Heaven in 2 and a Half Rooms

Today I feel like I finally came into my own.  I woke up this morning with Partner.  He had to get to courses this morning at 8, which meant he left the house at 7, just to make sure to avoid traffic.  We had breakfast, he took his shower, got dressed and was on his way.  I spent some time with my dark mistress, known more commonly as the internet, and took my shower at about half past eight.  After that, I got dressed and went shopping.  I found out that we have a Netto just down the street, and they usually have pretty good deals and prices, so je suis allé chez Netto. 

I came back with a sac and a cooler full of stuff.  I found that they have the blood orange Orangina knock off, so of course that was wonderful.  I could walk around IKEA hooked up to an IV of that stuff.  I also picked up some stuff that I thought was like Salvetat.  Yeah, so not.  It was lemon verbena flavored.  Now I know why it was so cheap.  I also got some quick dinner stuff, ready made carbonara, something like mac and cheese, something penne in mushroom sauce, and ramen noodles for times of desperation.  They had a deal this week, buy one get one free on chipolatas.  If it were merguez, I would have had to buy another freezer, but as they were just chipos, I restrained myself.  I would have bought some canned mushrooms too, but I didn't know how much was too much, and I didn't want to spend too much.    Also, I have all the ingredients for lasagna this weekend.  That's the one controversial thing. 

We have a toaster oven, but I'm always slightly hesitant to trust toaster ovens to cook more than cheese on toast.  I just remember how they always worked in the US.  They were always tiny affairs that I was always positive would burn down the house.  Apparently there's a lot of stuff you can do in it.  I dunno though.  We'll figure this out as we go along I guess.

In general, this place is slowly but surely feeling more and more like home.  I think the main thing is to develop some sort of rhythm.  I figured there's no point in going back to bed when Partner goes to classes.  If that happens, I'll just end up being awake longer than him.  Most of the afternoon and evening he sequesters himself in the bedroom and studies.  It's a lot of exploring, finding balance and whatnot.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.

It's good because it gives me a lot of time to develop my own interests.  I said that once we were on our own, I'd get serious about writing again.  I started on a novel and got the first part where I wanted it.  I just don't know exactly how do to everything with it.  I also decided that I have to start drawing again.  I used to have friends who would do cartoons and manga all the time.  I was actually part of a group to make them ourselves.  I got pretty decent around the end of that year, but I stopped practicing.  I also do kind of want to get another set of those Sakura Micras that I used to have.  Loved those things.  No idea where they are now though.

Also, there's so much of Rennes that I want to see.  There's the ecomusée, which was even mentioned on inhabitat a while back, that I would love to see.  I need to get around to the museums and cultural stuff here.  I also need to figure out how Rennes fits together in general.  I have the basic idea of how the quartiers come together, but I need to figure out how roads go together and what bus lines go where.  Then there's the metro!  I love that there's a subway here!  Once I start making money, I also think it would be fun to learn Breton.  (Don't judge, Brythonic and Goidelic Languages are fascinating!)

On the other hand, I have all this time to fill.  I spent so much of my time just on the internet and television that it almost seems daunting.  Unfortunately with Free, we have neither of my staple channels; Cuisine.TV and Télémaison.  I found myself spending a lot of time among facebook, google, and skype.  I need to move away from that, so usually I let Partner have the laptop, and I'm out with the TV.  Though there's still the temptation to play video games.

That's what I've been doing a lot lately.  I call it research, because it really does help me think a lot for story ideas and characters.  For the last week, I been replaying Final Fantasy VIII from the beginning.  It's my personal favorite entry in the series.  I find that it has the best music, the best magic system, and some of the most interesting characters.  The story can run aground of itself sometimes, but I have two words that answer any problem: Laguna Fucking Loire!  I actually dressed up as him for Halloween when I was 16.  It brings back a lot of good memories for me.  When I first started, all I could think about was sitting on the floor at a friends house seeing who could get which Guardian Forces to boost to 250.  We'd usually go over directly after Pep Band and order East of Chicago Pizza.  That and a two liter of Mountain Dew was the pinnacle of my high school social experience. 

Speaking of which, daylight's a'wastin'.  I need to start up if I'm going to find the White SeeD ship tonight!