Listening to: Trent Dabbs ft. Amy Stroup – Odds of Being Alone (it’s a sad sounding song but I was actually VERY content this weekend. I only posted this song because of the following quote…)
Me: I want to go one weekend with friends and another weekend alone
Laura: Yeah that sounds like something you would do
Me: What’s that supposed to mean?
Laura: You like to do things alone. You’re very good at being alone
Me: Thanks. Are you saying I should get used to being alone?
Laura: Mel, you’re very good at being alone, and you should be prepared to be alone for a very. Very. Long time.
For several weeks now, the one thing I wanted was to just sleep in on Saturday morning and do absolutely NOTHING for a good day. But there was always something planned, and I would choose a day with friends over a day alone any day.
BUT FINALLY. Suddenly it was Friday and I had not made plans with anyone. Usually this would freak me out and send me into a minor bout of depression, but this time I was SUPER excited. I was going to do SO MUCH this weekend, and by so much, I mean a LOT of inactivity to dull my brain into content. I planned to watch a shit ton of tv in my bed. Read in bed. Eat in bed. Do the same in non-pajamas, but still in bed.
The long story short is, I had a fantastic weekend and accomplished all of these non-accomplishments!
Saturday: I woke up at 8:30. FANTASTIC! I had a minor urge to pee but suppressed that feeling so I could continue lying in bed. I watched 30 Rock, The Office and Grey’s Anatomy. Then it was 10:30 and I decided to get out of bed. Walked very quickly to the bathroom because I was about to piss my pants. Luckily, made it without wetting myself. Then I returned to my nice warm bed. It was raining outside, which is PERFECT weather for a do-nothing day. I talked to Eric a little online and told him he’d better go on an impromptu trip to Vegas. He signed off saying that he just might. I felt a pang of sadness that I couldn’t be in SoCal to go on a spur of the moment trip and started to doubt my plans to sit around. (As I write this, I realize how I’m probably the only person who has to plan to do nothing).
But then I … actually at this point I have no idea what I did next. I think I watched a lot of random episodes here and there. Pilot episode of Parenthood, random episode of Cougar Town, AWESOME episode of Vampire Diaries … oh I know. I ate three potatoes. These are the same potatoes I bought in OCTOBER. I seriously eat three potatoes per month out of that 10 lb bag. I have about 12 left, so I guess I will be eating my last potato in June.
Sometime around 3, I finally left my room and drove to Palo Alto. I went to use my groupon at Photograph & Frame, which was about to expire at the end of the month. I’m framing my Seattle poster. The poster that cost $22.55 cost me $135 to frame. And it would have cost $235 to frame were it not for the groupon. Isn’t that ridiculous?! I’ve never gotten anything framed before. It was actually a pretty fun experience to get such a personalized service. The lady was super nice and very understanding of my situation of “I live in a place I won’t be permanently living in … I have no furniture that I plan to keep and I have no idea what color walls my future home will have. Can you find me a frame that fits my personality?”
So that should be done in about a week! I’m just very … very slowly gathering pieces for my future home. I think one day, whenever I buy that house, I will lay out all the things I’ve bought over the years and realize that none of them go together.
I walked back to my car but it was such great weather I just kept walking. It was overcast, very brisk air, and drizzling. I was wearing boots and had my umbrella and had just uploaded a bunch of new music onto my iPod, so I was pretty set. And I was in Palo Alto, so obviously, surrounded by nice houses. I ended up walking around for about an hour, just zig zagging around.
OMG. I just google mapped where I was and realized I was a BLOCK away from facebook offices! Not that I care. But it would have been nice to stumble upon it. MAN. Missed opportunity.
I saw chickens on my walk! And met the man who owns the chickens. It is a lot more awkward to take pictures of things in Palo Alto. I get the sense that here, people are much more aware of strangers walking around their neighborhood. I felt like I was always being watched by someone.
Stranger I met: You’re pretty brave to be wearing a Cal sweatshirt in these parts!
Me: Yeah well … I don’t have any other sweatshirts. And it’s a pretty cold day
I was wearing boots that day so I couldn’t walk for very long. I got back to my car an hour later and went to my next destination – Cafe Barrone! I had yelped cafes to read in around Stanford, where I assumed I would have the best chance of finding a cute cafe with lots of seating. Yelping cafes was kind of crappy because it just reminds me of how superior Seattle is in coffeehouses. That sounds like a given, but it’s still depressing to be proven correct. I was choosing between Cafe Barrone and Coupa Cafe, and chose Barrone because it sounded more spacious – therefore I could read there longer. Turns out it would have been great to read at – if it were sunny and light out. It was super dark in there so I probably ruined my eyes a little bit trying to read there. I ordered a mexican mocha and it was pretty good. Not as legendary as the first time I had a Mexican Hot Chocolate at El Diablo Cafe but not horrible. I’d go back!
What I read: Suck It, Wonder Woman by Olivia Munn. The book itself is a very quick read. Entertaining with a surprising number of stories about several anonymous perverts in Hollywood. And something I didn’t know beforehand – it’s a FLIP BOOK! At the right corner are images, when flipped, of Olivia Munn dancing! All great books are flipbooks. Example: Animorphs. There were several dumb typos in the book though, so it felt like I was reading someone’s blog. I was kind of neutral to her before but she gained a few points after reading the book. She has since lost those points and then some since Laura sent me a link with pictures of her and Matthew Morrison on a “date.” Matthew Morrison is on my Hollywood Dislike List. He joins Matthew Broderick, everyone from Entourage, Jonah Hill, Jude Law and Chad Lowe. I feel like there was another pathetic looking male actor but I can’t think of who it is at this moment.
THEN drove to Belmont for rock climbing at Planet Granite. Super excited to see that the gym was practically empty, as it was a Saturday night and the gym was about to close. And. I guess most people have friends to hang out with at 7pm on a Saturday night. Knocked out a couple V1s and came SO CLOSE on two V2s. If only I were an inch taller or a bit more daring, I could have completed them.
Went to Laura’s afterwards and I felt like I had done so many things that day that hanging out at Laura’s feels like a completely different day. I forgot what we watched. I had one of her mom’s chicken and it was sooo juicy. Sadly, that was the first warm food I’d eaten since Monday. Oh, on Friday after work, Laura and I went to Five Guys. I ordered a hamburger. It turns out, when you order a hamburger at Five Guys, what you really get is a double burger. An actual regular hamburger is called a little burger. Are Americans this fat? That a regular hamburger requires two patties?
I did not like Five Guys very much. I was expecting a BJs style restaurant or Red Robins. I wouldn’t even call it similar to In N Out, because In N Outs have a cleaner vibe. It’s like a Burger King. There were a lot of kids. The bun is kind of crumbly, and in my experience, the only time bread is ever crumbly is when it’s stale. It smelled weird too, whenever I took a bite out of it.
We went to Pinkberrys after. I ordered a medium, Laura got a mini. Basically I ate twice of everything she ate that night. My body was unprepared for it. This is literally what I ate 3 of 5 days last week.
Breakfast: two oranges
Lunch: either an apple or handfuls of honey nut cheerios
Post-work ravenous snack: six little pieces of chocolate
Dinner: ten dumplings
It’s amazing that I didn’t pass out from lack of nutrients. Clearly the reason my body can survive on so little calories is because I don’t do ANYTHING. Just sit in a chair all day. I do feel thinner! But also, like my muscles have atrophied.
Listening to: The Best Thing About Me Is You – Ricky Martin ft. Joss Stone (remix) (this song is SO good for driving. Is this song on the radio? It’s WAY better than Living La Vida Loca. No matter how loud my car stereo already is, I always have to pump it up a few more notches for 1:15. Seriously, play this in your car, so fun)
Sunday: Woke up at 8:30 again. DID NOTHING. Again! I watched Friday Night Lights in bed for several hours. Got up and made scrambled eggs with english muffin. Watched more Friday Night Lights. I was all ready to go rock climbing but before I opened the front door I realized I didn’t feel like rock climbing at all. So I just sat in my room and watched another episode of Friday Night Lights. Great stuff! Around 1 I drove to Laura’s and me and her family went to Costco. I bought a TON of bagels. 24 of them. As I told Laura, it’s a normal amount of bagels! People just don’t realize that I’m buying them for a single person.
We were supposed to go the library but it was fucking closed! I really needed to get some books too. So I was pretty pissed. We just walked around the nearby park then went to 99 Ranch and then Safeway. OMG GUYS. Ben and Jerrys ice cream is ON SALE. 2 for $6!!! I have waited for this moment for MONTHS. I realize now when the last time I bought Ben & Jerry’s was. Back in April in SD. Ben and Jerrys is cheaper in socal than in norcal. I don’t know why. Anyway, I refuse to buy Ben & Jerry’s until it is on sale, 2 for $6. Usually it’s $3.49 a pint. I check Safeway ads EVERY week in the hopes that it will go on sale. It hasn’t been on sale in FOREVER. Even Haagen Dazs has been on sale, 2 for $6, like twice this year. But FINALLY. I was able to save fifty cents on ice cream this week because it went on sale!
Me: OMG where is it?! They don’t have mint chocolate cookie! WTF
Laura: Just wait, I’m looking for it
Me: No. They don’t fucking have it. I can’t fucking believe this. They don’t have fucking mint chocolate cookie. UGH now I have to go to another safeway! This is a sign. That I have to buy four.
Laura: No look here it is! The last two!
So they’re sitting in my freezer! I’m actually not even craving ice cream. I just know that at some point this month, I will be. And when it comes, I will be ready for it.
We watched more tv. Clueless, which I’d never seen. Fell asleep during it of course. No idea what happened. Well I have a general sense but ask me in a week to describe the movie and I will say “I don’t know. Paul Rudd is in it and he looks worse than he does now.” Star Wars Episode II was on, so I made Laura summarize the entire series for me.
Me: Wait, does Star Wars take place before, after or during our time?
Laura: I don’t know. It doesn’t matter when it takes place! Oh wait. No, I do know. “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
*after giving a three minutes summary of Episode 6*
Laura: omg wait. I forgot to mention. So, Yoda dies.
Shit writing this took an entire hour. Now it’s midnight! I hate the idea of work. Work itself isn’t terrible, I actually enjoy life when I’m sitting there doing work. But the idea of GOING to work. Makes me hate life.
Good night! Watch VAMPIRE DIARIES GUYS! So good.
This will mean nothing to you guys since you don’t watch the show, but one day I’ll reread this, click this link, and if it hasn’t been taken down, I know I’ll end up going on a TVD binge and watching a season in a day. This is such a perfect song for this scene. and speaking of … little miss katherine
Answers to Unasked Questions 
I don’t remember telling you that you were going to be alone for a long time. I think you made that up. Also, I remember you and my sister making fun of me right after for being so needy and wanting to be around people.