When I’m home alone I don’t cook. I’m a “live off of soup, salad, and sandwiches” kind of girl. I just don’t see the point of cooking for one.

When Drew’s home I don’t tend to cook either. Now, don’t assume that because I don’t cook that I can’t cook. I can. Drew’s come to my defence on that count many times.

Many years ago I used to dream of growing up to be a gourmet chef. I changed my mind when I determined how repetitive some aspects of mass cooking can be. Food allergies also helped damper my enthusiam for cooking as a profession. Apparently, I’m working at the right place if I ever change my mind and decide to take cooking classes. My college is home to one of the best cooking schools in the country.

Drew cooks and bakes. He enjoys it. I don’t.

Many years ago – back when we were first married – Drew volunteered to cook a meal and told me to get out of his kitchen. I did and have rarely been back.

I’ve been told I’m a good cook. I used to cook sauces from scratch. I have a talent for spicing dishes and still spice some of Drew’s concoctions on occassion.

My dad taught me to cook one summer when my mom and sister were visiting family overseas. I’m sure it was an act of self-defence. If I couldn’t cook he’d have had to suffer a series of horrible meals for weeks on end. Dad cooked all the big meals when we were kids – hams, roasts, turkeys. Mom’s specialty was home made soup and deserts. On her last visit she taught Drew to make soup. Yum!

Tonight I gave into the urge and put together a stir fry for dinner. Extra virgin olive oil. Red, yellow and green bell peppers. Sweet yellow onion. Mushrooms. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Secret spices for the sauce. I made enough so that I had some left over for tomorrow.

If Drew manages to read this entry from the sandbox he might die of shock. No worries though. I think I’ve got the cooking bug out of my system for at least another decade. Back to soup, salad, and sandwiches for me.

Work has been nuts these past few days. It’s a good thing that we all get along with each other cause I know I was crankier than usual today. Next week appears to be shaping up to be more of the same…

Damian Brooks, a Canadian blogger and part of the team at The Torch is heading to Afghanistan to become an embedded blogger with the Canadian Forces. Damian is the first blogger to be invited to blog from theatre by DND. He is responsible for covering his own expenses for the trip so if you can spare any amount, no matter how small, please visit his site and click on the PayPal donate button.

Who knows. Perhaps Damian will find the time to visit with MOT and act as MOT’s temporary escort.

That is all. You may return to your regularly scheduled programming.

I get a long very well, in my not so humble opinion, with my office mates. Frequently I’ll give advice or instruction to one only to learn that they’ve already completed the task exactly as I’ve just described. We have similar senses of humour and have been known to blurt out similar phrases in response to a stimulus. There’s a lot of laughter in our office. Some is humour related. Some is a stress reaction and letting off steam. Either way, we have fun most days.

Months back we began joking that we share the same brain when we’re working or in class (R is completing a Business Diploma, I a BA in Psychology). When one of us is about to complete a paper or exam we joke that that person has been assigned the brain for the duration of the project.

Today Dr. D suggested that we were sharing half of a brain. Little did he know his half was immediately cut into quarters since we were already “sharing” a single brain amongst the three of us. Poor “Marion”. I’m sure he didn’t know what he was getting into when he made that wise crack.

Sleep deprivation definitely has a negative impact on cognition. I noticed my attention span was nearly non-existant for periods of the day and I felt like I was slogging through water – uphill – while working. I made an annoying mistake at the end of my day – restoring the wrong backup to the server. This resulted in my having to stay at work for an extra few hours in order to fix the mess I made. Bad me.

Tonight I’m going to take my vitamins (thanks Dawn), thank the powers that be that I can safely avoid shoveling snow until it’s a bit warmer (it’s still snowing at the moment) and continue to hope the show shoveling fairy will appear, grab some dinner, skip studying and try to crash early. Sounds like a plan to me.