Unapologetic Miscellany

I always feel a little like I am guiltily pressing the easy button when I do a miscellany post (like, “Wouldn’t my readers be better served with something more substantive??”) but every time I post one, lots of you say that you love ’em.

Sooooo, here we are.

Peanut Butter and Tomato Toast

My Firefox homepage helpfully suggested some avocado toast alternatives, and one of them is tomato slices and peanut butter on hot toast.

(!!!!!!!!)

To be fair, I have not ever tried this.

But I can tell you that I will almost certainly go to my grave without ever putting this combo into my mouth.

I like to try new foods, but not all new foods.

(Apologies if you love this combo. Not trying to yuck your yum, but I will not be joining you!)

Just when I thought the concept could not get worse, I saw that someone in the comments added green onions to the peanut butter/tomato. Oh my word.

This yogurt custard and fruit toast sounds much more appealing.

Why my muscles will stay invisible

A little while back, I saw a woman at the gym who was probably about the same strength level as me, but she was a lot leaner, so you could actually see all of her muscles.

For a moment, I was like, “Oh man, it sure would be nice to look like that.”

Then I remembered if I wanted to look like that, I would probably have to stop eating chocolate ice cream and I’d have to start drinking black coffee.

 

 

And I was immediately at peace with having a layer of fat covering all of my muscles. My muscles will forever be a secret. 😉

Aldi’s cottage cheese is seriously the best

In service of my muscle-building efforts this year, I have eaten a lot of cottage cheese, and I have tried a lot of different name brands/store brands.

In my opinion, none can top Aldi. I don’t know what manufacturer they use, but it’s so good. Very mild, the texture is good, the size of the clumps is perfect…I have zero complaints.

And it is very affordable.

I do sometimes buy the big tub of Breakstone’s at Sam’s Club because it is affordable but man, it does not taste as good as the Aldi cottage cheese.

Crappy medical insurance

Once my divorce was finalized in January, I scooched on over to an insurance plan that I purchased through my state’s open marketplace. It’s with United Healthcare, it’s not subsidized at all (I am paying for the whole thing myself), and it is a pretty crappy plan.

Despite it being unsubsidized (as in, it’s not like Medicaid), some of my regular doctor’s offices immediately told me they wouldn’t accept it once they found out it was a self-purchased plan through the state.

I was surprised at the way this made me feel; sort of lesser-than as compared to people who have regular health insurance through regular jobs at regular employers.

Then I thought about how this is a temporary situation for me (once I graduate, I will get good health insurance through my hospital!), but for some people, it’s not. And I think experiencing this temporary less-than feeling is good for me because now I will have more empathy for my future patients who do not have access to good health insurance.

I fought with some of the same feelings I did when I bought my knife block on Facebook Marketplace, almost feeling a little bit pathetic as compared to people whose lives have followed a more “normal” path.

(I know, I know, what is “normal” anyway?? And comparison is almost always a quick path to sadness.)

But then I reminded myself: it was not pathetic to leave my marriage, it was brave and hard.

It is not pathetic that I don’t have a regular job that provides insurance; my not-regular blogging job has provided me exactly the flexibility that I needed at this stage of my life, and it has allowed me to go to nursing school while also paying my bills. That is a serious blessing.

Still: I will shed zero tears when it’s time to dump this insurance!

I bought a Helly Hansen stripey rain coat

After seeing Elisabeth’s thrifted coat:

…I found one on eBay for around $30 and bought it.

I haven’t decided if I will keep it…I have such a long torso, the waist tie hits me a bit high.

Being long-waisted is a persistent problem when clothes have a predetermined waist height because the narrow part then ends up hitting me where my lower ribs are.

But I bought it because I saw that I could easily resell it on eBay for far more than I paid for it.

So it will be no loss either way!

I could try wearing it without the waist tie, I suppose?

And thus ends this edition of miscellany.

Wanna join me? Feel free to share your own random thoughts in the comments. 🙂