Sunday, March 23, 2014

Much of my life is spent chopping garlic

This has been one of the more boring weekends of my life, which is kind of saying something. I had two things to do and have been procrastinating on both, so I’ve done precious little.

Next month, I’m going to the Philippines and I’m hoping to learn how to dive. I have the class lined up and have some materials the guy gave me. They’re mostly YouTube videos, and sadly, I don’t learn that way. I need to study the material, and this is kind of sciency stuff – I just don’t get it.

So I meant to make a better stab at that this weekend but haven’t really made much progress. Maybe at lunch. I just wish I could find the book online instead of videos that may or may not be the right ones. The guy sent me a Dropbox link but I don’t have Dropbox and do not have room on this computer to download it. So I’m just doing YouTube searches and trying to find the right ones to research.

The other thing I need to do is write my part of the evaluation. I still haven’t done that and the deadline is looming. Sigh.

But I’ve stayed very busy this weekend putting off both of those tasks. I had a couple of movies going (“Hugo” and “City Slickers”) and have played, but not really watched, the second season of “Cheers.”

There’s been little productivity, although I did realize there’s a built-in shelf behind my sofa that fits all my non-TV DVDs. I have enough room to buy about 10 more, max, and one of those came in this week: “Gone Baby Gone.”

And then there’s my usual: working out, laundry and cooking for the week.

The workout routine is the same: about 65 minutes on the elliptical, four reps on all the machines and then 35 minutes on the bike. I am a pool of sweat after and, if the scales are true, lose .6 pounds during the hour-plus. But I drink it right back, quaffing God knows how much tea over the weekend.

On weekdays, I do the little routine right after work, but on weekends I wake up at my normal time, and get down there at 6:30 a.m., which enables me to be done, showered, laundry thrown in and be crawling back into bed by 8:30.

And, by 10 a.m., I wake up again and the tired and tingly feet are just a foggy memory. (Really, I am going to have to go see the podiatrist again. There is no way what my feet’s reaction to that elliptical is normal.)

After that, I do the pancake thing and maybe Skype and do emails, but honestly, until Sunday evening, I have nothing really set. But after going to the grocery store, I cook for the week.

So I take out my carrots, onion and garlic and start prepping. When I think back on it, I have spent a good portion of my life since PC peeling garlic. It’s the same rice concoction I made almost weekly in Jakarta, too.

I put a whole head in each week and as a result, it’s very pungent. Right now, when I open my fridge, it’s completely overpowering.

But because it’s garlic, that’s a good thing.

No comments: