I have not given up writing just because I don’t have a crazy dating story to tell. It just might take me a little longer to come up with juicy material since my hiatus. Bear with me.
It’s been one week since I’ve been off the dating app crack, and at first I was feeling a little shaky, but now I’m starting to feel like I have a new lease on life! Okay, maybe not sparkly and new, but I don’t feel like I need to get on Bumble or Tinder to check out what’s out there every 30 minutes or so. Will I ever get back on? I can’t really say right now, I desperately needed to take a break after Hot Mess Express X10 rolled through my life, but I’ll probably go back to an online service where more thought must go into the process. We’ll see. I have a lot to think about.
So what am I doing in the meantime? Well, a few things, really.
I’ve recently discovered a new-found interest in cooking. I know! It’s not like I never cooked before, in fact, I LOVE baking, but I just rarely get the chance to do it because cupcakes and other fattening reasons.
Plus, I have lived the bachelor life most of my life. It mainly consisted of coming home from work at night and opening a bottle of bubbly and snacking on crackers, fruit and cheese. It suited me fine. But look. It is nice to come home to a refrigerator full of options of things to make, plus I’ve been dedicating Sunday evenings to making stuff that I can have for dinner and eat later for most nights of the week, and sometimes I even pack stuff for lunch!
Plus, it’s also a social thing - a skill I should have when entertaining or even finding a partner. Yes, I cooked a lot with EXMS and SexyPants (my two ex-fiancés), but it was also because they initiated most of the cooking (I was always an excellent assistant). It’s time for me to get some practice on my own so that I can have those go-to dishes I can make VERY well for guests and maybe even suitors!
So. I’ve begun the process of upgrading the kitchen tools that I already had and purchasing the tools that I didn’t have. Do you know that I only had THREE pans/pots in which to cook before last week? I had (1) an iron skillet, (2) a stock pot that I’d borrowed from SexyPants and never gave back, and (3) a sauce pan. And they suited me fine before because I got along OK with those and my George Foreman grill.
I purchased a gorgeous set of stainless steel Calphalon cookware pots/pans and two additional non-stick Calphalon pans and various additional cooking tools. Problem was, no place to put them! The storage in my apartment is pretty sparse - especially in the kitchen where I’d taken to storing things other than cookware in the cabinets.
I decided over the last few days that I wanted to have a potrack. But I wanted to make sure that it didn’t make the kitchen look to cluttered. I found a bunch of ideas on Pinterest and actually found something that would look really cool in my large window in the kitchen - made out of plumbing galvanized pipe and some floor flanges. Even found instructions on how to make it: here
And I set out on Saturday morning to find my “ingredients”. Let the Saturday fun begin! First stop, Lowe’s, where I ended up having no fewer than three guys helping me with my project. I had to get the pipe cut to the exact measurements of my window, plus a few inches…had to find the flanges and the elbows and and the right screws and the S hooks. It felt like a wild goose chase for a while - especially since the dog was with me. She was my little helper and attention getter! Had a fabulous time.
Cut to a couple of hours later - I had all of my goods except for the S hooks, which according to some of the sizes, I’d need to put on the pipe before mounting it on the wall. I went to several different stores - kitchen stores, home stores, garden stores…no avail. Finally, I looked at Amazon on my phone and figured out that I could order exactly what I needed and actually have it delivered the next day (Sunday!). Brilliant. I had the rest of Saturday to play.
Walked with [A] in the evening and we had TONS to discuss.
Sunday morning came. It was a GORGEOUS day…sunny and warm and just delicious. I took the dog for a long walk, came back and my Amazon order arrived at 9AM. I had everything I needed to make my rack. But I thought it was such a nice day that I didn’t want to waste the pretty on staying inside during the best part of the day.
So we walked to the farmers market and I got some golden beets and onions and kale. I really wanted fruit, but it’s not the season just yet, so I’ll keep checking back. I ended up flirting kinda hard with a farmer (!!!!!!) and that was SO MUCH FUN! He was tall and had a drawl and his name was Billy. That’s right, Billy! I asked him if I could take a picture of one of his flowers that he produces and he said OK. I told him that I had a black thumb and that the only plants I could keep alive are air plants, and even that’s debatable. He’d never heard of air plants, so I told him to google air plant. He said he would and then gave me some literature and his CARD, wink wink, so that I could contact him with any questions. No idea if dude is single, but like I said, I’ll keep checking back.
The really sucky thing about walking to and from the farmers market is that there are dozens of homeless people along the way. And these are the kind that harass…hard. I’m either asked for money or told that I’m gorgeous and fuckable, and I don’t respond well to either option because it always, ALWAYS puts me in an uncomfortable place. It’s threatening because my reaction or NON-reaction is always met with more harassment. This time, in addition to the threatening talk, I had to step over a man, contorted and sprawled out over the entire sidewalk. He was clearly heavily drugged. I looked into his eyes as I walked past. He was so out of it; those were dead eyes.
As a single woman walking down the street with my little dog, minding my own business, it’s not cool to approach me. I’m starting to wear my pepper spray around my knuckles. Sadly, a woman who lives a few blocks away from me was recently beaten to a pulp for simply walking down the street. It’s only a few blocks in one direction. If I walk the other way towards the arts district, as I do practically every night, it’s a completely different story…safe and impeccably clean.
Anywho. Back at home and safe, I finally started the potrack construction. I soon realized that this would be no easy task.
Plumbing pipe is not a lot like curtain rods as the whole unit has to be assembled before attaching to the wall. It’s heavy and cumbersome and I had no help me measure or hold the other side or to look and see if I was holding things straight.
Something as simple as holding one side while I worked on the other became a comical game of furniture Jenga as I balanced my stainless steel trash can on the counter and had to top it with a side table so I could balance the pipe! the pipe with the flange slid around and marked up the walls a bit. I had to measure one side and then re-measure the other to make sure I was drilling the holes into the walls in the right spots. I started drilling a set of holes only to find I needed to move my holes over slightly to avoid drilling into something electrical (or something!). I wiggled around to gain some traction on one side and then another. I strained muscles that I’ve never strained before. I was contorted and sweating and missing having someone in my life SO DESPERATELY.
Seriously, I cussed to the point of crying out. I felt more alone in those moments than I’ve felt in a long, long time. And the screws wouldn’t screw in all the way. And one hole was absolutely wrong, so I had to leave it without a screw. I was scared that the rack might tumble down. WTF was I thinking doing something like this in my apartment? I thought I was going to ruin the walls around the window.
Finally, I slowed down and applied more patience along with some good old elbow grease. Slow and steady gets the screw in…an eighth of a turn…little by little. I got that fucker assembled and attached to the wall. I pulled on the bar and it felt strong enough to hold all of my weight and then some.
And when I stood back to examine my work, a little afraid to look, I discovered it was perfectly straight and aligned and sturdy and it looked GOOD!!
So I hung my pots and was pleased with what I saw. So pleased that I then made garlic shrimp and a delicious chopped salad and washed it all down with a celebratory Champagne, of course.
Oh…and don’t forget homemade ice cream for dessert!
Now I just need someone with whom to share all of this.
Always,
GS
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