I know I lived on my own for three months last year, and managed to deal with getting to college every day, doing the grocery shopping, paying the rent, the electricity bill, feeding myself, cleaning the place and general self-sufficiency while in France, doing it all in a different language and all that sort of stuff.
But this week, with my parents away, I’m not paying bills or anything, but I do have to deal with the feeding self, grocery shopping and keeping the house clean.
I’d like to point out first of all that the house I’m currently leaving is approximately seventyfivebillion times the size of the apartment I was living in in France, so the cleaning is manifold times more difficult. But then, there are two of us.
You see, the problem is, and I had this problem when I was in France as well, I forget to eat. It gets to about eight or nine at night, and I suddenly look at the clock, and think perhaps I should eat. It’s not any real sort of hunger which is driving me to eat, but more the thought that I should eat.
At home when my parents are around, this doesn’t really matter, because they’ll make dinner, and I will eat dinner, and all will be fine. But then when they’re away, as they are now, I forget to eat, or I only think to eat when it’s late.
Again, it’s fine when Alex is around, because he will demand food, and I’ll cook for both of us, if we’re together, and Sinéad too, if she’s there as well.
But, ah, Sinéad. This is the problem. When it’s just us at home together, we get to a certain stage of the evening where we both know we should eat, but we’re struck by a combination of boredom, non-hunger and laziness which secures us to the couches.
We then tend to spend anywhere from ten minutes to two hours glancing at each other and debating whether or not we’re hungry, whether we want food, whether it’s worth getting off the couch to start cooking, and so on and so forth.
If one of us had a more pressing desire for food, we’d probably bully the other one into actually cooking, but when we’re home together, we just sort of stare at each other and mention that we’re not that hungry.
Now, to be fair, it’s not like we’re too lazy to eat when we’re starving. It’s just that the thought of eating doesn’t tend to occur, and when it does occur, it’s tough to actually get to the stage where we’re hungry enough to do something about it.
In any case, my parents are only away for a week, so myself and Sinéad are unlikely to starve. We even managed to have a proper dinner today, without needing a third person complaining of being hungry. Go us!
But in conclusion, when I eventually move out of home, I’ll have to live with someone who has very rigid mealtimes, otherwise I’ll forget to eat.
