2

Currently sitting in the Odegaard library, waiting to be "scooped up" (S.'s favorite term) and taken home, after an exhausting day of being a nervous, vomit-y wreck before my quiz in class.

This week we will be entertaining my friend K. at S.'s apartment. This will be the first time I've ever had a friend over for dinner, let alone having S. hang out with any of my truly close friends. How has this not happened in the two years we've spent together? I've found myself rather secluded from friends up until this point, partially due to living constraints, different lifestyles, and just being in different places at different moments in life. K. is one of those friends that I've had for a severely long time, the kinds that love you unconditionally, probably because they went to sixth grade camp with you and have seen you be a nervous mess, the kind of friend you've cried in front of and had your life fall apart in front of. I think that is, partially, the only type of friendship I can sustain. The kind that is unconditional, yet very far away.

In any case, I'm treating this as an opportunity to try some new recipe. I've only cooked for a handful of people, mainly because I want to spend most of my nights curled up on the sofa rather than in a kitchen. Not to mention my family's overly fastidious diets, where sugar and salt and fat and carbohydrates and flavor and basically just food needs to be restricted from whatever I was thinking of cooking.

K.'s only dietary restriction is that she's vegetarian, so I'm opening my recipe options to all sorts of things: artichoke ravioli, spinach pasta, crispy potato roasts, and tomato galettes. I had never realized how summer-y vegetarian recipes can seem.

I have yet to decide whether or not I will be including a dessert for that night. As far as cooking or baking goes, I might like baking just a smidge more. Baking can be extremely finicky, with precise measurements and sometimes even requiring scientific minds to exact perfect results, whereas cooking is often more relaxing and requires less "magic" (or science, if you prefer that term) to get results. I find cooking more relaxing and less stressful than baking, but I suppose my sweet tooth just makes me look forward to desserts more than whatever I'm making for dinner.

Supposedly S. should be here at any moment, so I will try to keep my eye out for him. Tonight he is making me spaghetti.