One Night at Home

Since we moved to the loft over two and a half years ago, this is only the fourth time I have spent the night alone here. Which seems kinda weird, I guess. I spent many nights by myself when Don was doing a lot of work on the road; even three months in a row right after we moved to Los Alamos. And I spend a lot of time alone when I'm at the Hut during the school year, so why is this a big deal?

It just is!!

Spending time alone in DeQueen is pretty much a drag, mainly because there's only Wal-Mart for shopping and I don't have all my favorite channels on my superbasic satellite plan. I don't have a safe place to ride my bike. And I'm usually doing homework. I'm still doing that, but now my "free" time is much better.

I've got more than one place to "slum shop." And they're open on Saturdays. I've got Old Navy and TJ Maxx and Big Lots. (Three stores I should probably stay out of.) I can ride my bike on the bike trail. I can go to the gym, and there's a pool there.

But that's in the daytime. What's this night thing all about?

Well...it's like this: I can do whatever I want! :)

What I used to do was order a pizza, sit down with a 2-liter bottle of Coke, a bag of chocolate-covered peanuts and watch all the dumb movies I either had seen a million times or had never seen at all. I'd play Minesweeper and stay up almost all night doing all the other stupid things I like to do to waste time.

Since I'd already had pizza this week, and am trying to cut down on candy-eating, I altered my routine somewhat. (Still drank my Coke, though. Just not the whole bottle.) My day was like this:

I did the bike ride. And will do it tomorrow and the next day, because after Monday I won't be able to exercise for a while. I cleaned up and went to Salvation Army. I was going to buy this really cool CD-player-clock-radio thing I saw earlier this week but it was gone. Bummer. I went to the grocery store for another gallon of milk and a 12-pack of strawberry soda.

CHILDHOOD THROWBACK MOMENT: It's summer. That's when you buy cheap, fruity-flavored soda, like Black Cherry, and ginger ale. And generic brown sugar/cinnamon toaster pastries. Then all is right with the world.

Then I came home, and I don't plan on leaving the house for the rest of the weekend, except to ride the bike and take out the dogs. Did menial housework. Finished watching The Women. (The 1939 version, with Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford and the completely hilarious Rosalind Russell, not the crappy remake with Meg Ryan.) I made soup in the fondue pot. Finished my homework assignment and prepped for the next one. I sat down and fed Mama Kitty, fending off the other cats with a water bottle. She ate a good amount of food and drank some milk. Hopefully, she will start to fatten up and will come out into the open again.

Since all of the video stores are closing all around us, (and TV basically stinks anyway), I browsed Netflix for the new version of "The Women" so I could see just how bad it really is compared to the old one. It wasn't available for "instant watching," so MST3K won out. I watched Super Agent, Super Dragon and now I've got another one on, and I can't even remember the name of it. It's funny stuff regardless-and I laugh every time. I shared my popcorn with Zorak, who ate it even though it was sprinkled with Tony Chacherie's and hot wing seasoning.

HOLY CRAP!! They just said "Garth Vader" on this MST3K movie!! If only I could create a YouTube moment for that!!

Now here I am. Enjoying my boring evening at home. I'll probably read another goofy 1970s cheesy gothic novel before I go to sleep.

Tomorrow's routine won't be much different. I'll do more homework, work on my Internet summer classes, and get things in order before my surgery. And for the next few days, I'll learn to function on Vicodin just like Dr. House.

Wait...is there any chocolate around here?