I like being alone. For the next day or two, I have the apartment to myself-- and I've been leaving it messy. Even the kitchen, which I can usually never leave messy. Usually I have to clean all pots and pans before I even sit down to eat, and I can't start my homework or leave the house if I know that I've left so much as a fork in the sink. It's maddening. But now that I know there isn't going to be anyone around when I get home- I didn't even unload the dishwasher before I went to work because I knew that it wasn't going to bother anyone.

Other than that, what do I do when left to my own devices? Well, this evening...I've watched TV a little too much, and made food.

I also like food. Lately brussel sprouts have been high on the list-- the little ones, and I like to eat them frozen. Weird? Yes. But vegetably and delicious? You bet. (They're good cooked, too...but why wait?) Peanut butter's also up there, especially on apples (but that's an old classic.) And...hmm...chai tea. Yeah, Chai. The coffee has, after all, gotten to be too much. I started getting heartburn, which is an old man disease. So that wouldn't do. And the binaries. I couldn't handle the binaries. Because my problem had grown, diverged, and started to travel along some inexplicable paths. Coffee, per se, wasn't actually my problem anymore-- coffee was for amateurs. Sure, there was the richness, but then there was bitterness. And that's crap. I'm too old for that. So I switched to Americanos, lattes-- esspresso based. The real stuff. The real stuff that doesn't come cheap. But when I got home at night (here's the weird part), I would turn to the ugly underbelly of the coffee world-- the worst that it gets- decaf instant. Store brand. And I couldn't get enough of that stuff as an after dinner drink. My gosh, you just put a scoop or two in a mug, run some hot water, a little sugar-- fake sugar, and some milk...and you wallow in an artificial mire of instant gratification for a few short moments before you have to go on with your nightly e-mail check. It was too much. I couldn't maintain the charade of a double life any more. Chai tea. With maybe a little extra cinnamon.

I like getting up early in the morning to go to the gym. I like my new running shoes, and I like that I've been getting to the gym 5 mornings a week since the quarter started. I like strength training. (But geez...I am constantly hungry. Constantly.) I like feeling like I've actually done things with my day before 9 in the morning. And I like getting out of class at the end of the day and thinking, "hmm...I should go to the gym. Oh wait! I've already BEEN to the gym today..."

And I like...spending my Friday nights not doing any of the things that I really should be doing...