Morgan spent the early evening
shopping. She wanted a new table for the entryway in her apartment, something
small, old, and three sided...she finally found something perfect, and
chucked it into the back of her purple Dodge Dakota. It only cost her $16
at a secondhand store, and she suspected it was worth 20 times that. Next,
she took a jaunt over to the pier one, for yet more cushions and candles...she
still slept on the floor, but had decided that she liked it that way. She
bought a dozen embroidered cushions in various embroidered jewel colors
to contrast with the new black quilt that now covered her accumulation
of pads, sheets, and quilts...it was all very comfortable, and more than
large enough to share with the cats.
Next she picked up all manner of Christmassy
pine and red and gold decorations, which would apply nicely to yule. She
would do the downstairs with those. She had bought an exquisite carved
mahogany dining room set, which seated 12, and came with a pair of equally
exquisite buffet sides...one longer, the other shorter, and an extraordinary
china cabinet, which she had already proceeded to fill. She wondered if
she might decide to invite anyone over, even as she ran shivering into
a shoe store, where they were having a lovely sale on boots.
Then it was on to stock the refrigerator...something
she had not really done since moving in. That morning, she had thrown out
all the old take out bags and trays, and discarded the myriad cans and
bottles of diet beverage...she had made a resolution to be more true to
her health, and to eat actual food instead of the fast food garbage that
she had been grabbing. Due to having worked 83 hours straight redesigning
a portion of her company's network, her boss had been a real sport, and
given her off through Monday...of course, she had only gotten off an hour
before dark, that friday, but hey...finally some time.
She had finally found the supermarket
that she had been searching for when she first stumbled into Dance Macabre
back in August(?)...it was awful. She used one now that closed earlier,
but was larger, cleaner, and far better stocked whenever possible.
She filled the cart to brimming...she
would be putting more than ice tea mix, cat food, and chinese sauce packages
in the cabinets this time! In the cart, her rather different taste in foods
was showing...She intended to actually cook, something that she had not
been able to do of late.
She bought numerous spices, three types
of rice, various pastas, makings for homemade sauce, and then went into
the more interesting stuff...peanut oil, makings for Thai, Indian. She
picked up chicken and sour cream to go with the paprika...she'd do Hungarian,
as well, Chicken Paprikash. If she hurried up, she could make a dozen dishes,
or so, portion it up, freeze it, and nuke as needed for the next several
weeks. She hadn't had time even for chocolate of late...in went the Godiva
and Haagen Daaz ice creams. Not the best things she could be eating, true,
but better than nightly fast food burger, maybe. She threw a wide assortment
of fruits and vegetables into the cart, along with two cakes of tofu. She
bought whole wheat flour, eggs, sugar, yeast, and other ingredients, knowing
she'd be baking bread, maybe making some homemade pasta.
The foodstuffs finally came to over
$250, but Morgan scarcely cared...she was finally getting it together here...money
had never been the problem, it was setting down some kind of roots, making
some kind of home.
