook the vegetables long enough to get the sting out of the onions, and I roasted the feta the perfect amount of time to get the best flavor and texture. Since my weekly Disco Elysium stream was playing, I watched while eating dinner and knocking out a Hearthstone quest and progressing my stat-grind in Fallen London. As the stream was wrapping up, I've been writing up this update, and my plan for the rest of the evening is to make some serious progress on my projects. I might stay up late deliberately for once. We'll see.

2022

Trip to Wichita
This was the day I flew to Wichita for my company's holiday party. I flew out of the Philadelphia airport at like 3 PM, and I had connections in Chicago and St. Louis. I can't remember if I ate here on my way out or back, but I think I had a burger in the Chicago terminal. It was tough to coordinate my pickup since I only had Julie's work phone, as I'd accidentally washed my phone in the laundry the week before, but Jasmine and Kenyatta were able to pick me up. We drove to the hotel by Bradley Fair, and Carl was there hanging out with folks. After I checked into the hotel, I put my stuff in his car and we drove back to CHESM for a few games of Magic. This also gave me the opportunity to pick up the towel and the swimsuit I'd left behind over the summer.