My life has shifted in the past two months. Since I moved, my housemates, landlords, and many friends have been men and women maybe five or seven years older than I am, lots of experience in the tech industry, being very well paid to work on really difficult problems. I used to chuckle at them, because they work late (even for geeks), spend a fair bit of money on random shit (books, CDs, furniture), and eat out *constantly*, lacking the will to cook their own food. I chuckled because I had a boring job, couldn't afford a ton of random shit, and because I wasn't really interested in my work, I was home by 5:25pm every day, leaving me plenty of energy to cook.
Now, of course, I've joined them, being well paid to work on problems that hurt my brain, and because I'm having fun (or it's needed, like today) I stay at work later (though not as late as my housemates, who often don't get home until 10pm), and I have pretty much no desire to cook, so I've been eating out a lot. I haven't been buying too much random stuff, mostly things I've wanted for years but never quite justified or got around to: new dogi and bag from Bu-Jin, my own real copy of Chill Out (with the best album cover ever), the DVDs for Firefly, some seriously geeky books to keep my skills moving. A nicer guitar. Have I mentioned how much I love my new guitar?
I mean, I like cooking well enough, but it's rarely a primary motivator, and if it doesn't stress the budget, it's a lot nicer for someone else to do the work after a ten-hour day staring at a computer screen. I mean, I make chili-cheese nachos (with Amy's Spicy Vegetarian Chili, which I *highly* recommend), or lately a microwave-scrambled egg on a bagel with cheese (one of the first things Mom ever taught me to make, since I liked Egg McMuffins).
I've started attacking my house: cleaning up the piles of paper, clearing my crap off the floors of the common areas, making the living room comfortable (including removing the ugly Ikea rug I've been disliking for a long time). Partly it's for livability, and partly with an eye towards having people over for dinner, since most of my friends have never seen the place.
I am startled and dismayed by how quickly the relationship disappeared with the girl I was dating. It's a fine warning when I think about trying it again. I'm trying to move myself into a space where I'm happy and open, but it would take some remarkable woman hitting me in the head with a hammer to get me to try dating again. That seems like a good plan.