Goals for 2016

Here’s my goals for this year! I’ve used the same categories as I did for 2015, because they still fit the best with my life.
I’m posting my goals here, because having them where you guys can see them keeps me accountable.
I’m thinking that this year I’ll do a monthly progress post (or at least try to), with how well I’ve managed to keep up with doing these things.

Relationships – anything to do with how I relate to other people
Organisation & Management – things that relate to how I manage time, money, and life in general
Health & Beauty – mental and physical health, fitness level, things that I associate with making myself ‘pretty’
Creativity – things I enjoy and that give me a creative outlet
University/learning – anything connected with study

Relationships

• write to my grandparents at least once every 3 months
• date night with Hubby at least once every 2 months
• catch up with friends once a month

Organisation & Management

• plan my week every Sunday
• stick to my morning and evening routines
• maintain my weekly “cleaning day”
• continue meal planning every week

Health & Beauty

• clear out any clothes in my closet that I have not worn in the past year
• only buy clothes that fit my style and I truly love
• go to the gym at least 3 times a week
• 2 strength training sessions a week
• lose 1kg per month (total aim for the year – lose 10kg)
• meditation for 10mins, 3 times per week
• go to bed before midnight
• get up before 7am every morning

Creativity

• minimum 2 blog posts per week
• 2hrs per week recreational reading
• finish my fair isle jumper in time for winter (finish by May)
• design a vest from the fair isle jumper pattern

University/learning

• Get a job as an AIN
• Maintain my 6.0 GPA
• keep up to date with my lectures & readings each week
• spend at least 3hrs on Japanese study each week

~K

2015 Wrap-up

Here’s the mandatory post about “how things went in 2015”. This is somewhat based off of my “Goal List” from the start of this year (find it in this post). Over the next few days, I’ll be working out my Goal List for 2016, and I should post that sometime during January.

University/study
I was remarkably successful in this category! I graduated from my Bachelor of Psychology (we won’t speak of my final marks for that, but I GRADUATED!) and now have a piece of paper and another line for my resume.
I’m one year through my Bachelor of Nursing, and my marks are SO much better! As of the end of this year, my GPA is 6.0 and this makes me eligible for the “High Achievers” events (e.g. a morning tea a few weeks ago, that may result in a nursing job!).
I managed to maintain my designated “study hours” fairly well, but there is definitely room for improvement (particularly in regards to getting assignments started earlier). I started all my assignments this year approx 1-2 weeks before they were due, but I’m going to aim for having them COMPLETED 1 week before their due next year. I only had to pull 1 all-nighter for an assignment, and OMG I felt like crap. I am too old to do that anymore.

Health/beauty
I did much better at (mostly) eating at “normal” meal times, and I consistently made packed lunches for uni. Hubby took over his own lunch making around June, and he’s also been good at that.
I’ve done much better at not worrying/stressing about things that aren’t under my control, and I’ve felt far more level emotionally (particularly in the last 6mths). I’ve also been asking for help when I needed it, not once it was too late and I’d already burnt out.
We’ve been eating far more food that I make from scratch, and this has reduced our food costs. We’re still spending an absolute FORTUNE every week on soft drink and energy drinks, but I can confidently say that I’m not the one drinking those. Hubby just isn’t ready to give them up, and I’m not going to push the point because we can (sort of) afford it.
I swapped out driving for walking and bike riding (or public transport) for about 90% of my transport needs, and this helped increase my fitness levels and reduce our fuel costs. It’s much easier at our new place than it was at our old house though – EVERYTHING is within walking distance, while at our old place nothing was (closest supermarket to our old place was 4km away. New place – there’s 3 within 800m). I only joined a gym in the final few months of 2015, but I’ve been going fairly regularly (barring a few disaster weeks).
I BECAME A MORNING PERSON!!!!! Well, sort of. I became a person who regularly gets up at 7am on days when I have nothing booked before lunchtime (or at all) and I feel pretty good about that. It took until the second half of the year to really get there, and the 6:30am starts for my nursing prac really helped cement the morning thing. I’m still not exactly cognitive before caffeine, and my brain doesn’t really wake up until at least 2hrs after I get up, but I’m no longer nocturnal so that’s a good thing.

Organisation/management
I successfully remained off of Facebook during semester time this year, and I will be repeating that next year. I also feel like I wasted less time on Tumblr and Twitter. I may have swapped this out a bit with this blog and YouTube though. I still feel I wasted less time online than previously though.
I culled my wardrobe, and now pretty much everything in there fits me and is in the styles I want to wear.
I *tried* to plan out my days… with mixed success. Some days, it went really well. Others were an absolute disaster. I let it slide a bit in the second half of the year, but I’m going to continue working on that next year as well.
Did better this year with keeping on top of the housework – I could definitely do better, but the only times I really didn’t keep the house reasonably tidy were exam weeks… and I figure that’s forgivable.

Creativity
I still don’t have my reading corner, but we’re looking at possibly replacing our couch this year, so I’ll hopefully be getting a big squishy one-person chair when we do that, so I can set up said reading corner.
I have successfully been trying at least 1 new recipe a month, sometimes almost 1 per week. Only 2 of them got rejected by Hubby, so that’s a good start!
I averaged 1 recreational book per month, but they were mostly crammed into my uni breaks… I would judge that a success 🙂
I’ve been spending more time knitting/crocheting, and I’ve almost finished a gorgeous jumper. It’s a little tight atm (mainly around the tummy area), but by the time the weather gets cold enough for me to wear it I aim to have lost a bit of weight so it will all be fine.

Relationships
I did a bit better at keeping in regular contact with my grandparents this year, but it’s never enough. I lost my Nan only a week ago, and the amount of contact I had was never enough. I wish I could have gone down to visit more often, but flights are expensive and we haven’t exactly had spare $$ this year. So many regrets, but it’s too late. Everyone give your grandparents a hug, because you’ve only got a finite time to do it.

Overall, a mostly good year. The past month has been hard, but up until that point things were going well. Normal life has still been good during the past month though, which has made it easier to deal with the bad stuff.

Happy New Year to you all (because I probably won’t be doing another post before then), and I’ll see you in 2016!

~K

Discoveries

I just found my list of “Goals for 2015”, and it’s interesting to see how many I’ve already been doing, even without actually looking at the list (heck, I forgot it even existed!). I originally posted these on the blog back in January as part of the “New Year New Life” series (Day 6 is where I have my goal list).

For each of the categories, here’s how I’ve done this year:

Relationships – have still been a bit slack with the “writing to grandparents” thing, but I’ve done better with the other two items (setting aside time for Hubby & not feeling guilty about saying “no”).

Organisation & Management – I’ve gotten MUCH better at keeping up-to-date with the housework, and I think that is partly because our house is half the size of our old one.
I’ve culled my wardrobe, and now it’s only got the style of things I wear and like (except for the dresses. I didn’t get rid of many of those because I only really wear dresses in summer. If I don’t wear them this summer I’ll get rid of them). I also bought a few new items that are in keeping with my style.
I haven’t done quite so well with the “fix it immediately or chuck it” thing – my mending pile is still a reasonable size, because there are a few items I can’t bring myself to get rid of. This sort of comes under the “stop holding onto things that are not useful/required” thing too.
I’ve been mostly planning out my days in the morning and following that plan – it doesn’t always go how I want it too, I’m still consistently putting too many things on my to-do list for a particular day.

Health & Beauty – I have been quite good at eating proper meals at proper times, as well as making packed lunches for uni. I started out making Hubby’s lunch for him the night before, but that fell off during exam time last semester and now he just makes his own. I’ve also managed to significantly reduce the amount of pre-packaged/pre-mixed foods we buy, and I have gotten to the point where 90% of our food is made from scratch. I still buy a few things that I can’t replicate at home (like a particular brand of chic-chip cookies that are SO ADDICTIVE and tinned fruits).
I’ve been driving far less since we moved to this new house. I’ll generally ride my bike to & from uni or get Hubby to drop me off and walk home, and I walk to the shops. Just recently, I’ve taken to driving to do the shopping, because I’ve discovered a really good & cheap fruit&veg shop in the big shopping centre that’s about 15mins drive away.
I’ve been very good at making sure I get at least 7hrs of sleep per night, but I haven’t really done much yoga this year. I’ve been doing more pretty stuff with my hair now it’s longer though – I can finally put it up in a proper ponytail, and even use one of those bun donut things! I’ve recently bought a whole heap of new earrings and pretty hair clips too, because for prac we’re supposed to have our hair all up and no dangly earrings (I bought a whole heap of pretty studs).

Creativity – I haven’t set up a reading corner, mainly because we don’t really have the furniture to do it and we can’t afford to buy it atm. I’ve been reading recreationally still though, and I’ve been trying new recipes regularly. I was doing fairly well with the “blogging regularly” thing until I got out of the habit over the June-July break. I’m going to try and do better from now on.

University – so far, I’m maintaining a GPA of 6.25 (WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!), I generally stick to my designated “study hours” (except for assignments), and I THINK I’ve been able to improve my study practices.
I’ve been wasting less time online, mainly because I’ve stayed off of Facebook. That thing is a complete blackhole! I don’t seem have replaced the time I would have spent on Facebook with other websites though, I still use them about the same amount that I did when I was using Facebook.
I still procrastinate, BADLY. Particularly procrasti-baking and procrasti-cleaning.

So, I think I’ve made reasonable progress. We’ll see how things go for the rest of the year!

~K

My “process” has been disrupted

Hubby broke his finger last Saturday at work.

He wouldn’t even let me strap it until Sunday evening (after I called in the “big guns” – our doctor friend), and then he avoided going to the doctor to get an X-ray until Wednesday.

The tip of his right ring finger is crushed, and he is now off work for the week.

This is annoying for me, because I have a process, and now he’s in the middle of it and not helping :S

Case in point – Friday morning is when I wash the sheets and towels, but because Hubby is home, he’s still in bed asleep. So I can’t wash the sheets. There’s no point putting the towels through on their own, the load would be too small to be worth it in our machine.

I’ll get back to doing my essay now I’ve had that rant. We are at t-10hrs until it is due.

~K

Balance…

The past 48hrs have been an interesting mix of awesome and terrible.

The awesome stuff:

• A good friend FINALLY got engaged and I was there
• I got 2 new pairs of jeans and MY BUTT LOOKS AWESOME IN THEM. To boot, they’re a size 9!!!! (2 years ago I barely fit into a 12!) WOOT WOOT vanity sizing for the win BUT WHATEVER. Finally, jeans that fit my butt and waist at the same time.
  Usually jeans that fit my hips/butt are way too loose around my waist and either fall down or look terrible. I have now discovered the awesomeness that is “Curve Embracer” jeans from Jeans West 🙂

The terrible:

• I reached my quota for “allowable last-minute schedule changes” in a spectacular fashion on Friday night. Pretty much EVERY plan I’ve made with anyone other than Hubby for the past 2 weeks has been changed at the last minute, and usually without me being informed except in passing. On Friday night, one phone call managed to single-handedly screw with ALL my plans for next week.
  I spent Friday night and most of Saturday in an absolute emotional mess because I just couldn’t deal. I plan in a certain amount of wiggle room for things like this, and if I can plan for things not going to plan I’m ok (e.g. at work – no worries, all good, because I control for the stuff I can)… but if they’re things that I don’t expect to get screwed around over (like meeting up with family), I have difficulty. If I get multiples within a short amount of time, I crash and burn.

Now I’m trying to catch up on my uni work and get myself back on a even keel for next week. I tensed up so much from yesterday that 3 long soaks in very warm baths have not made as much of an impact as I would like, and I’ve had a tension headache all day 😦

Hopefully I can stay on the level for a little while now though.

~K

Things I’m looking forward to…

I thought I’d do a list of things I’m looking forward to when we have a little more disposable income (i.e. as of the end of this year when I can get a nursing job).

Hubby’s been doing some cashy work on the weekends, and that has meant a little extra moolah in hand this past week, so I’ve been thinking about some of the things that we’ve been able to do this week that we haven’t done for a while.

1. Regular date nights
   We had our first ‘date night’ in almost a year on Saturday. It was really nice – we discovered this new Japanese restaurant, then went to a chocolatier for dessert (om nom nom fondue).
   We used to do a proper date night once a fortnight, but we just haven’t had the disposable income for quite some time, and I’ve missed it. It’s all well and good to have a ‘date night’ at home, but it’s just not the same when you have to do the cooking and the dishes.
2. Luxury food items
   These aren’t even really proper “luxury” items either, by most people’s standards. I just want to be able to buy rye bread again, and afford to have things like avocados and tomatoes permanently in the fridge. It would be nice to be able to buy a block of nice quality dark chocolate every week (the one I get is a 200g block, with 8 serves in a pack. Perfect 1-week rationing haha). It will be fantastic when we’re able to buy red meat on a regular basis again (right now, Hubby is basically limited to beef mince as his red meat fix, because it is cheap. We eat mainly chicken – I was going to make lamb rogan josh this week, but I nearly DIED when I saw how expensive lamb was – $22/kg!!!!! No rogan josh this week).
3. Some new clothes
   Hubby needs new clothes – his wardrobe is now down to mainly “daggy/work” clothes and “really nice” ones. There’s nothing in the middle that is really good for a semi-casual night out :S He needs several pairs of new jeans (to replace the ones that need to be chucked out), some decent polo shirts, and some new work shirts/pants. I just need to get all my jeans taken up so they actually fit (disadvantages of short legs – even pants labelled “short leg” are too long. I can take up most stuff myself, but I just can’t get denim to look right when I do it. How tall do they think we are!?!?).
4. Luxury items
   More general discretionary purchases, like books, music, movies, games, etc. I hate not being able to buy a book that I want, without having to wait and hope it comes up cheaper at some point.
   Also, a few appliances need replacing – i.e. new electric kettle, new toaster, a proper-sized dishwasher.
5. Car stuff
   This covers both some “really necessary” and some “discretionary” stuff – the “really necessary” like servicing (neither of our cars has seen a mechanic for about 3 years – oops) and the extras (like new suspension, new fancy tray/canopy for the ute, etc). Why do cars have to be so expensive? Which leads us to…
6. A full tank of fuel
   It will be nice to be able to just fill up the cars every week, and not worry about how much it costs. Right now, we are limited to a particular $ amount for fuel every week, and that is gradually getting us less and less fuel as the price/L goes up. We don’t even put fuel in both cars – mine hardly gets used, so we only put fuel in when I need to use it for something, which is maybe once a month at the most.
7. Presents
   We haven’t really done birthday/christmas/mothers day/fathers day presents in quite some time. I made wedding cross stitches for everyone who has gotten married, but they don’t cost much except in hours. My sister hasn’t even gotten hers yet, because I haven’t had the spare cash to get the frame for it. We haven’t even really done presents for each other, for anything.
8. Holidays
   It will be nice when we can actually afford a holiday. We haven’t even been camping in over a year, because the “having money” never seems to line up with “having time” :S
9. Someone else to do the cleaning
   I will happily fork out $50/fortnight if someone else will come and deal with the majority of the cleaning for me. I HATE cleaning, and I can’t use most of the cleaning products that do the job quickly and with minimal effort because the fumes give me migraines. I can’t wait until I can pass this off to someone else, because as much as I can ask Hubby to do it, it NEVER gets done with any sort of regularity because he hates cleaning just as much as I do.

Money can’t make you happy – but it can certainly help.

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who tries to make you feel better by saying “money can’t make you happy” has never had to worry about money. Anyone who has had to worry about making ends meet is well aware that while having money can’t make you happy, having enough money to pay all the bills without robbing Peter to pay Paul takes away a HELL of a lot of stress, and that reduced stress makes it a lot easier to appreciate what you have and be happier with where you are in life.

We are currently at a point where we are able to pay all the bills with minimal worry, and while we don’t really have any discretionary income, we also aren’t skint. I am far less stressed than I was a year ago because of it, and that means that both myself and Hubby are happier (I’m far more pleasant to be around when I’m not on constantly on edge). Still, it will be nice to have a little extra money, because we have a list of “things we want to do” that is as long as my leg, and most of them cost money. And that is the essence of it – what we have now is ‘just enough’, but we’d like to be in a position where we have ‘enough and a little to spare’. That is what most people are aiming for, because being in that position CAN help to make you happier.

~K

Write-off…

This has been a crappy week, physically, mentally and emotionally.

I’ve been feeling “off” all week, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m coming doen with something or whether it’s just CFS popping in for a visit again. So all week I’ve had a bit of a sore throat, and all the usual sore joints and muscles, and then my wisdom teeth decided to make their presence known again. I am tired when I wake up, even though my fitbit says I’ve slept well, and for about 8hrs, and I don’t get less tired as the day goes on.

Mentally, I’ve been distracted. I have had an insane amount of trouble concentrating. I’ve been having trouble with extraneous noise again, any other verbal noise makes it incredibly difficult to focus on and process what I’m supposed to be doing, or on the conversation I’m having at the time. Words aren’t coming when I need them, so I’ve been having trouble with normal conversation – so I just avoid it. I’ve only been to uni one day this week, and my friends were all like “why you so quiet? Stop being so quiet!”.

Emotionally, I am nothing. I don’t feel “down” as such, there’s just nothing there – no happy, no motivation, no angry, just… Blank.

I was doing so well, and here we are again. Not quite back where I started, but not in a good place.

I’ve only been to uni 1 day this week – missing classes started out innocently enough on Monday with the funeral (it didn’t finish in time for me to get back for either lecture). Then on Tuesday, I decided that I would be better off staying home and watching the lectures rather than going to the tute, because what’s the point of the tute if I haven’t seen the lecture yet? Wednesday I went, because we are being assessed in our clinical health assessment skills over this month, and I wanted to give myself every chance to make sure I’ve got eveything right. We also had the A&P lab on Wednesday morning, so I went to that because Chris dropped me at uni and I was already there. Yesterday I only had a tute, and it was going over “nonverbal communication skills” – I decided not to go to that because I just finished my psych degree, and I didn’t feel like going over all that AGAIN. Today, I’m supposed to have my A&P lecture, but I won’t be going. The idea of riding to uni actually scares me, because I know it will only make me more tired and it will make my joints hurt more than they already do. And if I’m more tired than I already am when I get to the lecture, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate anyway, so what is the point in going?

Therefore, I’ve decided to call this week a write-off and hope that the rest helps me feel better enough to deal with the world again next week.

Before anyone asks – yes, I have stuff I can take. I avoid taking it because it interferes with my pill. Therefore, I need to talk to Hubby before I start taking it, because it’s not something that will only affect me.

I haven’t talked to him yet because I was hoping it was a transient blip that would blow over on its own (those happen, and they’re usually over in a couple of days), but since it clearly isn’t, I’ll talk to him when he gets home from work.

~K

Thought of the day

Saw this on tumblr, and it made me think of how Hubby and I actually met.

I was in year 11, and was in the cast for a show – with a slight problem. Whenever we got to the finale, my BP would tank and I’d end up passing out on stage :S
The final solution was that the girl standing behind me would keep me steady until the curtain shut after the first song, then sort of turf me into the wings before the curtain opened again. Obviously, they needed someone to catch me, otherwise I’d just crash to the floor and make a huge noise. You can sort of guess who got allocated that role, yeah?
I found out some time later that he’d been asking around, to find out a bit more info about me… and apparently had every intention of asking me out back then! But when he found out I was only 16 still at that point (he was 19), he figured that I was a bit too young and didn’t do anything.

Then, a few years later our paths crossed again… and the rest is history haha 🙂

The funny part is, things probably wouldn’t have turned out the same way if he had asked me out back then – for starters, he was still smoking at that point and I had a hard and fast “No Smoking or Drugs” rule. Same rule still applies. He’d quit smoking by the time our paths crossed again three years later.
I also had a rather *interesting* (read as “somewhat abusive, ignorant pig”) boyfriend in the interim, which basically forced me to sort myself out – what I liked wearing, who I wanted to be friends with, what I wanted in a partner, who I was as a person. The ex was not the answer to any of those questions – in fact, he was the complete antithesis for a couple of them.

If I hadn’t had that relationship first, I probably wouldn’t be the person I am now; therefore, Hubby and I probably wouldn’t have lasted, and who knows where things might have gone after that?

Sometimes I wonder about where I might be if I hadn’t met Hubby, and if we hadn’t gotten married – what would I be doing? Would I be doing all the things I sometimes feel like I missed out on a little (solo travel, working OS, moving back to my Hometown), or would I be in exactly the same place I am now, just without someone there? Would there have been someone else?

Sometimes I feel a bit like I missed out on some of the “young person” stuff because of the things life has thrown at me – health problems, money woes, job losses. These things all mean that some of the things I wanted to do haven’t happened yet. But then, having Hubby there definitely makes up for all of that crap – because I’m pretty sure that if we were on our own, we wouldn’t have gotten through most of it, but together we got through it all and we’re stronger now for it 🙂

~K

Almost ready…

I’m half-way done on the readings ready for my first week back at uni!

I like to get a week ahead before I start back, because I will inevitably get behind in my readings at some point, and being one week up means it takes a little bit longer to get there 🙂

Other exciting things?

Hubby has been taking the rubbish out AND changing the kitty litter without being asked! (See this post for my rant about those things). OMG WOW! I wonder how long this will last? Hopefully it’s permanent now, but we’ll see.

We’re also getting the new hose for the dishwasher today – so once we’ve got that, I’LL HAVE A WORKING DISHWASHER!!!! Oh this is definitely exciting 🙂 Minimal hand washing only! (It’s only a half-size dishwasher, so my larger pot and my cutting boards don’t quite fit, but it will do everything else). I am almost bouncing around I’m so excited about my dishwasher.

And the fact that these things are exciting would suggest that I have finally achieved “Adult-ness”.

Also, TEA – My mum bought me a packet of really yummy Chai tea, and B was cleaning out her pantry and found some T2 tea that she wasn’t drinking and gave it to me. I still don’t get how you can have T2 tea in your cupboard and not drink it – the idea is just so alien to me. But it’s really yummy – she hadn’t put the label in the jar with it, so I’m not sure what it is called, but I think it is one of their summer teas – it’s very fruity and quite sweet, I’m guessing it would make fantastic iced tea. I shall be trying this sometime this week I think.

Jacket has found a new favourite spot to be my study buddy – partly because the “artificial sun puddle” (i.e. desk lamp) currently lights a different part of my desk – because MY desk lamp still isn’t fixed, so I’m still using Hubby’s (which just isn’t working how I need it to).

Lamp isn’t currently on… but I think you can guess where it shines lol. The warm computer air probably also makes this a pleasant place to sleep.

His fur is also growing back all funny – his belly fur is back, and he’s got a long bit that goes over his shoulders and down along his spine, but his sides are still mostly short. He honestly looks quite amusing at the moment, but he gets so insulted if you laugh at him lol… then again, I’d get insulted if someone laughed at a bad haircut that I had too.

Other general “life happening” things – I finished Assassins Creed Revelations, and have therefore moved onto Assassins Creed III – but I’ll replay it again later in the year. I finished the storyline, but I didn’t finish all the “bits” in the game – like collecting all the stuff and renovating all the stores and everything. So as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t REALLY finish it properly yet. Then again, I still haven’t gotten around to going back and properly finishing Brotherhood either yet. I tried with II, but for the life of me I CAN’T FIND THE BLOODY 100TH FEATHER! I even resorted to game guides that show you where to find all the feathers, and very carefully followed through to collect them… And I still seem to be missing one. It’s the only thing I haven’t been able to complete. I gave up on it after the 4th play-through – hopefully the other games won’t be quite so stubborn.

I’ve made exactly 0 progress on Oblivion and Dragon Age though, and I’m thinking I may have to start those over (AGAIN! ugh) because I’ve totally forgotten where I’m up to :S I really need to get Oblivion on my computer rather than the xbox though, because I am definitely better at gaming on the computer rather than on consoles. I’m also more likely to play a game if it’s on my computer – Hubby tends to be watching TV when I want to game (i.e. weekends) so I can’t really use the consoles without forcing him to give up whatever he’s watching (usually some sort of car racing. There’s always some sort of car racing on).

Oh well, I should really get back to my uni reading.

~K

Thoughts for Valentine’s Day

For starters, I am once again at home – on my own.

3 years running.

The past 2 years, Hubby has been away for work. This year, he’s gone racing. I said that was alright, because he hadn’t been in almost a year and it’s the first meet of the new year.

BUT now I’m more than a little annoyed.

I asked for him to do 3 THINGS this week. 3 THINGS – and it’s not like they were hard.

1. Install the dishwasher
2. Change the kitty litter
3. Empty the upstairs recycling bin into the big “rubbish collection” recycling bin.

90% of this was not accomplished.

The dishwasher is in the kitchen, but that’s it. It’s not connected, and I can’t use it. Why? Because where it was GOING to go, turns out it doesn’t fit. So we had to rework a few things, and this now means that the drainage hose is not long enough (10cm! That’s all! 10 FUCKING cm!), and he’s going to have to cut a hole in the wall between the “where it was supposed to go” cupboard and “where it actually is now” cupboard. Why didn’t it fit? Because GENIUS HUBBY only measured the depth and the width – he didn’t measure the height. Sure, the cupboard is deep enough, and it’s wide enough too. The very important thing that he missed was that the pipe from the sink comes down about 1cm too low to fit the bloody dishwasher underneath! So I do not have a dishwasher that works until we can get a new drainage hose. I asked him several times if he was sure it would fit, and he was all like “yeah I’ve measured it all up”.

I asked him on Wednesday night, Thursday night, AND Friday night to please change the kitty litter. I only asked once each day, because I don’t want to nag. He left very early this morning, and when I got up THE KITTY LITTER HADN’T BEEN DONE. So I did it, because it was really stinky.

I also asked him on Wednesday, Thursday, AND Friday nights to take the recycling down to the bin. Once again, I woke up this morning and IT WASN’T DONE.

SO PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW.

I don’t want to nag him about this shit, but it’s not like I’m asking a lot – the only other bloody things he does are cleaning the shower (and that’s purely out of necessity – the bathroom is so small that if I try, the cleaners give me a cracker migraine. And it’s not like he does that without being reminded – I have to catch him as he’s getting in the shower and give him the cleaning stuff or it would never get done) and the lawn. THAT’S IT. I do EVERYTHING else.

And he couldn’t even do THOSE THREE THINGS.

And it’s also not the first time this has happened. 50% of the time, I end up doing the kitty litter, because I remind him 2 nights straight and then I just can’t live with the smell for a third day so I do it. The recycling bin ends up overflowing most weeks, because I WILL NOT take it down when it is his job. I did it today because it was already overflowing and my Mum was coming over.

On top of all this, my desk lamp isn’t fixed yet. It’s only broken because he wasn’t careful when he put it in the truck when we moved (it got squashed by box, and the neck has broken off the base), and I’ve been asking him for the past 3 weeks to please fix it so I can have my lamp back on my desk. Buying a new one is currently out of the question because it cost $75 when I bought it, and we totally don’t have $75 just lying around. I currently have his desk lamp, but it’s cheap and doesn’t give good light, so I really need mine back. I need my lamp, because I’m back at uni soon and I need enough light so I can read my books without getting eyestrain.

So this is not a polar reaction to a one-off event. This is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

But for some reason, despite being mad at him, I still got around to sorting out a present for him – I discovered that for only a few dollars more per month than we’re currently paying for his phone, I could get a tablet for him and have it linked to the same data as his phone. So I did that today, and the tablet is all set up and ready to go. It’s partly for Valentine’s day, and partly because his old one is officially cactus, so he no longer has a tablet (battery died). So I decided earlier in the week that I would do it while I was at the shops with Mum today, so that I could surprise him with it when he gets back. I was tossing up whether to even bother this morning, but then I realised – I may be pissed off at him, but I don’t want us to go without all the luxuries when we can afford some of them (see this post about how I feel guilty about not working to help pay for said luxuries).

He’s going to get a talking to about the lack of assistance around the house before he even knows the tablet exists though. Because I am TOTALLY NOT IMPRESSED about this.

I’m back at uni in a couple of weeks, and I won’t have time to be FUCKING AROUND with this SHIT, because I will actually have to devote more hours to uni than he does to work.

He better be bloody fucking grateful for the tablet, and he has some SERIOUS making up to do.

~K