I’m Going to go Bankrupt

Investing in the stock market?
Going to horse races?
Gambling?
No.
I’m going to go bankrupt because of food.
Because of every single restaurant, diner, and cafe out there.
Because of every grocery store. Especially because of every “Organic aisle” in grocery stores.

This “healthy” addiction is just as money-depleting for me as any unhealthy addiction might be.
I have spent over $200 in groceries in the last two days. And I have only made one meal (although, to my credit, it was a very good meal, with enough left over for lunch the next day).

Let me backtrack. The reason I haven’t blogged in the last couple days is because I’ve been ridiculously busy moving and I don’t have internet in my new apartment yet.

Saturday marked the end of my last exam and a fun “last” night out with the girls. Sunday morning, my parents arrived just as I woke up, before I even had an opportunity to brush my teeth to rid myself of alcohol-breath and barely enough time to hide the leftover alcohol and shot glasses in my room. Definitely not enough time to get over my hangover. I was also completely exhausted since I’d barely slept the night before my exam (I had procrastinated, freaked out, crammed, then freaked out some more), and then last night, due to end-of-exams festivities, I didn’t get back to my room till 4am.
My mom did notice my breath smelled funny but if she knew it was alcohol, she didn’t say anything.

The rest of the day was spent tirelessly moving out of residence and into my new apartment. It didn’t take that long, since all I have are bags and boxes of clothes and books. In other words, I have no furniture.
Consequently, my room looks enormous, most of my clothes are still in my suitcase, I’m sleeping on the floor, I wake up at 6:30 because my window faces east and I have no curtains. I also have very little light in my room at night because none of the rooms in the apartment have a ceiling light so everything has to be lit up by floor lamps and my parents only brought me one. To make matters worse, I can’t even surf the Internet (in the dark) because the roommate that moved out took the router with her, and my roommate hasn’t bought a new one.

But, to tell you the truth, I love it.

The simple act of moving out of residence and into my own place has been a huge step towards full independence. Sure, moving away from home and into residence was independence from my parents, but I never had to worry about cooking and cleaning, which is a huge part of truly living on your own. Now, I have a billion things to do, from finding some temporary furniture (at least so I don’t have to keep my clothes in suitcases) to talking to the leasing manager to confirming my conference next week with my employer to checking my summer class… My mind has been spinning non-stop!

I’ve been totally wiped since Saturday, mainly because I haven’t been sleeping much and I only had a one-day break between moving in and my first day of work. The first day that I moved in (note: hungover and sleep-deprived due to massive cramming for my last exam), I was completely exhausted but I couldn’t fall asleep! I actually tried to go to bed at 8:30pm but I ended up waking up at 10 and not being able to fall asleep. So I decided to watch a movie on my computer from my bed, but halfway through, I clumsily knocked a glass of punch over which spilled all over my bed.
Since the entire glass of liquid had been dumped on my bed, it was soaked and unlikely to dry with just a couple paper towels. I was pretty annoyed with myself, as I stood in the middle of the room wondering why I was so unlucky as to have this happen my first night here and what I should do next. I ended up doing the laundry, but I didn’t have any change, so I had to walk out at midnight in the rain to the nearest convenience store to get some changed. I bought a bar of dark chocolate to cheer myself up.

The laundry room in our building is really cramped, and the washing machines are ancient and rusty. Luckily, I managed to fit my bed sheets in, but I had to wait until 2am before everything was done washing and drying.

Finally, after I undid the results of my idiocy, I tried to sleep again, but I couldn’t fall asleep! It was mind-boggling how tired my eyes and entire body was, and yet it refused to rest. I suppose it’s natural to have trouble sleeping in a new environment, but I’ve never had any problems like that before. I think my problems stemmed more from the excitement and anxiety of this new chapter of “independence.” Every time I closed my eyes, I could only think of things I could buy to decorate my room, recipes I could make in the kitchen, things I still needed to do before my classes started, etc.
So I gave up sleeping and watched The Lake House until 6am, when the sky outside my window was started getting light and when I decided to give sleeping another chance. I slept until 10. So it was my third night in a row of only four hours of sleep, and this time, I really had no excuse.

By noon, I was on a bus to the mall to release my much-suppressed shopaholic. I bought a couple shirts (some of which weren’t even on sale! *gasp*) and ended up buying another $70 worth of groceries and household items. ARGH! I actually spent a good hour and a half in the grocery store, examining almost every potential nook for “healthy” foods. The Loblaws I went to had two organic aisles, with a healthy version of almost every “unhealthy” product available. Soy ice cream, organic breaded chicken fingers, organic pasta and sauces, even organic baking mixes (I got the mix for chocolate chip cookies and brownies)! The only problem is, all these “organic” and “healthy” products are three times the price of regular items!

If I were rich, I think I’d spend all my money buying the products from the organic aisle.
And there I was thinking I’d want to buy a car or something. How silly of me.

Author’s Note: Unfortunately, it’s two days later, and I still don’t have internet in my apartment. And I actually have things to do at work now so I haven’t been able to put up the pictures that are supposed to go along with this post (or finish the post for that matter), but I wanted to publish it just so you guys know what’s going on with me. I’m going to an IT training camp next week, and I will be in The City for the weekend to visit family/friends and (hopefully) bring some real furniture back with me. Somewhere between packing for next week’s trip, making a consulting website before I leave, getting a router so I will actually have internet, and setting up my own chequeing account (and hopefully credit card), I will find time to finish this post and add some pictures, but don’t expect a new post for a while.
Gotta go! Toodles!