My Year of Eating Like The World Ended – Report 11 of 13

Mon, 07.01.2019

I got up at the crack of dawn and started to work. The light up here is funny (in a good way) and does strange things sometimes. Today, not for the first time, was cotton candy pink fog. Loved it.

When I saw signs of life over at Mike’s place, I took a break to go do the month’s trading and then back at it for pretty much the rest of the day. Solid. Also decided I’m going to try a 4 on, two off approach to the generic oatmeal. Should give me a little something to look forward to.

Tues, 07.02.2019

Went to bed early and got up early. Just before sunrise. No cool lighting effects this morning, but still got a lot done. Revising my plan. Will save the good oatmeal for the weekends and eat the bland stuff thru the week. Should see me running out of the bland stuff that much quicker. Works for me.

Wed, 07.03.2019

I swear I’m not pregnant, but you wouldn’t know it based on my odd food pairings. Not sure why, but I was DESPERATELY craving a milkshake with a grilled cheese today. Like, together. Take a bite, then suck down some milkshake, then repeat. Dunno what’s up with that, but it made my taste buds happy.

Having a fight with the trash pickup company. Dang, they are PICKY about what they’ll accept. Going to start disguising stuff in trash bags. I’ve got several bulky items I need to get rid of…will do it all sneaky I guess…

Thurs, 07.04.2019

Another strong writing day. Feel like I’m on fire this month. I wake up and almost can’t GET to the keyboard fast enough. The words are crackling out of my fingertips like lightning bolts – I love it!

Fri, 07.05.2019

Disassembled an old busted fan and bagged it, along with a random piece of metal that’s been on one of the patios since I moved in. I don’t know what it came off of. Looks like it may have been part of a piece of exercise equipment, or a torture device. Oh wait – those are the same thing. Anyway, bagged ‘em. Let’s see if I can make them disappear next trash day.

Another good, productive day. Lots of writing mixed with some deep cleaning. For some reason, I got it in my head that I had no idea where the title of my car was and it bugged me. I still haven’t found it, but I did toss two bags worth of old papers I don’t need. I’ll call that a win, and will continue the search. Put on a pot of freeze dried mac with some venison tossed in. Mmm…smells good!

Sat, 07.06.2019

Making a new batch of ice cream! Moar chocolate. Love me some chocolate! The strawberry oatmeal today tasted like a carnival in my mouth after a whole week of the bland stuff. I’m kinda liking this plan. It’s a small thing, but it gives me something to look forward to.

Sun, 07.07.2019

The biggest decision of the day was which flavor of oatmeal to have. It was an agonizing decision because tomorrow, it’s back to the bland stuff. Finally, I settled on apple. Mmmm…So good.

Oh, and I’ve gotten super efficient at making the oatmeal. Half a cup of water in a pot.

Eight tablespoons (overflowing tablespoons) of oatmeal in the bowl. Pour the hot water over it and stir. Done.

Tossed some pork roast into the mango habanero chili. Probably shouldn’t have it so soon after the venimac, but – I haven’t actually eaten much of it lately, so I’m feeling pretty good about it. Anyway, the weekend was good on the whole – I just kept trundling along. Got plenty of interesting writing to do so just stayed focused on that.

Mon, 07.08.2019

More writing, mixed with odd bouts of deep cleaning. No rhyme or reason to it. Just…piddling mostly, but I’m still managing to make slow, steady progress on it, so I’m happy about that.

Tues, 07.09.2019

Took trash to the road this morning. We shall see if they take it! (fingers crossed). As soon as that was done, I got right back to work. Another solid day!

Wed, 07.10.2019

Victory! The fan and weirdly shaped piece of metal are both gone. Will have to contemplate what to toss next…

Thurs, 07.11.2019

I haven’t been logging my daily cigarette consumption, but I smoked the last of the stash I got in the care package from my mom. It was a moment of weakness, and I shouldn’t have done it. Now I’m going to have to fight the cravings all over again. Bleh.Before I’m tempted, I’m going to stop writing and go find SOMETHING to trade for the other five packs.

…just back from Granny’s. Got a bunch of meat, half a pecan pie, and an extra gallon of milk for the freezer. Oh, and a jar of preserves (strawberry). All much healthier than the smokes. Done and done. And…I wish I had saved a pack. I suck.

Fri, 07.12.2019

Hmmm…well, now I know what I’ll try to toss next. This afternoon, my microwave ‘sploded. Okay, that’s probably overselling it. It didn’t actually explode, but it did start pouring out gouts of nasty smelling smoke and I lost a can of chicken soup I was heating up. So – I got that mess cleaned up and bagged the dead microwave. It’ll go to the curb next week. Went into town and found a nice refurbished microwave at Roses for seventy bucks (way nicer than the one I had been using). Sold. Got it set up and it works fine. A little bit of unexpected drama today, but it didn’t really cut into my writing productivity.

Sat, 07.13.2019

I don’t really remember much about today. I got up. I wrote. I ate. Then I wrote some more. Finally, when I could barely see, I went to sleep. That was my day.

Sun, 07.14.2019

Pigged out today while writing. Don’t care. JONSING for a cigarette and using food to compensate. I think I’d give my right arm for a smoke. Knew I shouldn’t have done that. Grrr. I’m such a dumbazz. Anyway, despite all the gorging, I did get a lot of writing done.

Mon, 07.15.2019

And we’re back to boring oatmeal. My god I will be so happy when that stuff is gone. Never again. Seriously. I think I’d rather go hungry. Bleh. Another just going through the motions day. Cravings dominated my mind but I still just kept plowing ahead. Got to.

Tues, 07.16.2019

Trash to the road – dead microwave in the mix. Let’s see…

And the cravings aren’t as bad today so I actually feel as though I was back to my old self.

Wed, 07.17.2019

Victory! Now – it won’t happen this month, but soonish, I’m going to try and make my entire sofa vanish. Will start with the cushions. Take them apart and bag them and the stuffing. Then the stuffing from the rest of the sofa. I want the wood. I can use it to make something fun, but the rest can just go out one bag at a time…lol (maniacal laughter follows). Why? I don’t know. I think maybe I am going a little crazy.

Anyway, that’s a longer term plan. For now, I’m generating plenty of trash as I toss stuff out looking for the still elusive car title. At this point, it would have been easier to just have them print me another one. Will do that after the experiment if it still hasn’t turned up. 

Thurs, 07.18.2019

Hmmm…Mike’s kids had a request today. Now, I want to go on record as saying that before we started this experiment, I did not think that a batch of vanilla ice cream with assorted smooshed up jelly beans in it was going to be all that good.

…and it really wasn’t. But that’s what they wanted, so that’s what we did.

I feel like it was a waste of supplies, but they loved it. Or maybe they were just pretending to love it. I tried some and bleh. That stuff was nasty.

Anyway, that was a fun couple hours out of the day and I still got a bunch done. Go me!

Fri, 07.19.2019

I’ve been pushing hard this month, but today was the first day my hands hurt at the end in a while. They were screaming tonight though. Glad they gave me a reprieve, but I need them to let me keep doing what I’m doing for a little while longer. Talked to them as I rubbed arthritis cream in. Hopefully, they will listen. Another super strong day.

Sat, 07.20.2019

Crashed hard after talking to my hands. Slept till almost noon so got a late start. Today wasn’t as productive as I have been, but also, my hands weren’t throbbing by the end. Maybe they needed a day off. Works for me. Still getting stuff done.

Sun, 07.21.2019

Kinda coasted again today. Didn’t push too hard, took frequent breaks to piddle around the house and pretend to deep clean. Still managed to generate another bag of trash for next week though, so piddling or not, it is having some effect. But who knew I had that much junk laying around? Dang – I thought I had already weeded out. I guess though, after almost five years of being here, stuff accumulates. Well – not for long. The house is well on its way back to being lean. Now, I really need to focus on getting ME back to lean…

Mon, 07.22.2019

The boring oatmeal notwithstanding, today was another killer day! This is shaping up to be in my top five strongest months! (last month was my second best ever – this one won’t be quite as good I don’t think, but should be at least in the same zip code!)

Tues, 07.23.2019

Trash back to the road – nothing sneaky this time – mostly just old papers I’ve been lugging around with me for years. Finally stopped to look through it all and realized I totally didn’t need a bunch of it, so…tossed! All that and a good writing day too? Nice!

Wed, 07.24.2019

Hamberders! In honor of Donald Trump, I decided to make my own “Hamberders.” Not bad. Not bad at all… (well, I guess technically they were cheezberders, but…whatever)

Thurs, 07.25.2019

Now I’m in a greasy burger coma. I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning and I feel like I’m moving in slow motion. Bleh. Struggling today. Not a great performance on any front.

Fri, 07.26.2019

Struggling again today. This is killing my momentum. I don’t know if the “berders” were to blame or not, but – no more of that crap, just in case!

Sat, 07.27.2019

As I was making breakfast this morning, I remembered “cream of evil.” Oh man – that stuff was so gross! This strawberry oatmeal is a thousand times better, and it’s funny because it’s not all THAT different, really. But – small changes can make a huge difference I guess. Anyway, a good day that fell short of being insanely awesome. I’ll take it.

Sun, 07.28.2019

A very quiet day. Just – got up, ate, started writing. No music. No Netflix or amazon prime. Just me and the keyboard. I kinda liked it as a change of pace.

Mon, 07.29.2019

I almost kinda made a “Cuban” sandwich today. Minus just about all the ingredients except the pork. Well – it was something different, anyway. And another solid writing day. This month has been badass but I’m starting to get tired. Thinking seriously about taking the last day of the month off entirely and binge watching Netflix. Yep. I think I’ma do that. So, one more day!

Tues, 07.30.2019

Okay – since I know I’m taking tomorrow off, I got up early and hit the writing day HARD. Got a lot done and kept my breaks to an absolute minimum. Planning on having a fun day tomorrow of just lazing around the house.

Wed, 07.31.2019

And, I made it to the finish line! This month was pretty epic and overall, it looks like it ranked as my third best ever. Not bad. So – as a treat, I’m taking today off and going to watch the latest season of Stranger Things all back to back. And eat ice cream. LOTS of ice cream. I feel like I’ve earned it!