I went to clean my apartment yesterday and found there wasn’t much to do. Mostly everything looked clean already except for some stains on the floor. Other than that, there wasn’t much to do but vacuum and mop. I hate cleaning, but that’s normal.

The weather was too hot for any work around the home, a hundred and eleven degrees in the afternoon. My air-conditioner, which was brand new, was running all day and every day. I never turned the thing off, so my Edison bill for the past two months came to almost five hundred dollars. My parents received a bill for a little less than that, and they live in a big house–big for me at least, maybe small to some. I nearly fell down when I saw the price of the bill. The heat is supposed to drop to double digits next week, like ninety-nine degrees. Sounds like paradise. I can’t wait. I might actually wear pants, but I can’t guarantee I will. Just as long as the night is cooler, I won’t have to walk around sweating before the sun comes out and I’m drenched.

I walked back from the coffee shop yesterday with my backpack on, and my back had soaked my shirt. I’d walked for only twenty minutes, about a mile from the coffee shop. I walk everywhere to get exercise and drive only when I need to, one or two days out of the week. I got in my car on Saturday and discovered that I’d left my light on, the little light right above my head near the windshield, and I worried about the battery being drained. I imagine not too much because of how small the light was. But for a whole week? That’s not good.

I wonder what today will bring. My gut tells me a long one. I sure hope not. I have to go grocery shopping tonight after work, something I’m not looking forward to. I’ve grown to hate the grocery store. Shopping there takes me about a half hour or more out of my day. The heat is too unbearable for me to walk back with all of those groceries. I bring my own bag to the store, one from Urban Outfitters, the size of a trash bag that can hold three weeks of groceries. I look like Santa Claus with a bunch of gifts after I leave the store. But because I live alone, I don’t have to carry too much, just a week’s worth of stuff that I’ll need. And then about eight days later, I’ll have to go back.

I also have to cook tonight, which I’m not looking forward to either. I cook about once or twice a week, and then I reheat the leftovers. Cooking isn’t my strong suit. I don’t know how to cook much. I used to try to with a meal program where the company delivered the food and sent me the recipes. And they were strange things like crab cake sandwiches. I had to be careful or else I would’ve ruined the whole meal. I cooked fish tacos and something with tarragon, maybe turkey but I’m not positive. The service was called Blue Apron, and I had them delivered for about six months before cooking burned me out and I went back to the microwave. Besides, I spent about fifty dollars a week on three meals. That was over fifteen dollars per meal if my math is correct. Couldn’t keep up anymore. Now I spend about eighty dollars a week on groceries. Some people spend over two hundred, but they have families to feed. I like to be simple. I stand behind people who fill their shopping carts with a lot of junk. I’m talking cereals and several boxes of canned sodas, cans of food, stuff I wouldn’t consume.

I haven’t eaten cereal in over two decades, but I used to be a cereal addict when I was a boy. The best was Fruity Pebbles, and the worst was Frosted Flakes. The milk would make the flakes too soggy. At least with Fruity Pebbles the milk would taste sweet after the pebbles were gone. The same with the chocolate pebbles. The milk would turn it into chocolate milk. But the time came when I realized how bad for me the cereals were, and I would overeat them, sometimes helping myself to a second bowl before I realized the box was empty, and I would have to beg Mom to buy some more, and she wouldn’t. Then I would get angry and slam my bedroom door and throw a fit. I wouldn’t talk to her until she bought me more. I could’ve lived off cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I chose.

Anyway, those simple days are gone. I eat eggs for breakfast. Now I skip lunch and eat dinner and dessert. Lunch isn’t necessary for me. It used to be in high school. I had the unhealthiest diet: cereal in the morning (usually the sugary kind), Frito boats for lunch–which was made of Fritos, chili, and cheese–before I had a driver’s license, so my friends and I would eat at different fast food joints like Taco Bell, Jack-In-The-Box, Wendy’s, and Carl’s Jr., and then whatever my mom made at night which was healthy, which I didn’t like, and she would feed me small portions. But two out of three meals weren’t bad.