O Florida!

I remember that pale sky of autumn when the sound du jour was rattle of leaves. Not happening here. I figure FL should be the “clammy state” & not just for marine life. 

Things are resettling at work. Now it’s a drill & somewhat of a bore, but I have time to do other projects of organization, must must prioritize & sort. Place was a total morass of files & is about half a morass. Heh heh.

Slept well after watching a very complicated Chinese soap opera. Boy, those royals are a drain on the economy. 

Woke to sort the kitchen cabinet. My roommate brought home a ‘Ninja’ cooker to air fry. Guess she’s gonna air fry air since she eats nothing much needing cooking & does 90% of her cooking at her work where the fridge bulges & you can only work with the first thing on the shelf cuz every square thought of an inch is occupied by 3 jars with a teaspoon of something protein in each. She has cooked, um, 3x since I’ve been here except for two batches of vegan potato salad for picnics. The interesting thing about vegan food is no one eats it but vegans. I know, don’t mock, but once you mark it “vegan”, it is safe from being eaten. We leave with this much & come home with two tablespoons missing from the dish & enough vegan potato salad for 3 weeks if anyone ate it. Christ, it was boring when prepared, after 3 weeks, Beyond Burger additions do not help.

I plunged into Detwilers yesterday looking for berries, but tired of strawbs & blues were priced to where the zeros wrapped around the containers. So I got other stuff & this time I shopped their meats which are mostly from their own farms & of course not being commercial, taste funny. But hey, no taste. I can eat it! I saw a piece of steak – probably should not share – but it looked so good & I heard my body groan. So I came home with the perfect vegan onion (really?) & two chunks of extremely tender meat. Ate my old brown-edged onion so as not to disturb perfection & sliced a pepper in that, sliced the beef thin, Goodness, did I enjoy every bite. And then I found gorgeous jade-like Pesto to yum on.

This morning I have bacon! And one quiche shell so will make a perfect quiche. I thoughtfully pushed some guy’s buggy along, as he watched me do so, got 3′ before realizing that wasn’t my cart. Neither of us was embarrassed, it’s Florida, you know? We kind of grinned, I kind of bowed my head & said something about being on the other side of the aisle, oops. Checked out at $112 with enough food to refill the fridge, move over all the veganish stored in the freezer (of which none has disappeared since I’ve been here as only the potatoes do). I seriously must make a menu to use the stuff up. I’ve got news, the only way to remember anything is to go shopping when you’re hungry.

I indulge. 

So realistic Friday has become Saturday & I am tingling with the thought of going to the flea market on Tuttle again. Must be Fall!! The yellow flags snap in the hot breeze, sun hats & ball caps are out, I have polished my new & lovely dark glasses & the lemonade stand is grinding away somewhere in the afternoon. Time to examine tiny treasure, thimbles, stem arms with minute hinges. O Lord, the bargains groaning on the tables! And there’s a flea happening over by work, too, at a church which could be New Old Treasure gleaned from whatever underground stasis room passes for a basement here. I might find … wait for it … an alligator head! 

I ended the PO box yesterday. I guess I’m moved in. Home alone as roomie away in Ft. Myers bringing back the first mattress she ever truly loved, best in the entire known universe over which she has lusted over since spending the night at her friend’s home years agone. Not sure where the old one is going but perhaps there’s a corner at some flea market unfilled. 

V., her office mate, don’t get me started – one of those “I love V. BUT” is how anything about V. starts, yeh? runs a floating storage unit, like some riverboat casino, you never know what you’ll find it it but guarandamteed if it’s supposed to be “right as you open the door” it will be in the darker recesses of the unit rubbing the Arkansas border, with four empty boxes, one birdcage, two litter pans & a baby gate slung in since the last time “up front” was a euphemism for accessible.

The Ninja. Didn’t this start with a Ninja? Why name a cooking appliance after a cult of disreputable assassins? The Ninja is stored in the back of the bottom cabinet now. The 16 nesting bowls (one of which is used for vegan potato salad twice a year) are stacked off to one side, the knife holder is carefully facing away from the opening… the 47 plastic containers saved from every meal out since plastic became a viable takehome medium, are trash-bagged, well, recycle bagged. She made the (mistake?) statement “we’ll never use all those, might as well get rid of them” in my hearing. My radar heard “incoming!” & I found the single paper bag in the kitchen & filled it immediately with these. There is never enough Tupperware unless suddenly it is in a box of overflow for V’s storage unit. 

No wonder the American world is awash.

Ah well. Let’s keep rowing. I need to find room for the two bottles of soy & 3 cans of beans on my side of the cabinet. The day is always dangerous that begins with knocking the coffee filter off your cup at the edge between counters where all can run calmly down to unreached depths. Might be a basement down there? I think I heard an alligator gnawing coffee grounds. 

love,

c