Three days. Barring my father’s health taking another nosedive or a positive COVID test, that’s how long I have until I can be on my own again! It’s been three months since I’ve been able to sleep on my own. As someone who is used to spending 95% of my time alone, this has been…hard.
Before going into the hospital, I was part of a Krupa stream (of RKG) in which I said I was happy to be single because I could eat cereal at three in the morning if I wanted. I don’t know why that is my go-to for the joys of singledom, especially as I rarely eat cereal, but there you have it. It was just a throwaway comment, but it started a huge discussion about being comfortable with yourself and not doing what society says you should do. It was really heartwarming and I actually had tears in my eyes by the end. Several people commented on how heartened they were by the conversation. I was glad to be a part of that conversation and it reinforced my happiness at being a single person.
So, going from that to being around my parents 24/7, regardless of family dynamics, was extremely hard. First of all, I had to crank up the heat because I keep it at 62 during the day and 60 at night. My parents live in Taiwan. They don’t even know what these temperatures are. So I had my brother crank it up to 72 during the day and probably 70 at night. And I’ve been sweating the whole time they’ve been here.
The second thing is that before I landed in the hospital, I was moving towards being a vegan for ethical reasons. I was already GF/DF for dietary reasons and I had cut out eggs. I was down to chicken once a day and was weaning myself off that. In addition, I was used to eating six or seven times a day, more like snacking through the day rather than eat actual meals. My parents are old-school in that they believe in eating meat and a big meal three times a day. So I’ve been eating meat at least twice a day since they’ve been here. I’m going to cut it out completely after they leave, I think. Or maybe do chicken again. But I’m not eating it two to three times a day.
I also had to buy a new steamer basket for my rice cooker because my steamer basket disappeared while I was in the hospital. No idea where it went so I got two replacements from Panasonic. Hopefully, it’s the right size. I need it because I got really into steaming my veggies as I was cooking my rice. I’m just getting ready for life alone again. I’m 1% nervous, but 99% excited to finally be on my own.