I am a pretty excellent cook, believe it or not. I have a couple of specialty dishes (bean dip, most types of soups and sauces, almost anything cheesy like quesadillas, and I make a mean sandwich), but mostly, I improvise in the kitchen. Over the last decade plus, I’ve gotten to know my husband’s taste almost better than he has. We try to eat healthy, more or less, and get a vegetable delivery box every week, from which I try to use as much as possible. One of my favorite things to make is what I’ve dubbed “garbage soup,” which I make partly out of desperation for an idea and partly because I have vegetables in the fridge that need eating. One could say, I’m very resourceful in the kitchen.

As the pandemic has droned on and on, sometimes louder, sometimes softer, I have noticed my mood, drive, lust for life, as it were, in the kitchen, waning. Sometimes, I can’t come up with any good ideas of what to cook for dinner and we phone it in with pan fried (from frozen) jalapeno cheeseburgers (Impossible Burgers, these days) and a tray of rough cut red potatoes roasted in the toaster oven with the newest interesting seasoning mix from Trader Joe’s.

Also as the pandemic wears on, I have been spending much more time in my pajamas. Believe me, this is not a bad thing. Apart from all the awful events of the last nearly 2 years, there have been some bright spots, and my spending more time in my pajamas is absolutely one of them. I try to buy good, solid, comfy pajamas, usually pants (sometimes shorts or capris) and a short-sleeved top, but I’m also quite frugal, so I’m always looking for a discount code, clearance sale or bargain basement find. Color doesn’t matter because I’m not leaving the house, so I really can’t care how they look to someone else. Pattern is also pretty irrelevant, but I do like to match, or at least coordinate a little bit.

Currently, my favorite pajamas are my newest find from Lane Bryant. I don’t normally shop there a lot, but I guess I don’t really shop anywhere much anymore. I do know my size there and don’t have to be too put out if I don’t get to try something on. I can buy with relative confidence that something will fit based on the size on the label, which makes late-night online shopping simpler. This pair, though, was an in-store purchase, top and bottom for less than $30, which, if you know anything about the prices of women’s clothing, is a great deal. Of course, had I known how great these pajamas would be, I would have bought more.

Given that I spend more time in my pajamas these days and yet I still like to cook, maybe you can see where this is going. It’s quite silly on my part because I do also own an apron (Christmas gift from hubby a few years back; I LOVE it!). It’s just most of the time, I forget to put it on. While I’m cooking until whatever it is starts sputtering in some hot oil in the cast iron.

I’ve also never been “good” at laundry. When the inevitable happens and I get grease splattered or something else splashed or spurted, it will generally mean the death of a clean-looking garment. I’ve tried all kinds of products for treating and detergents for stains, but they never seem to work or I’m just too lazy/forgetful/whatever to be bothered to do my laundry well. It’s just one of those chores I can bring myself to have too much of an interest in and I’ve never been one to be especially concerned with my own appearance.

And the culmination of all these random facts about me lead to the conclusion that several of my pajama tops have now been permanently marked with spots here and there. I suppose this doesn’t actually matter in “real life.” I don’t wear my PJs outside the house and I don’t use a camera for work, but I also refuse to take any shame for it. These are all just random facts about me. I’m not asking for any help “fixing” anything. It’s just me.

So you’ll have to excuse me now while I take a quick look at the Lane Bryant clearance site to see if I can find any more screaming deals. My birthday is coming up so I might even splurge. 😁