The Kitchen Is Clean?

Recently, my typical dinner fare has consisted of hummus, wheat bread, and some sort of side dish (and by side dish I mean goldfish, triscuits, or soup). This meal has been effective for two reasons, with the first being that the dorm is now (like always) terribly hot, and second that the kitchen is usually filthy and cooking anything that requires an oven or a burner involves effort. But last Friday it was surprisingly cool in the dorm, which made me reconsider my ban on cooking. After all, rice is easy to make and can be stored and eaten with instant Indian food (which is quickly becoming another staple in my diet) at a later date. So Friday evening I gathered up my storage containers as well as a pot, bag of rice, and curry, and set off on a crusade to make dinner(s) for the weekend.

When I arrived at the kitchen, I expected it to look as if a tornado had hit, mimicking its usual state of disrepair. But somehow, the kitchen was clean. In fact, it was suspiciously clean, to the point where I didn't cringe as I set my black bag of supplies down on the kitchen counter. Still in a state of shock as I washed and prepared my rice for cooking, I suddenly heard a girl shrieking. I knew it had been a trap. If the kitchen was clean, something else had to be wrong. But what turned out to be wrong was that the broken burner on the stove was actually working, which freaked out the shrieking girl. Hey, it would have freaked me out too. That burner had been broken ever since I moved into Main. With this in mind, I gladly took advantage of the clean, recently repaired kitchen and cooked rice to last for the next three days. Why? Because the state of Main kitchen one day is always as unpredictable as the next.

What was also strange about the kitchen on Friday was the ease at which it had been repaired. Construction around here takes months, often, years to complete. Or at least what feels like years (considering I've only been here for three....). For example, there was scaffolding surrounding Swift for so long that common consensus decided it was a permanent addition. I was practically in mourning the day it was taken down because I felt like they were taking away an historical part of the building. But lately it seems like Vassar hasn't been taking it's sweet time with repairs-my TA (Terrace Apartment) for next year went from being in ruin to looking miraculous in only a few days times (suspicious?) and it seems as if the Main kitchen avoided the phase of "under construction" completely.

But, rather than ponder over Vassar's mysterious construction issues, I have a trip to plan. Back in May, I caught my boss on a good day and she gave me Thursday and Friday of this week off so that I could go visit my boyfriend in Madison, Wisconsin. Because Wednesday is a holiday, I'll only miss two days of work.

With this trip in mind, I've been trying to use up the food I purchased the last couple times I went to the grocery store in order to avoid spoilage so that it won't suffer the same fate as the 12 eggs currently in the back of my refrigerator (why would I want to cook eggs if the kitchen is a disaster?). I should throw those out.

Last night I was forced to eat a package of Ramen in order to follow my plan because I had nothing else that could be prepared using only a ceramic bowl and a hot pot. The Ramen I ate was from a half eaten package that was started, most likely, last March. I swear I saw half a shrimp fall out of the "Shrimp Flavor" packet, but it was probably just the hardened remnants of "spices," who knows how old they actually are? I'm sure they're filled with enough preservatives it doesn't matter.

This will be the first time I've left the Hudson Valley since Spring Break, which took place between March 8-25, so quite frankly I need a serious change of scenery. Some people around here have never left New York and I don't understand them. I can proudly say I've crossed the borders of three continents and that Istanbul is probably one of my favorite cities-forget New York.

Should I be expecting hate mail?