mac and cheese and ninjas

If it were up to me, I'd probably go on a grocery run once every two weeks, walking to Save-A-Lot during off-peak hours, keeping distance and wearing a mask. And I'd (probably) be fine. But my roommate is dead-set against the idea. He's very worried about Covid-19, with cause—his health is already questionable and he has multiple high-risk factors. Since it's most likely his health at stake, I've decided to acquiesce, which means no grocery trips. This is also why I've stopped going out to get the pokestop of the day. We're planning to get curbside grocery delivery once our food stocks run low.

Lately, I dream a lot about grocery shopping. It's become a recurring theme. Most recently, I dreamed I was at Wal-Mart, planning to stock up on mac and cheese and other pasta. Everyone was keeping a safe distance away, which was good. I stealthed around the store like a ninja (apparently, in my dream logic, social distancing = ninja). But I couldn't find the mac and cheese. As I wandered around in increasing frustration, most of the lights in the store turned off, signifying that it was closing and that I needed to leave. I was still empty-handed.

Then I woke up. (Note: I was not actually awake, I just transitioned into another dream; but I dreamed that I woke up from the previous dream.) In the new dream, I was visiting my parents. I spent some time thinking about the progression of my shopping dreams—initially, nobody was keeping their distance, but now people were distancing more, meaning that the dream world was catching up to the real world. (Analyzing the content of my dreams from within a dream is like the most meta thing I've ever done.) Then it was time to leave for Wednesday night church. (Social distancing though?? My dream self has the attention span of a gnat.) I decided to ask my parents to swing by the grocery store on the way back so I could finally get some mac and cheese.

Then I woke up for real.

I have five boxes of mac and cheese, by the way. Dream me needs to chill out.

But there are some benefits to this situation, namely: It impels me to look in the back of cabinets and eat what's there. For instance, a few days ago, I was looking through a rarely-used cabinet and found a laksa kit (!!). The kit even had a packet of sambal chili. How many years has that been there? I made laksa for lunch today with shrimp and fish balls, and dined like a king.