Week 71 - Expecting Nothing & Getting Spoilt

Thursday #72 – this Thursday was Valentine’s Day and much like any other Thursday, I woke up, showered and got ready for work all while Sleeping Beauty DTM slept.  Having made it VERY clear to me that he is not a fan of “Hallmark Holidays” my usually low expectations were particularly low this Thursday.  I managed to sneak a present out of the bedroom and into the study to leave by his computer, without him so much as stirring.  I knew he wouldn’t have gotten me anything so didn’t want to wake him and make a big deal of it…figured if he woke up and found it he might feel bad enough to arrange something during the day whilst I was at work.

Work wasn’t particularly memorable (well it was memorable enough that I recounted various stories to DTM that night but not memorable enough that I can think of what they were 2 days later) and I drove home expecting very little on my arrival but hoping sincerely that DTM wasn’t expecting me to cook him dinner.  The Vegetarian assured me via text that she had had a talk to DTM and that he had better be taking me out to dinner at the very least.  I just hoped he had bought me a card.

When I got home DTM was nowhere to be seen but a collection of gift bags was laid out on the bed with a couple of ciders and some souvenirs from DTM’s visit to the dentist earlier that day.  I was impressed, yet still expecting to open the bags and find various crap inside them.  He had bought me a card though so I couldn’t be too disappointed.  Not only had he bought me a card, in some bizarre stance against the fact he believes the whole day was created purely to benefit card manufacturers, he had bought me a $16 card!  As I was reading his uncharacteristically nice words, a familiar song suddenly started playing as DTM controlled the stereo by airplay from another room.  It was pretty cute.

I opened all my presents and was shocked to find he had actually got me nice things.  I felt terrible for doubting him and suddenly went from the generous person who bought him an unexpected present, to the stingy one who spent nowhere near as much as he did.  Terrible might be an exaggeration.  He informed me we were heading to Chatswood for dinner, nothing too fancy but somewhere on the bus line so we could easily get there without me having to drive.  Super fancy is not our style anyway.

We headed to The Orchard and got some din dins with a few bevvies.  DTM paid for dinner (the drinks we did in rounds) for what may have been the first time ever!  We finished up our night at The RSL (like the romantics we are) and got the 10:30 bus home.

After taking The Vegetarian’s advice 18 months ago – to always expect the worst so that you can only ever be satisfied or pleasantly surprised – my expectations of DTM this Valentine’s Day could not have been lower.  Needless to say it turned out to be an awesome Thursday as I was very pleasantly surprised.

Week 70 - Not Sleeping & Radio Shopping

Thursday #71 – woke up super sleepy this week after what felt like no sleep at all.  Not surprising given I woke up every couple of hours throughout the night – either because DTM was being noisy, was mysteriously missing or was intentionally waking me up.  Being on meds which have the unfortunate side effect of insomnia, when I woke up at 3:50am DTM had still not come to bed.  When he came in an hour later to finally try and get some sleep, I again woke up.  Not long after getting to sleep I was woken up by DTM enquiring if I was ok.  Apparently I had been “rustling” and therefore DTM assumed I was awake.  In truth I had simply rolled over, sound asleep, only to be woken by DTM’s questioning.  When the alarm went off at 6:30 I was not feeling remotely energised.

I drove my car to The BH&G Fan’s house and left the keys by the front door so that she could drop it into the mechanic when he opened.  After my fun breakdown last week, The Mechanic had “fixed” my car and returned it with a broken stereo.  I had phoned him on Tuesday to find out who I should see about a broken radio (as I was hearing whispers I should take it to an auto electrician) and was assured that he could fix it himself.  Since he opens at the same time I start work, I left it in the capable hands of The BH&G Fan (who whinged about the lack of cup holders) and got myself on a bus to work.

Work was a bit of a mixed bag.  I had my first ever patient ask for my business card (which doesn’t exist so I crossed out another optometrist’s name and wrote mine on their card) so he could ask for me next time, as well as my first ever patient who questioned my integrity.  It’s always nice when a question starts with “I don’t want to offend you…” I was certain that question was going to lead to my age or the fact I had only been in the job for a few weeks, but instead it was some strangely worded mumbo jumbo about why should he come to me, associated with a health fund, rather than an independent and why wasn’t I out on my own.  I wanted to throw it back with a “well why did you come here buddy?” or maybe “I’m not out on my own coz I have no idea what I’m doing” but instead went down the road of talking up my company by criticising The Most-Evil-Corporate-Giant-In-The-Optometry-World.

At lunch I returned The Mechanic’s call and found out that my stereo was in fact broken (and not just a broken fuse) and that I could either buy my own for him to install or he could get one for me.  Knowing that DTM has strong views on what I need in a car stereo (despite apparently not having strong enough views to want to learn to drive) I informed The Mechanic that I would arrange my own, pick up my car that afternoon and drop it back next week for him to install the radio.  He asked if it was ok for him to leave the dash hanging out to avoid doubling up on work.  When I said yes I wasn't quite expecting the sight I arrived to that afternoon.  I checked out some radios at JB Hi-fi and found one which I thought was pretty good, but since DTM needed a say he told me he would meet me at the mall after work to have a look together.

After a painful salad for lunch (a ridiculously large mouth ulcer meant anything was painful but tomato juice proved a real killer) I dosed up on anaesthetic gel and got back to work.  At 5:00 I made my way to the bus to go pick up my car.  After bussing from the mall to Forestville I then drove back to the mall to meet DTM and once again check out car radios.  We got some kebabs for dinner (coz we’re fancy like that and I will rarely say no to anything involving tzatziki) before heading to JB Hi-fi once more to stare at car radios for what felt like an eternity.  With no offers of help, we honestly stood there for close to an hour trying to work out which was best.  Well, in reality, I spent an hour trying to get DTM to agree that I had already found the best one, while he spent an hour trying to disprove that it was the best.  Eventually he agreed that the one I had spotted 7 hours earlier was probably the best.  He’s very lucky he didn’t get a punch in the face.

We then made our way to Target and a bargain shop to pick up an ipad (because apparently one can never have too many) and some homeless bags (as DTM likes to call the oversized red and blue striped plastic bags which are ideal for moving bedding).

When we finally got home I was ready for bed after my lack of sleep the night before and dozed off at about 9:30.  By no means an amazing Thursday but I was pretty excited by the thought of once again having beats in my car.

Week 69 - Confusing Days & Fixing Toilets

Thursday #70 – I woke up this Thursday with no idea what day it actually was.  After Friday off last week and then work on Saturday followed by a long weekend for Australia Day and my regular Tuesday off, I had rocked up to work on Wednesday convinced it was Monday.  Needless to say the next day I still wasn’t sure if my week was just beginning or ending.

Work wasn’t particularly memorable so I can only assume I breezed through the day of patients as though I’d been doing it for years…not a week.  That or my memory is getting a whole lot worse and I really need to start writing things down as they happen.  Or maybe, just maybe, it’s that after work was so fun-filled I can barely remember anything else.

When work wrapped up I headed to Bunnings (because I love it so very much) to buy a toilet seat.  DTM claims he was not responsible for the crack in the old seat but was mysteriously the only one home when the seat broke.  A pretty image I know.  So after getting the call about the loo on Wednesday I had considered ducking to Bunnings that day but rightly listened to DTM when he reminded me that my car was at the mechanic and did I really want to take my toilet seat on the bus?  Negative.  After my 2^nd new alternator in 3 months, my car was back in action on Thursday and ready to deliver toilet seats.

I spent way too long browsing in the toilet section.  With options from $6-80 I had no idea what kind of quality I wanted.  I decided on one that felt a bit less flimsy that the $6 one which looked suspiciously like the broken one at home, but nothing too fancy like a wooden one.  In the end I settled on a slow closing $20 option.  The slow closing was not a real selling point (and is in hindsight perhaps a bit annoying) but it seemed like the cheapest one that actually felt like it wouldn’t break under a person’s weight.

With that out of the way I headed home and spent the next hour with my head down the toilet trying to remove (the old) and install (the new) seats.  Eventually I admitted defeat and called in the troops (DTM) to share my frustration.  I told him I was pretty sure there was a little crack in one of the plastic things and we tried a couple more times to get the damn seat on.  With no success, we drove back to Bunnings (twice in one day!!) and I made DTM exchange the seat for me.  Before getting there we stopped in at the chicken shop at Allambie Heights so I could introduce DTM to the joys of the ego burger.  The Weather Girl and I had been talking it up the previous week so I jumped at the opportunity to stop in at dinner time.  It was the worst ego burger I’ve had from there in 18 years.  It was still pretty tasty, and the chips were good (even if DTM did go overboard with the quantity) but it just wasn’t the amazing burger I had so enthusiastically talked up.

When we got back home after a quick Woolies shop, we installed the seat reasonably quickly (though DTM was rather anal about whether or not it lined up) and I shook my head at how much time I had wasted trying earlier.  Pardon the pun.  It wasn’t too long before M-Dizzle and The Hippy Engineer rocked up to get my signature on some paperwork to get our bond back.  I signed my life away and gave them a quick tour of the new digs.  DTM talked up all the exciting places we could go together in Chatswood now that they’re locals.  They seemed pretty excited.

After a fun-filled day of work and Bunnings it’s hard to imagine next Thursday topping this one, but fingers are firmly crossed!