Happy New Year in May…

I honestly don’t know why I still pay for this blog. If I calculate all the money I’ve spent so far on this blog, it would be enough to make a down payment for a brand new car key holder.

Work has consumed my whole life. I’m not quite over the “newness” of my job, but recently it has hit me hard how much I didn’t really have a life outside of church. I’m at work everyday till late in the evening, sometimes till night. And when I get home, all I want to do is set my AC to Antarctica and curl up underneath a blanket in front of my Tv. Most nights, I fall asleep in the middle of ‘Family Guy’ or ‘On The Case with Paula Zhan’.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve fallen asleep with food in my plate, on my bed. It’s a good thing I’m not a rough sleeper, or else I would’ve been getting rice and stew in my hair.

I moved to a new place in February and I LOVE my new house. It’s been two months since I moved in, but there’s barely any furniture in the room. I got some house plants (little cute cacti) because I’ve always wanted to fill my house with plants. One of the plants is an attention seeker because she’s yellowing and dying from lack of attention. My favourite part of the house has to be my kitchen. It’s the only fully furnished room. It’s very small, but it looks like it should be in one of those interior décor magazines (even if I do say so myself).

Work is tough (I won’t lie) but I’m learning a lot… Looking back, I realise that the lessons I’m learning today are lessons I would’ve learnt at my former job if I didn’t spend half the time sulking and praying that evil arrows be rerouted to my enemies. I’m learning things about myself too and how I relate with people. I have subordinates who call me “madame” and “ma’m”. Sometimes, I look at them with pity and think to myself, “This person you’re calling madame, this person you fear so much… Do you know she falls asleep with rice and stew on her bed?”

I read a ton of articles about effective management and leadership. I tried to study “wise” leaders in the Bible… yet every time I have to be assertive and make a firm ‘madam-ish’ decision, I start shaking on the inside. I hate settling disputes the most, especially when the two people involved are giving very different accounts of whatever event that led to the problem. I can’t judge every case by telling both parties to bring a sword and split the baby in two… I wish I could, but I can’t, so I have to listen. I’m not doing too badly though… I should give myself more credit. 

It’s the travelling I enjoy the most… I like that touristy feeling of being a stranger in a strange town, away from the madness that is Lagos. And I LOVE hotel living.

 

I had a guy I was “talking to”… but that didn’t last very long. It worked at first because I was spending every waking minute outside of work on the phone with him. However, it wasn’t sustainable because I started to suffer from severe sleep deprivation. One day, he hit me with  the, “We need to talk” and I instantly went cold. 

He asked, “Are you married?” 

I honestly thought he was joking. You see, in my head, we were two career people trying to make a budding long distance romance work. In his head, I was a secretly married woman who could only Facetime him when I was out of town, in a hotel, away from my husband. For the first time in my life, I was the one trying to convince a partner that I wasn’t seeing someone else. I could hear myself sounding like the lyrics of a 90’s R&B song…

 

My boss is out of town for the week so I’m a bit free. Usually, I write down a long (unrealistic) list of things to do in the two or three days that he’ll be gone. It was my way of proving to myself that I can live a full life beyond work and church.

Last time he travelled, I bought a new sketch pad. (The first and only time I opened it was to feel the texture of the paper).

I also bought some ingredients for banana bread because I thought I might bake. (The bananas were very ripe when I bought them and it took them less than two days to turn into fly-trapping toxic waste).

I scheduled a spa appointment that I ended up missing.

The funniest one was when I went to see a movie. It was on a Wednesday after church. I got to the cinema really early… got my ticket, got a large popcorn, a hotdog, and went into the hall. It was a small hall. It had those nice big reclining chairs that have an adjustable foot rest. I pulled my shawl out of my bag, spread it open and snuggled under it for warmth. In my bag, I had juice boxes… the ones with bendy straws so I wouldn’t have to sit up to sip my drink. I also had suya in my bag. Bottom line; I came prepared to watch the hell out of that movie.

A little over an hour later, it was the sudden noise from other movie goers that startled me awake. I looked up at the screen just as Nupita’s character was setting the bad guy on fire and realized it was the reason for their agitation.

Still groggy from sleep, I packed up all my stuff, put on my shoes and did the walk of shame out of the hall. There were two other people on my row and as I walked past them, I wondered if they could smell the suya in my bag.

That, my friends, was the last time I tried to forcefully “do life” that week. On the other days, I just enjoyed closing from work at 5:00pm, getting home by 5:20pm and just chilling. Why pay imax 3,000Naira for a nap when I can just microwave popcorn at home, eat and sleep?