His Blog 2
You forget certain things living alone. Suitable sleeping habits, cooking decent
meals and bathing may all but disappear at some point. But my (now) girlfriend
needed a place to stay and I wanted her around as long as possible. Really I wondered
how bad it could be, I knew it would be a change to have someone around all the
time, but it was someone I felt I really knew, even down to a few personal
habits. She had no reason to be dishonest with me so I couldn’t see it being
that much of an issue. Plus, I was genuinely lonely being by myself all the
time. It was great being able to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, but
that I meant I really couldn’t be bothered doing anything. If someone was there it meant I would be
inspired to take them places and get that social life I’d heard good things
about. So I tidied until I was late to
pick her up from the airport, unfortunately disobeying the law that I must meet
her at the gate. I waited and hoped that she was not waiting for her luggage by
the belt, and instead still yet to come down the Virgin Australia escalator at
Brisbane Domestic (You know the one.). There is a moment when accepting a big
change, where you see the clarity of the decision you’ve just made. Humans are
very good at transforming large problems and difficult decisions, into trivial
matters. We have this ability to make a decision seem simple, we’ll be able to
handle the unknown outcome. It is my belief that any human born who cannot do
this will become unable to make decisions and be forced into politics.
So I continued to think it wouldn’t be that life changing,
we got on, I knew we had disagreements, but the moment she came down the
escalator and saw me, her face melted like she was drowning in puppies and
rainbows. We had a weekend after that initial one in Melbourne, just a weekend
together at my house a few months prior just to vent all the tension and
testosterone caused by the last time we met. It was more relaxed we watched
movies and went to a show I had won tickets for.
And with that crazy fun weekend out of the way it was time
to get to the serious part of the relationship, well, that bit when where you
can watch the other clip their toenails and not freak out. I had never been in
a long term relationship before, I rudely observed and criticised others for
their relationship mistakes but I had never really had the chance to make my
own. Relationships seemed to be no real work. Time consuming, sure, but if you
act maturely, it appears you could get through it with very little effort. And
calling and messaging was easy over the time we were away. I had watched enough
sitcoms to know that there would be an adjustment period with her in the house.
But I had been living with housemates before so I know you can have your own
space and if you feel like killing each other there are ways to handle it. I
could do this. At least, that’s what I could tell myself as we started driving
home. Prior to the roundabout being installed on the way to the Brisbane
Domestic Airport it took 13 minutes to get home (Once I did it in 9. Yes, I
have no excuse for being late, but really I do, a girl was coming to stay.) in
that 13 minutes it dawned on me that not only was I taking a girl home to mess
up the bed that I’d taken half an hour to make. (Getting out all those creases
is hard.) but I was going to cook for her, help her look for work and get over
any homesickness she was going to have. I may also slip up and she may see my
disgusting side. I was not just violating my rental agreement by having someone
stay for an undefined period of time who was not on the rental agreement as a tenant,
but I was letting her into my life to stay. I was not taking her back to the
airport in a day, two weeks, a month, to further her trip and stay with relatives,
she was now a roommate. As I made the turn off Sandgate road (Airport Link
wasn’t open yet, and I’m from the city which thinks something as fundamental as
roads being privatised is ridiculous and means the government cannot budget.
Although it really shows what Brisbane people think of tourists with the amount
of roads to get out of the airport and get anywhere near a tourist attraction.
Both of which are an hour away from the airport. In opposite directions.)
Rounding the final corner, I decided that I would just
continue what I was doing. She was
staying at my place and, therefore, would have to tolerate not only myself but
also my oddities. And that worked out just fine. For five minutes.
Then I quickly learnt that having her around was fantastic
and if I did whatever I would have this nagging feeling that I should go do
something else with her. A feeling which has yet to go away. And hopefully, it
never shall.
