The Column
It’s been a little bit. I’ve been incredibly focused.
Something occurred to me yesterday: I’M AN ADUUUUULT.
I’m 31 years old. It’s not interesting to say the age-focused definition of adult has applied for quite some time now… I’m not saying that. I’m saying I finally feel like an adult. I remember the day I first bought a couch. I thought, “I own a couch… that’s so weird.” Couches weren’t things I had to buy, they were just always… around. It was the first in many, many tangible steps that took me from “feeling” like a kid to “feeling” like an adult.
Adult Things
- I graduated college
- I have been working a career job for approaching 10 years
- I’m married
- I’m a father
- I’m a homeowner
- I own two vehicles (outright)
- I understand how taxes work, for the most part
- I read nonfiction books for fun
- I’ve installed multiple sinks and various appliances
- I drink black coffee
- I own a table saw
- I have political opinions
- I worry about insurance and the environment
- I no longer exercise with the goal of “getting huge”
- I haven’t ever installed a game on this phone
- I stripped and sealed my deck
- I’m excited by grilling
- I’ve cooked enough to be good at it… more on this in a bit
- I built furniture
- I own several couches
Basically, Aaron’s mental prototype of himself has changed.
That isn’t to say I’ve become boring. On the contrary, I’m more at ease with myself than ever before. I know that guy on the left is still in there. I also know that there’s a lot more going on. I’m full of those multicolored balls from the movie Inside Out. I like to do detailed analyses of complex problems, and I like to laugh at fart jokes. Like I said: I’M AN ADUUUUULT.
I never thought I’d write something like this. What follows is mostly a review of a cookbook.
Calling “Cook Once, Eat All Week” by Cassy Joy Garcia a “cookbook” is doing it a bit of a disservice. True, it’s a book full of recipes for making various types of meals; but they aren’t just a set of unrelated recipes for which you might have the ingredients. This book is a full-blown food game plan… and a good one, at that.
My wife and I just finished the 26th (and final) week of this book. It feels like the end of something cool and new. We’ve never been so “into” cooking. We’ve never produced such high-quality food so consistently. Meals that would have been phenomenal to us 2 years ago are now essentially average. More important than any single set of recipes, the mindset of our entire kitchen has changed. We no longer have a refrigerator full of unrelated ingredients in bags that we hope to be able to throw together into some sort of recipe. Instead, we’ve front-loaded the preparation efforts and keep a fridge stocked with mostly-ready-to-go meal components. The “what should we make, what can we make” dilemma is gone. THAT is probably the most gratifying bit of the whole thing.
That plus we make dynamite food every day now.
Top 5: Other Things I’ve Been Doing
- Practicing guitar decently often
- Doing a workout routine that involves rolling dice (which I’m about to go do so I’m officially rushing this Top 5)
- Writing code actually very pretty often
- Working my way through freeCodeCamp’s core curricula.
- Putting out a podcast every two weeks
Quotes
Everything worth saying about anything worth saying something about can be said with six or fewer pieces.
- Doug Ross, creator of the IDEF0 Modeling Language
I’m a little excited to win or lose in a meaningful way with people.
- Robbie, about Super Smash Bros
We oozed white privilege.
- Ben