Friday, January 15, 2010

While the cat's away...

Mr E Man is working in Whistler at the moment, building wheelchair access ramps for some of the Olympic venues. The entire crew are movie set carpenters. I’ve reminded him that the ramps are not supposed to collapse, explode, or otherwise provide any spectacular and/or hilarious visual effects. I’ve at least established that they’re using real wood, rather than plywood, or Styrofoam painted to look like wood.

Anyway. He's only been gone for two days of a probable seven to ten day stretch, but it's been interesting to see how some of my pre-cohabitation habits have already returned...

  • I'm going to bed at my night-owl body's natural midnight or thereabouts, rather than Mr E Man's usual 10:30 pm.
  • I'm reading in bed before going to sleep
  • I'm sleeping diagonally across the whole bed
  • (One thing I haven't done is change the alarm from our usual 6:00 am. Blegh. Sleep deprived. Which leads me to:)
  • I will probably sleep until 11:00 am on Saturday and Sunday mornings
  • I'm eating omelettes for dinner (Mr E Man still refuses to believe that Brits think this is perfectly normal)
  • I'm eating the same thing two nights in a row (on Wednesday night I grilled some lovely Portabello mushrooms and steamed some asparagus, and had this mix plus mature cheddar in an omelette with a side of baked potato on the last two nights. The asparagus-mushroom mix has also been mixed with wholewheat pasta and some balsamic dressing for yesterday's and today's lunches. I did this kind of thing as a student all the time).
  • I'm watching re-runs of Friends, even when I've already seen the episode a few times

It's quite nice for a change, but I'll be glad when Mr E Man's back. The cats aren't such a good source of conversation.

18 comments:

  1. Mmmm... omelettes for dinner. Good in my book, also. I'll just go to eating stuff out of cans if I *really* revert to pre-cohabitation habits. Haha on the reruns!

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  2. Wait, omelettes for dinner aren't normal? I'm American--I think it's fine!

    Enjoy the good things about solitude =)

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  3. The first couple of days on your own are great. I do the same thing regarding food. Who says that scambled eggs on toast isn't dinner? Or popcorn? Sometimes it is nice just to have to take care of myself and not justify my odd choices.

    But I am always thrilled when Husband returns again too :).

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  4. What do the cats think of this solitude? Are they OK with just sitting on you?

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  5. Hooray for night owls and reading in bed!

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  6. I immediately start sleeping diagonally in the bed - even if DH just gets up to go to the bathroom. It drives him nuts!

    I love having breakfast food for dinner - especially waffles!

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  7. I love living alone, and there is only one thing I can think of that isn't good: my dishwasher gets cleaned only every 4-5 days or so, which means the smell of bacon from saturday breakfasts lingers more than usual :)

    Diagonal sleeping, cleaning at midnight, cranking the stereo up to dance around the living room at 11 pm, playing with the cat at 8 am on a Saturday, having only the food I want to eat in my fridge, and no other food sitting uneaten, coming home at 11 pm on weeknights without having to check in with anyone, reading in bed for as long as I want, and best of all, not having to clean up after anyone else!

    If you are bored you could always come to my house Saturday night - I think a friend of mine and I are having a low-key movie night!

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  8. all bullet point except last one (I have other series as a habit), check.

    I mean, midnight instead of 9.30 pm... alarm do get moved after a while from 5.45 to 7 (a more uhmane time imho) ;)

    and omelette for dinner is completely ok, I'm still a bit finicky about having it as breakfast though. My friends and I draw the line with porridge and cereal as dinner... and same food a few days in row? that's my lunches most of the time. I'm lazy/practical, a big vat of soup, divide it and go crazy for a week ;)

    So, have you neglected showers? Or not changing clothes on the weekend from sleeping gear? That is a warning sign in my book :)

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  9. Silver Fox, good to know that North Americans think omelettes make an acceptable dinner! I shall inform Mr E Man when he returns

    Mermaid, scrambled eggs on toast are another great dinner! Throw some frozen peas into the beaten egg while you're waiting for the pan to heat up, and grate some cheese on top when you're done: voila! Get the ketchup.

    Bob, Saba is a lap slut who doesn't care who's rubbing her belly. Google is a bit more picky and is missing her absolute favourite spot - curled up on Mr E Man's chest when he lounges on the sofa. She deigned to sit on my lap for a while last night though. They are still banished from the bedroom - this was originally Mr E Man's rule, but I've had to kick them out a few times when he's been away before and I've let them in as a treat. Mostly for jumping on me / purring in my ear / generally being annoying. Never again...

    RPS77, hear hear! It's just so nice and cozy... but there's only room for one bedside table in our room, and it has to be on one specific side of the bed because of the position of a handy alcove, and that's Mr E Man's side of the bed. No light on my side = no reading when I'm sharing the bed...

    Alyssa, I'm not quite that bad! It's just so nice to sleep diagonally though, and to wrap myself up in the whole duvet (Mr E Man and I both like a big thick duvet in a nice cold bedroom).

    Kyrsten, am I hearing a wee bit of relief in your comment?!

    note to self: buy bacon.

    Thanks for the invite for tomorrow! I will let you know - there's a teeny tiny chance I might go to Whistler, and a much larger chance I'll watch the hockey with S & L & Morgan (whose eyes pop out of her head in surprise when we all cheer for a Canucks goal. Then she cries. Hilarious!). I'll keep you posted!

    Chall, I might switch the alarm to 7am on Monday!

    I wouldn't eat porridge for dinner, but might go for e.g. granola, if we had any, which we don't.

    I frequently batch my lunches (pasta / stirfry / soup etc), but not my dinners!

    I have not yet neglected a single shower, but we'll see what happens on the weekend!

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  10. Oops! The first part of my reply was supposed to be addressed to Silver Fox AND Bean-Mom. Sorry, Bean-Mom!

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  11. I typically go for nachos or ice cream for dinner when I'm alone. Your eggs-asparagus-mushroom-cheese-potato thing is like a real dinner to me!

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  12. I go between chips and salsa or random cooking experiments based on what's left in my fridge and pantry when spouse is away. Since he's gone every Saturday (including overnight) and I go grocery shopping on Sunday, the experiments turn out some things that are at least interesting.

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  13. I stay up really late and read in bed when March Hare's not around too! He doesn't really travel for work all that much, but I have to admit I do enjoy the occasional few days I get the house to myself. No sleeping diagonally across the bed, though...gotta leave room for dogs!

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  14. Eco, well that was just the first couple of days. We'll see what happens next week. I'm currently eating cold pizza for breakfast, so...

    Belle, I love seeing what I can throw together from whatever's left in the house! Usually rice-based, with lots of peas!

    Mad Hatter, yeah, I wouldn't want to make this a regular occurrence, but once every year or two is nice! I think tonight (Sunday) will be when I miss him most - week nights are too short, and I was out with friends on Friday and Saturday. Sunday has been our movie and take-out sushi night for the last six years, and it won't be as much fun by myself. Ah well, he'll be back and imposing his 10:30pm bedtime on me soon!

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  15. Two things

    1. omelettes anytime

    2. WTF is up with the Canadian dudes and their early bedtime? Mine is even earlier than yours, usually in bed by 830 and sleeping by 9 [except these days where he's jet-lagged and doesn't sleep till 2 in the morning but of course I stay up even longer].

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  16. 8:30?! OK, that makes me feel better (sorry!)

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  17. Haha, I'm actually cherisching the time on weekdays when I am alone at home. When Thomas will finally make it to NZ too we will be finally living together and I already miss those evenings of changing into my pajamas at 7pm, eating chocolate for dinner and reading a book at the same time. I'm also totally agreeing with EGF about the ice cream.
    On the other hand I cherish the weekends we spend together even more because the first months in NZ I will be ALONE and probably won't even feel like eating chocolate and reading books ...

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  18. Week nights alone and weekends together does sound like a nice mix! Mr E Man will be home at the weekend, but might have to go back up to Whistler for a few more days the following week, so I might have a little more pajama time. (Although last night I made a huge pot of pasta that is now in the fridge and should do me for a few more days!)

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