T-minus one week

It's Monday and D went back to school today. H and I had originally planned to go see a movie this afternoon (before D gets home), but decided against it. I have been finalizing syllabi and making granola (hopefully) bars. I am even thinking of going and taking ornaments off the tree. The next teaching prep I need to do is start looking over lectures and planning some in-class activities and discussions. That seems harder than just updating calendars and syllabi, so I am procrastinating right now. I just go over the syllabus on the first day, but do have intro things I'd like to do in both classes, so I do need to do some more prep.

I was watching a show about hoarders last night before I went to bed and I started thinking that I have some hoarding tendencies- in real life and in digital form. We have a LOT of things we could get rid of, but they continue to sit in the basement. We also have piles of papers that need to be shredded. We have a good shredder, but I don't see when we're ever going to get through all of it. Our house isn't scary messy, but we do have some clutter issues. The problem is always taking the time to sort everything- what should be kept? what can be pitched? I have the exact same problem with digital files. My hard drives fill up, but I am afraid to delete things- I might need that! Even my email is cluttered, too. A friend commented about her inbox on FB and I checked to see how many messages were in mine: over 13,000. This usually doesn't bother me, because I use labels (Gmail) and can usually find things- I just don't archive everything (clearly). I sometimes worry what will happen when I reach my quota, but then I'll probably just go purge a bunch of emails then. In real life, I think that H contributes to our clutter- since he grew up in a developing country, I think it makes him reluctant to get rid of anything. We have all kinds of outdated electronics and computer equipment, but he doesn't seem to want to get rid of it. I'm not blaming him- I came into our marriage with WAY more material crap than he had, but I think he has some issues with that, too.

So, I'm superficially organized for the semester, but still have plenty to do. I don't teach any labs the first week and the second week is short, so I'll get to ease into the semester a bit, anyway. Maybe organizing is something I should consider doing, too!

I may have a problem

As my long-term readers know, I have been a vegetarian for many years. During that time, I have tried to go vegan or mostly vegan many times and always end up not being able to eliminate all eggs and dairy from my diet. For the last few years (since learning that D is lactose intolerant), I have cooked vegan at home 99% of the time and rarely even buy real cheese. We will order pizza sometimes or I'll eat some eggs at IHOP or have cheese on a veggie burger or something. Well, on Friday, H and I stopped in at Costco to get a few things and they were giving out samples of cheese. H suggested we buy some, because whenever I make veggie tacos, he isn't crazy about the non-dairy cheese that we use. 

We bought a block of Cotswold. Oh. My. God. It is sooo tasty and I have found that I can't stop eating it. I made nachos with it the other night. I have been cutting off pieces and eating it. I shredded some onto some leftover vegan chili for lunch. I feel absolutely horrible about eating it, too. I am quite overweight these days (on a mostly vegan diet!), so I shudder to think how huge I would become if I went back to a dairy-laden diet. I also feel bad, because I really don't like the idea of drinking cow's milk, either. I'm a little afraid what H will think when he sees how much of the cheese has been eaten already. It's just good I am going back to work tomorrow and will be away from that evil cheese! Help me!

ETA: I think I have PMS, too... Maybe that could explain my bizarre cheese cravings?!?!