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January Layoff Part 1
Jan. 26th, 2023 08:35 amBig goals for this week!
Not really.
1 - luggage tetris, i.e. swapping out clothes, packing Christmas candy and medications, storing the electric skillet
2 - ship jars of "sunshine jam" to family and friends
3 - make caramels for tour crew
4 - clean old food out of the fridge and cupboard, either by eating it or throwing it away
5 - general cleaning
6 - take unused things to thrift store
7 - attend a UNCSA alumni "town hall" on Thursday
Then Jameson's dad shows up on Thursday, so at some point I'll want to make air fryer wings for us (it's insane how much these guys LOVE air fried wings) and possibly offer to cook dinner one night too. And I'm sure they'll want to eat out at least once.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I barely slept and was up early on Sunday. Excited, anxious? All of that.
Rode the bus to the airport and had no issues checking my bags and doing all the usual things.
This airport in Arkansas is small, but modern and nice.
Some art that you can use to pose and take selfies:
A cookie dough vending machine (I feel like our ancestors ought to be proud of us for stuff like this):
I ate my random prepackaged things and some boiled eggs and chatted with Brandon, our bassist who also lives near Orlando and was booked on the same flight. Both flights went smoothly, and the second flight was right at sunset giving us a very beautiful sky gradient, more beautiful than I could capture.
Jameson was waiting for me in Orlando, and my luggage was already on the belt too.
We chatted on the way home and picked up Panda Express for dinner.
He seemed tired, but he has a lot going on...teaching full time, and studying to get his masters, and starting rehearsals with a local theatre group, and prepping for a cruise in February for a friend's birthday. Plus his dad will be here in a few days, and here I am too.
At home we ate and watched The Circle, and I opened my mail and unpacked a little.
One of my packages was a bar of Scottish tablet, which Jameson had seen online and it's fairly cheap so I'd ordered us a bar.
It's slightly caramelized condensed milk with sugar, and has a texture like grainy fudge, but it's also very smooth and practically evaporates in your mouth. I won't be able to eat much of it due to the condensed milk, but I expect Jameson's dad will be able to do his part on it while he's here.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, I slept horribly again.
I think it was just because I had so much that I wanted to do today, and every time I woke up my brain was like "!!!" about it. Sigh.
Since I hadn't gotten groceries the night before I went to Publix.
My ABS lights came on and stayed on, just great. Another thing to try and deal with this week, and more money out the window.
I probably damaged the ABS backsliding down that mountain in PA over Christmas.
Got my usual groceries and also some beer to make the lavender orange beer bread mix that Jameson's mom had given me two Christmases ago (remember, I'm trying to clear out the cupboard). Back home I mixed up the batter, but I must have overmixed it because the bread didn't rise much and it was VERY gummy.
On top of that and as usual with flower-flavored things, it was a little too "soapy" for both of us.
I ate a piece, but ultimately it just wasn't good, so into the trash it went. What a waste of a beer.
I cleaned the kitchen, then got to work sorting my luggage. It was pretty easy since I'd listed what I wanted to do ahead of time. Packed myself more tea and more Christmas candy, threw in a half-used bag of rice from the cupboard and some spices that are almost empty, and even remembered to sharpen my traveling kitchen knife. Took the electric skillet out and stored it in the closet.
To complete the repacking process I started a load of laundry so I can pack all of my clothes.
For lunch I was careful to eat things that had been sitting around for a while like some random frozen sausages and veggies, granola left over from Christmas, stuff like that. After lunch, packaged up some jars of "sunshine jam" to send to my mom, my sister, and Don as thanks for all the nice things he'd sent us. I wrote a little letter to go with each one, and added a bottle of my mom's sandalwood perfume to my sister's box (I've had it long enough, she deserves to enjoy it too).
As Jameson worked on his classwork, I went through the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, looking for tools and dishes that we no longer use. I gathered up misc knives and bread pans and some Ball jars with bail lids that I'll never use. I went through my clothes as well, and ended up with a pretty sizeable bag for the thrift store. I'll go tomorrow after shipping the jam.
Around dinnertime Jameson had to leave for rehearsal, so I had a repeat of lunch and then a partial slice of frozen cheesecake for dessert.
Then I vacuumed, and cleaned both bathrooms (but not the shower, UGH someone else come clean that haha).
I'd meant to dust but was feeling pretty tired, so just showered and took the recycling out and called it a night.
If you're keeping track, that's a pretty good start on my to-do list for this layoff.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, I did manage to finally get a full 7-8 hours of sleep. Yay!
Decided to get fancy and make syphon coffee.
I only have some very stale French roast, but brewing this way enhances the flavor of literally anything.
(Watch video of syphon coffee HERE)
After breakfast, some data entry, and then gathering up the packages of jam and a bag for the thrift store.
Shipped the jam off to my stepmom, sister, and Don.
Dropped the bag at the thrift store.
Stopped at Target for eggs and some veggies, and ended up finding some other nice things like new flavors of De La Calle's tepache! You can't even get the new flavors on their site yet!
Also, as an 80s kid this pump tube of sparkly kid's toothpaste reached out and grabbed me with the nostalgic packaging.
I brought it home...I mean why not? It looks and smells just like I remember from when I was little. So crazy!
(photo from Crest)
Later on I did brush my teeth with it, and I swear I was flung back in time.
Tastes exactly the same as it did when I was little. Dark blue and sparkly.
By the end of the tube I'll be sick of it, but for now I'm glad for the fun nostalgia.
(photo from Flickr, to show color)
I decided to make the caramels before having my car looked at.
It came out lovely like always, I hope the crew will enjoy it!
At the car place they were too busy to look at my car in a reasonable time frame, so I made an appointment to bring it in on Friday.
Back home I went for a walk around the neighborhood while Jameson gamed, then we ordered Bento for dinner.
It was a nice chill evening. My sister Kayle has had her baby, by the way (not sure if I mentioned that). The baby's name is Melrose.
Here she is with her older brother Drexel and older sister Elliotte.
------------------------------------------------------------------
It's Thursday morning. Jameson's dad gets in this afternoon.
Before that I will cut up and package the caramel, then dust and make sure everything is ready in the guest bedroom.
I've pretty much completed my to-do list for this layoff, yay!
All that's left is my alumni meeting, taking care of my car, and using that last Meyer lemon for something.
If we don't cook some meal with it, I'll probably end up making lemon blueberry muffins or a lemon gummy candy recipe that I found.
Not really.
1 - luggage tetris, i.e. swapping out clothes, packing Christmas candy and medications, storing the electric skillet
2 - ship jars of "sunshine jam" to family and friends
3 - make caramels for tour crew
4 - clean old food out of the fridge and cupboard, either by eating it or throwing it away
5 - general cleaning
6 - take unused things to thrift store
7 - attend a UNCSA alumni "town hall" on Thursday
Then Jameson's dad shows up on Thursday, so at some point I'll want to make air fryer wings for us (it's insane how much these guys LOVE air fried wings) and possibly offer to cook dinner one night too. And I'm sure they'll want to eat out at least once.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I barely slept and was up early on Sunday. Excited, anxious? All of that.
Rode the bus to the airport and had no issues checking my bags and doing all the usual things.
This airport in Arkansas is small, but modern and nice.
Some art that you can use to pose and take selfies:
A cookie dough vending machine (I feel like our ancestors ought to be proud of us for stuff like this):
I ate my random prepackaged things and some boiled eggs and chatted with Brandon, our bassist who also lives near Orlando and was booked on the same flight. Both flights went smoothly, and the second flight was right at sunset giving us a very beautiful sky gradient, more beautiful than I could capture.
Jameson was waiting for me in Orlando, and my luggage was already on the belt too.
We chatted on the way home and picked up Panda Express for dinner.
He seemed tired, but he has a lot going on...teaching full time, and studying to get his masters, and starting rehearsals with a local theatre group, and prepping for a cruise in February for a friend's birthday. Plus his dad will be here in a few days, and here I am too.
At home we ate and watched The Circle, and I opened my mail and unpacked a little.
One of my packages was a bar of Scottish tablet, which Jameson had seen online and it's fairly cheap so I'd ordered us a bar.
It's slightly caramelized condensed milk with sugar, and has a texture like grainy fudge, but it's also very smooth and practically evaporates in your mouth. I won't be able to eat much of it due to the condensed milk, but I expect Jameson's dad will be able to do his part on it while he's here.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, I slept horribly again.
I think it was just because I had so much that I wanted to do today, and every time I woke up my brain was like "!!!" about it. Sigh.
Since I hadn't gotten groceries the night before I went to Publix.
My ABS lights came on and stayed on, just great. Another thing to try and deal with this week, and more money out the window.
I probably damaged the ABS backsliding down that mountain in PA over Christmas.
Got my usual groceries and also some beer to make the lavender orange beer bread mix that Jameson's mom had given me two Christmases ago (remember, I'm trying to clear out the cupboard). Back home I mixed up the batter, but I must have overmixed it because the bread didn't rise much and it was VERY gummy.
On top of that and as usual with flower-flavored things, it was a little too "soapy" for both of us.
I ate a piece, but ultimately it just wasn't good, so into the trash it went. What a waste of a beer.
I cleaned the kitchen, then got to work sorting my luggage. It was pretty easy since I'd listed what I wanted to do ahead of time. Packed myself more tea and more Christmas candy, threw in a half-used bag of rice from the cupboard and some spices that are almost empty, and even remembered to sharpen my traveling kitchen knife. Took the electric skillet out and stored it in the closet.
To complete the repacking process I started a load of laundry so I can pack all of my clothes.
For lunch I was careful to eat things that had been sitting around for a while like some random frozen sausages and veggies, granola left over from Christmas, stuff like that. After lunch, packaged up some jars of "sunshine jam" to send to my mom, my sister, and Don as thanks for all the nice things he'd sent us. I wrote a little letter to go with each one, and added a bottle of my mom's sandalwood perfume to my sister's box (I've had it long enough, she deserves to enjoy it too).
As Jameson worked on his classwork, I went through the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, looking for tools and dishes that we no longer use. I gathered up misc knives and bread pans and some Ball jars with bail lids that I'll never use. I went through my clothes as well, and ended up with a pretty sizeable bag for the thrift store. I'll go tomorrow after shipping the jam.
Around dinnertime Jameson had to leave for rehearsal, so I had a repeat of lunch and then a partial slice of frozen cheesecake for dessert.
Then I vacuumed, and cleaned both bathrooms (but not the shower, UGH someone else come clean that haha).
I'd meant to dust but was feeling pretty tired, so just showered and took the recycling out and called it a night.
If you're keeping track, that's a pretty good start on my to-do list for this layoff.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, I did manage to finally get a full 7-8 hours of sleep. Yay!
Decided to get fancy and make syphon coffee.
I only have some very stale French roast, but brewing this way enhances the flavor of literally anything.
(Watch video of syphon coffee HERE)
After breakfast, some data entry, and then gathering up the packages of jam and a bag for the thrift store.
Shipped the jam off to my stepmom, sister, and Don.
Dropped the bag at the thrift store.
Stopped at Target for eggs and some veggies, and ended up finding some other nice things like new flavors of De La Calle's tepache! You can't even get the new flavors on their site yet!
Also, as an 80s kid this pump tube of sparkly kid's toothpaste reached out and grabbed me with the nostalgic packaging.
I brought it home...I mean why not? It looks and smells just like I remember from when I was little. So crazy!
(photo from Crest)
Later on I did brush my teeth with it, and I swear I was flung back in time.
Tastes exactly the same as it did when I was little. Dark blue and sparkly.
By the end of the tube I'll be sick of it, but for now I'm glad for the fun nostalgia.
(photo from Flickr, to show color)
I decided to make the caramels before having my car looked at.
It came out lovely like always, I hope the crew will enjoy it!
At the car place they were too busy to look at my car in a reasonable time frame, so I made an appointment to bring it in on Friday.
Back home I went for a walk around the neighborhood while Jameson gamed, then we ordered Bento for dinner.
It was a nice chill evening. My sister Kayle has had her baby, by the way (not sure if I mentioned that). The baby's name is Melrose.
Here she is with her older brother Drexel and older sister Elliotte.
------------------------------------------------------------------
It's Thursday morning. Jameson's dad gets in this afternoon.
Before that I will cut up and package the caramel, then dust and make sure everything is ready in the guest bedroom.
I've pretty much completed my to-do list for this layoff, yay!
All that's left is my alumni meeting, taking care of my car, and using that last Meyer lemon for something.
If we don't cook some meal with it, I'll probably end up making lemon blueberry muffins or a lemon gummy candy recipe that I found.
