Sat, Jan 14, 23, I feel great

 My mood tracker says for 2022, Saturday was my best day! 

After a long streak of blah moods, today I logged in as 'Good.' Yay!

It's Saturday morning, it's a bit overcast but I've been sleeping in the office on the uncomfy futon and I feel amazing! 

It's hard and lumpy and gives me backaches but I fall asleep fast. And sometimes sleep through the night.

The back bedroom is cold and I'm convinced it's slowing down my recovery. So I'm giving myself permission to sleep in the office until I fully recover.

That's the thing with single life, I make my own rules!

I'm excited to eat my snacks and watch TV. I'm excited not to have any work looming over my head. There's nothing like no work stress! 

I'm excited about the next 6 weeks because there is a loose structure.

The next two weeks will just be recovering. There was an alumni event that had I not been sick, I would have gone to later this month. But I'm taking it easy from group gatherings.

I really need to take it easy the next 2 weeks and not even leave the house as much. 

Even though the McDs yesterday didn't really hit the spot, I'm going to make it a lunch tradition for Fridays to take advantage of free fries. The fries aren't that good, but it's something to look forward to.

So far we have

Mondays - Friends on Fire podcast

Tuesdays - APL post

Wed - therapy

Thursday - nothing yet, but it used to be my favorite day of the week

Friday - Free Fry Friday

This is the life of a pre-early retiree. Since weekly calls with the French girl didn't work out, I'm thinking I might schedule them with Frenemy. 

Maybe Thursday or Fridays? or Sunday nights?

I really wish I had 3 single friends. I could use someone to talk money and tax stuff with in the immediate future. 

But I'm learning to just let things go, not easily. For example, I still daydream about reconnecting with Sean and Dan. I think the end of the 8 week period stirred something in me. It just lengthened the recovery time vs changing my number. I was holding out hope for 8 weeks instead of giving them the 3 day to 1 week time frame. 

For the next six weeks, I hope the weather continues to warm up and the day gets longer. Luckily, that's science and it's going to happen. Nobody's behavior or prayer or feelings is going to suddenly change NC into an arctic tundra. Or a place where the light decreases over time. 

I have a pack of turkey in the freezer, presumably from last winter and some chicken parts. 

I don't know if January will be the month, but by February, I hope to have that eaten. 

It was an easy decision not to stock up this season because COVID was less of a threat, I realized I didn't judiciously eat much of the food I stocked up on last season. And I still don't really cook.

The only reason I decide to cobble some things together is because it's too cold to go outside.

I noticed I had 3 boxes of dessert mix that expired in 2021, so yeah, I think stocking up when things are on sale is not for me. It seems to work for a lot of mommy blogs but not for me.

I think even buying economy size things is not for me because I can't use it fast enough - I'm looking at you, mayonnaise. I know a lot of stuff you can use after the Best By date, but how can you tell?

I don't want to fight things anymore. I have only so much capacity for hacking life. And as a pre-retiree, I don't care as much. 

I think 6 months past the best by date for most things is probably the most I can do unless I really need it. Condiments, I think, last forever... except..mayo. I just had a really bad spout of diarrhea eating a bunch of expired things in my fridge so it's hard to know which one exactly was the cause.

I'm feeling the raised prices on things like I really hadn't before. Oil is $7-9 for the big jug. I remember the little jug being about $2, and now it's $3.50. I bought Corn Pops for $6. And it didn't even taste that good.

If I get take out that costs more than $5, it needs to last about 3 servings. My Chipotle doesn't last me more than 1 day anymore. So it's more of a treat than a regular line up item. Unless I switch back to the kids meal. 

I really like those Dan Dan noodle bowls from PF Chang's, but those are clocking in at $5 each. I'll try to do better to stock up on those, the next time they're on sale. I actually will eat those even a year from now. 

I've been looking more into pre-made freezer meals, but the jury's still out.

Yeah, as much as I have tried to make menus and have them on my calendar, the things I want to eat (and therefore can will myself to make), is not as consistent as I'd hoped. And making it a chore didn't help. 

Anyway, I woke up feeling good and also wanting a friend. My next thing to tackle this season is taxes. Do I need to start a business? Very few people in the FIRE community don't have some sort of side hustle. In this again, I am alone.