Why Do Fools Fall In Love?

When I was 20 years old I asked my Dad how he knew he was in love with Mom. My Dad, being the very matter of fact person that he is, said simply “Well we had very similar goals. We both wanted to get married, have a military life, have two kids, buy a house, and retire.” At that time I did not think that was very romantic. My mom always told me that I would know when a man really loved me because I would never be able to get rid of him. Mom worked for a factory at the time and by the time her shift was over she would be pretty dirty. But instead of going to her house to pick her up for their date Dad would show up at her job just wanting to get their dates started and not caring how she looked. At the time I thought that sounded annoying.

Years later when I met George I realized that they were right. George and I both wanted to get married, travel, kids were a maybe, buy a house, have two dogs, and someday retire to a house in the islands somewhere. It was amazing to have someone who loved me and who was totally on the same page as I was. It was awesome to know that George and I are going to share our lives, our hopes, and our goals together. And I could not get rid of George if I tried. I would run to the pharmacy drive through which was 2 minutes down the road and he wanted to come with me. I used to live all the way on the other end of town from work. However, when we hung out after work he would beg me to just hang out for just another ½ hour until it was 4 in the morning and I was driving desperately fighting to keep my eyes open.
To this day George will text me and call me throughout the day to tell me that he misses me. When he is playing video games he wants me to sit in his office with him and read just so that we are close. And even now that some of our dreams have come true like getting married in Jamaica, buying a house, and getting our dogs, our new goals that have come along have also grown together like knowing that we do want kids someday.

Quite a few of my friends are struggling right now with relationships ending. It has made me think about my romantic history and made me very happy that I found George. Today I was talking to one of those friends and she was thinking about what she wants and deserves from someone. And I passed along the words of my parents. “If a man loves you he will want the same things out of life you do. And you will never be able to get rid of him.”

Who does the dishes?

So like many couples there is quite a bit of give and take when it comes to chores. I am a former house cleaner; during my high school years and shortly after I used to work for a company who sent me to the most amazing houses all around town to clean. Because of this I have come to enjoy cleaning and really just kind of do it out of habit. When I lived alone I did everything myself; the cooking, cleaning, laundry, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, and scrubbing. So when George and I moved in together I just naturally kept doing all the chores since I was not used to having someone help me and, as I said, I like to clean. There are weeks when I will work extra hours so I can come home early on Friday night so that I can come home and spend the whole night cleaning. How much of a dork am I?

So after 4 years together and quite a bit of pushing from George I finally reach out for help and usually get it. George wants to help me and usually feels guilty when he has not. The last time I asked him to do the dishes and he forgot he bought me flowers to apologize. How adorable is that?

In the last few weeks Sophia has moved in. She is a little OCD and she LOVES to clean, especially when she is stressed. In the three weeks she has been here she has polished my flat top stove to a sparkle shine, rearranged my pantry, and cleaned out my fridge. And if there are a few dishes in the sink when I go to bed, by morning they are in the dishwasher which is really nice. But she does not like to unload the dishwasher.

Now George had 3 days off this week and I asked him to unload the dishwasher. He told me no. Now he usually will tell me no as a joke and then do it. Well three days later he still did not do it and finally I realized, for once, he was serious. He said no because he did not want to unload the dishwasher. And I get that, as sometimes I just do not feel like doing it either.

Now I do all the laundry, vacuum, shampoo the carpet (with our dogs it is a regular chore) clean the kitchen, dust, sweep, and mop. George does the yard and the bathrooms. We share the dishes and the trash. And I do most of chores not because I feel like George will not do them but because I like to and he is adoringly grateful and constantly telling me how beautiful the house looks.

I don’t think Sophia should be doing our dishes even though she says she does not mind. George kind of has two clean freaks chicks living in his house. I don’t have the right to throw all the chores I do in Georges face to guilt him in to doing the dishes. I do them because I like them. So this all begs the question…who does the dishes?

Road to Recovery

So yes I am weak. In more ways than one I discovered this week. A disclaimer before I go any further. This could make some people a little squeamish so if you don’t want to know about lady parts STOP READING. I will keep it as tasteful as possible I promise.

So our crazy weekend that I wrote about previously turned in to a very bizarre week from hell. Thursday I went back to work feeling pretty good. I felt like I was getting over whatever had been making me feel sick to my stomach the last few days. All morning I had meetings at work and then I had to run across the street for just a few minutes for a doctor’s appointment. Last year I had an IUD put in for birth control. It is a small intrauterine device that was really painful to put in but I was assured would be very easy and not painful to remove.

Well that ‘not painful’ line was a total crock. I screamed when she pulled it out and then started crying. This concerned her so she wanted to run a bunch of tests but wanted to conference an OBGYN in on this since she has never seen anyone have any pain when removing an IUD. I had to go back to work, which is right across the street, so she gave me a shot of pain killers and I told her to call me when she figured out what she wanted me to do.

As I was leaving I get a text from my friend Amanda (whom I mentioned in my last blog entry as my friend who is having marital problems with her husband Jim). The text says that she needs Georges help to ‘go get Jim’. Since I have not spoken to them since she moved out on Tuesday night I had no idea what was going on. So I called her and she explained that the night she went home Jim had gotten very drunk on an entire bottle of Scotch. His friends called 911 and the EMTs placed him in the county detox which is where he has been since Tuesday night.

I was frazzled so I called George and asked him to just handle it which he did. When I got back to work my doctor called. I had her on speaker phone and all of my coworkers were standing around my desk as they could see that something was wrong. My doctor, who is quite a bossy and blunt person, proceeds to tell me that I need to come back right now for another pelvic exam, then I need to go over the urgent care for blood work and ultrasounds. She then says “you will just have to tell your boss that this is more important and they will have to live without you”. My coworkers took a vote and decided that they do not like how bossy she is and they say I needs to get a new doctor.

I got back over and she tells me that when she removed the IUD she thinks she ripped one of my lady parts. She also thinks that I have some sort of infection from the IUD along with an ovarian cyst which I have a history of. She then tells me that if this infection has moved from my uterus to my tubes that she is going to admit me to the hospital for intravenous antibiotics for a couple of days. If the infection is not gotten under control I might need a hysterectomy. Great.

Long story short she was right about ALL of it other than the tubes. So she had me go down to oncology and get antibiotics administered through an IV the next day but she said I did not need to be admitted. So for the rip and the cyst she loaded me up on painkillers. So now I have enough drugs to take down a horse running through me.

In the meantime I am trying to keep George in the loop who is freaked out that I might need to go in to the hospital. When I finally get home I get a phone call from Jim who is out of detox and wants to know if he cans stay with us just for one night. Once again being the caretaker (sucker) that I am I could not say no. So I told him that under no circumstances could he drink while he was here and it would only be for ONE NIGHT. He agreed.

So he came over and George and I did our best to counsel him on how to better handle this situation. This involved a little tough love but I think it was good. Hopefully they can both learn how to function as healthy adults so they can be there for their son.

Then Amanda showed up so Jim could see their son while she went shopping. When she came back she hung out for a while and then Sophia came home. Sophia was very confused as to why they were all here as she had not been updated on the situation. Then my friend Aimee texts me and asks if she can hang out for a while. I said ‘sure! What is one more person in the nut house?!’

The next day Jim left and we have not heard from him since. We wish them both well and hope they can figure out what makes each of them happy.

And now I am lying around trying to keep any food down as the meds make me feel sick. But on a brighter happier note I have caught up on a lot of TV. And I get to go back to work tomorrow. I need another vacation!

Crazy Weekend

People of Earth,
George and Laura's House of Healing has no vacancies...unless you REALLY need a place to stay and then I will probably say yes:(

Good golly Miss Molly. I cannot remember the last time we had a crazy weekend like this one. So here it is. A couple friend of ours decided to split up. I got a phone call from him (we'll call him Jim) and he asked if he could stay with us for a few weeks. I got a vote from George and Sophia (our roommate who just moved in two weeks ago) and they gave a thumbs up. The Jim called me back and asked if instead of him moving in could his wife move in (we will call her Amanda). I felt a little hesitant because I think Jim might have wanted George and I to convince Amanda that she should take him back. Which we were not going to do. I will give you a bed to sleep on, an ear to chew, and a should to cry on but I am not going to try and sway a person in to a decision one way or another. So George and I made a very clear NOT OUR BUSINESS Policy. So she moved in. The next day she moved out because Jim said he is going to live with his parents. So he was gonna move in, I moved all the furniture out of my office so he could stay there, she moved in, and she moved out and we have not heard from them since. I hope they are going to be okay and I wish them luck.

On top of this I went to Mom and Dad and help them move furniture on Friday, I talked to an old friend and got some shocking news about an old friend who recently passed away, Saturday I helped George all day with tests, I worked Sunday and scored 30 calls (which kicks major butt), I called out sick on Monday because I caught some sort of bug during all this, then I had Tuesday and Wednesday off, but ended up going to work on Tuesday to score calls for calibration, and then called in to calibration for an hour and a half this morning for work, George and I visited Georges parents house to see the nieces since they were in town but we missed them because they were at the pool, and in the middle of all this dealt with all of this craziness with our friends, and today George seemed to catch some form of what I got sick with...and now I am going back to work tomorrow. I think I need a vacation from my weekend! Good grief!

If you are reading this I hope you are well!

George and Laura’s House of Healing

George and I have a new…roommate. My wonderful friend Sophia has moved in to the guest room for a little while. We rented the room out to Marcus about a year ago after his long term relationship ended. He moved in with us and he was really struggling to get over his breakup. After many hours, days, and months of long talks, tears and laughter, cocktails and pool games Marcus moved out and was a different person. He came broken and he left happy.

Now we have Sophia moving in with us. It is a rough time for her and we are hoping to be there for her like we were there for Marcus. So George and I are going to get a sign to hang on the door that says “George and Laura’s House of Healing” or “The Human Society for Abused Hearts” or “Bring Us Your Broken Hearts…We’ll Fix ‘Em”.