Kind Of Like Jail

Last night I was in my fridge, rummaging for dinner, when I was struck by how bare the fridge looked after sharing one with two other people for the past four years or so, both here and in Boston. It was shameful. I love living alone, I have to admit--it gives me a chance to indulge all my weird tics. For example, these are the contents of my fridge:

Four bottles of beer

One bottle of riesling

Two big bottles of Diet Coke

Milk

Tub of ground coffee

Tub of margarine

Tub of sour cream (although I don't eat it, Dan does)

Bottle of basil pesto

Bottle of tomato pesto

Bottle of salsa

Bottle of spaghetti sauce

A few kiwis

A few handfuls of tortellini

Bowlard-boiled eggs

Wedge of Gouda

Container of goat cheese

Slices of American cheese

Pack of shredded mild cheddar

Wedge of sharp cheddar

Round of Camembert

I know, I know, that's a ton of cheese. I get it. But it's because cheese is awesome, and I live near Central Market.

But anyway, living alone just exaggerates one's tendencies, I think, and it makes me think about what happens to someone's personality if they were in prison, living in an isolated cell or something. (That's a stretch, I know. But you can't argue that being alone makes a person kind of goofy.)

There are other things about being alone that I like. I don't have to share the TV with anyone--mostly because I don't have a TV, but if I did, I could watch what I wanted. I don't have to worry about all the dishes being dirty once I'm halfway cooking dinner, and so I don't have to eat out of Tupperware or something stupid because all the plates are in the sink. I can spread all my assorted crap (hair bands, makeup, brushes, sticks of deodorant, etc) out over the whole bathroom counter. I can make sure no one ever, ever leaves dirty dishes in the living room.

(Yeah, there's always the classic example of walking around in your underwear or naked if you want to, but I always leave the blinds open on the windows partway so Fenway can sit on the sill and watch the birds, so I don't do that.)

Westward Migration

My dad officially retires from the Air Force after a 27-year (I think) career as an officer, primarily as a pilot, on July 2. Then it appears my mom and my dad will be packing up their stuff from the DC suburbs and coming to the ridiculously hot sprawl of North Texas. Holla!

Dad got a job offer from L3 Communications, based in Greenville, which is north of Dallas, and he's finishing negotiations and details right now, but it looks like he and Mom are poised to come back here later this summer. I never lived in this area prior to going to TCU, and my parents haven't lived up here either (although both spent a good amount of their growing-up years near San Antonio, which is where most of the extended family is). I'm really looking forward to having them nearby but not too close--I think they'll be a bit more than an hour away, which is just dandy by me.

In Fort Worth, everything with the apartment has more or less settled down. The AC is still going strong, the roof doesn't leak anymore (which is great, because some recent thunderstorms have been brutal), and they retreated the floors with stuff for the smell. It only kinda helped. I bought some cat urine neutralizing stuff from Petsmart, but that only kinda helped too. Dan and I even cleaned behind and under the fridge (soooooo gross) and I scrubbed down the kitchen. Eh. I just live in a kind of funky smelling apartment, I guess. There's worse things, like the fire ant fiasco at the last place. Fire ants that crawl up the wall and into your bed? So not cool.

I fly home in two weeks for the retirement ceremony/celebrations, and I'm looking forward to that. I'm also looking forward to getting shoes back on the pony so he can be worked again--Topper's been doing well, but I want the po worked back up and fit so I can lease him out and not deal with all this stress over juggling two horses and a full-time job.

One thing I'm not really looking forward to is the insane summer heat, which is already coming on strong. It's supposed to be 98 for a few days this week, and next week too, and I'm afraid it's only going to get hotter from there. When the coolest days are in the low 90s, there's something wrong. Who knows, my parents may move here and I may move away searching for a better climate. I figure no matter where I go, I have a fair shot of getting a journalism job with chances of getting laid off. If I can't have job security, then I need to not have a place where you need to run an AC unit or risk heat stroke and death.

Anyone in Oregon looking for a roommate?