Last final exam essays are good enough, and submitted. I don’t have to think about German or Philosophy for a month, so hooray…

I really am feeling so incredibly pleased with myself.

Right now I’m laying in bed, drinking mango jalapeño beer from my brother in law’s brewery, listening to an episode of Amanda Palmer’s podcast. Comfortable feeling.

I have this stash of chocolate in my sock drawer, plus a few packs of Ramen noodles. In the fridge downstairs I have a giant jar of pickles, a smallish bag of pretzel rolls, like three blueberry muffins, and some bologna. Between that and what my mom keeps on hand, which is basically everything, I am so fucking set.

Also have a few books to get through over the break. A couple of Discworld books I’ve been saving, that sixth Dark Tower book. Also some Baldwin and mayyyybe the Obamas. It’s a tall stack.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to drop my sister off at work, come home, pack a couple of sandwiches and a book, bundle up and go outside to the barn. Making a test batch of soap with some random oils I have kicking around, to see if that’s something that works, up there in the cold. I hope it does.

Of all of the things I could have decided to hyperfixate on, I have no idea why it chose soapmaking. But hey, I mean, I’ve learned enough things about this process at this point that when my dad says “careful working with lye” I can tell him exactly what to do if it spills without thinking twice. I know about soaponification values and the right oils for swirls and the difference between hot process and cold process curing times and how to calculate a lye discount and I don’t know why any of this is useful, to me, in my life, but the information is in my brain and the impulse to try is fluttering away at my consciousness on a nearly constant basis.

I just – I feel like this is happening to me for the same reason that so many engineers switch careers to go into culinary school. The math is fun, the applicable math is also fun, but applying math in the world frequently takes time. There’s a lot instant gratification in the process of making things that are tangible and close by and almost ready and sweetie could you put the kettle on…

It’s a bit like making art.

The days start getting longer tomorrow and I love you. 💜