Meeting the folks

SMS, me to Dad: Hey Dad, What are you guys doing this weekend? Janek and I have been invited to a party [near home] on Sunday. So can I stay at your place on Saturday night?
SMS, Dad to me: Mum has something on Saturday, but I’ll be home. Of course you can stay.
SMS, me to Dad: Cool, thanks. When I have more details I’ll let you know.
SMS, Dad to me: Cool. Will J be staying here too?

This had me a little worried. Well, “worried” isn’t the right word, but I wasn’t sure how this would pan out. They know about Janek, Mum has met him briefly and seems to like him, but how would they go with us both sleeping under their roof? Together? Rather than have any awkwardness on Saturday, I gave Mum a call to find out what she thinks…

Me: Hey Mum, how’re you?
Mum: I’m well. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?
Me: Well I wanted to ask you about this weekend… How do you feel about Janek staying there? In my room, I mean.
Mum: Well how do you feel about it?
Me: I feel great, how do you feel?
Mum: I feel fine. (to Dad) How do you feel about Janek staying here? (quick silence) He feels fine, everyone’s fine, don’t worry.
Me: Good good. So when can we expect you?

We arrived late.

We had dinner, a simple chicken stirfry that I invented from left-overs that Dad really loved, and then watched a movie with them. Mum went to bed early; Dad watched another movie with us, as we snuggled up on the lounge. There was no awkwardness, no sideling looks, no whispers; they loved him, like I knew they would. And he loved them. So much so that he even sided with my mother during an argument on how best to cook rice. Though I was pissed off at the time that he wasn’t backing me up, since he’s seen me make rice this way hundreds of times, I was glad he felt comfortable enough to join in the jokey kind of argument.

As we were getting ready for bed Dad said “So I take it you don’t want me to make up Sister’s room?” I said no. He smiled knowingly and went on his way.

The next morning, as we leaving, I snuck into Mum’s room and did the whole “So now that you’ve spent more than a few minutes with him, what did you think?” thing in hushed whispers so that Janek wouldn’t know we were talking about him (though I do realise that by writing about it I am negating my efforts somewhat). She told me she really likes him, and that she’s glad I brought him to meet them.

I didn’t get a chance to ask Dad, so I sent him a text message tonight…
SMS, me to Dad: So what do you think of Janek?
SM S, Dad to me: I like Janek! Was going to ask how he felt about meeting the parents.
SMS, me to Dad: He was nervous as hell on the drive up but it dissipated quickly.
SM S, Dad to me: And… what did he say on the trip home?
SMS, me to Dad: I dunno… do you have anything specific in mind? He said he had a good time, you and Mum are really lovely etc.
SM S, Dad to me: No… that is fine. Just hoped that he felt comfortable being here
SMS, me to Dad: Oh yes, he did. Very much. Weekend was a huge success :-)

Four(teen) things

As relationships grow over time, each becomes aware of the other’s quirks and idiosyncrasies. Over the past week I’ve been keenly aware of Janek’s. As a joke I wrote out the following list:

Four things I (love to) hate about Janek

1. The way he corrects my pronunciation of words like schedule, for example.
2. His obsession with the “correct way” to use the words less and fewer.
3. The way he insists that there is a right way to hang shirts and fold clothes.
4. The way he tidies my room when he comes to see me.

The idea was to write ten, so the title had a little more cultural relevance, but I couldn’t think of six more (though I’m sure with time they will come to me). After writing this list, I came up with another list:

Fourteen things I love about Janek

1. The way he watches me quietly, as if he’s taking all of me in and imprinting the image on his brain, in minute detail.
2. The way he pulls me towards him when we’re naked, like he wants to pull me inside him.
3. His ability and willingness to drive [me] anywhere… to appointments, Coles etc.
4. The way he gets so excited when he explains his work or other scientific tid-bits to me.
5. His back-rubs are heavenly; his skin is warm and his touch is gentle.
6. The way he lights up when he sees me.
7. The way he is content to lie with me, like in the Snow Patrol song, when I am in pain and can’t do much else.
8. The fact that two days after briefly mentioning my English text list, he arrived on my doorstep with three of the items, one of which had been procured by his mother from her place of employment. This is but one of a long list of examples of how he seems to go out of his way to help me, despite my protestations.
9. Kissing him. Period.
10. That he bought me a wireless keyboard for our two month “anniversary” (and was man enough to admit part of the reason was that he hates my laptop’s keyboard), and that he bought me a teddy bear, Paño, just because.
11. That he is incredibly chivalrous and lights my cigarette for me.
12. That he read into reactive hypoglycaemia the night I was diagnosed because he wanted to understand what was wrong with me, so he could help me with the new diet.
13. The way he just sits with me when I’m neck deep in assignments because he wants to spend time with me. The times when he helps me with them earn bonus points.
14. Most importantly: the way he tells me everything will be ok, and means it.

So this is what falling for someone is like, huh… Bring it on.

Rolling on

My apologies for the lack of posts; I’ve been spending most of my spare time with Janek lately, so I haven’t had a lot of time to blog, and most of the things we’ve been doing I can’t really blog about anyway. But, nonetheless, here I am.

Uni started this week. My first lecture was on Monday at midday, on the other side of campus from where I live. I woke at 7 am: first strike against the day. Janek was going to drop in to pick up something he left here so I sent him a text, telling him he could come over early. He arrived at about 8.30 am: first tick for the day. He had to leave soon after, however, to get to a meeting at 11: second strike. By a quarter to midday, I was ready for the lecture—ready to absorb information and engage in the intellectual life of university. I walked towards the university, crossed the footbridge, and then stopped. The whole area was cordoned off. I couldn’t get into the uni: third strike. I was freezing: fourth strike.

I asked some questions of the person who appeared to be in charge. She told me that some very corrosive chemicals had been discovered in the Pharmacy Building, so four of the surrounding buildings had been evacuated, and Science Rd had been closed. This meant that to get to my lecture I would have to walk around the boundary of the university to get in through another entrance: fifth strike.

First day—five strikes and two ticks. I went home, back to bed.

Meeting the new boyfriend

On Sunday I journeyed to the coast to stay with Lala and Cal for a week. Luckily, I scored a lift with Janek, and we went out to lunch with most of The Beach Crew: Lala, Tia, Bee, Bin and Alex.

It’s hard to say who was more nervous as Janek and I drove to the coast... When we got into the car after lunch, Janek clutched his heart dramatically and declared his heart was beating a mile a minute, so it’s safe to assume that he was as nervous as I was. For my part, I discovered that my nerves were misplaced as I saw Janek and my family get on like a house on fire.

As in all good Meeting-The-New-Partner scenarios, as soon as The Partner was out of earshot, The Presenter asked the timeless question: “So what do you think?” The response was, without exception, “I love Janek! He’s so lovely!” Another yay.

Awkward

Janek met Mum the other day, briefly, as we all met in a Maccas carpark halfway between Mum and Dad’s and the city.

A few days before hand I said to Mum, “Please don’t embarrass me!” The night before the meeting took place, she told me she had two questions to ask me. “Firstly,” she demanded, “why do you think that I’d embarrass you in front of Janek!?” “I dunno...” I said, “I guess I’m just covering my bases.” Mum grumbled in that way that Marge Simpson does when she’s not entirely satisfied with an answer.

At this point in the conversation, I got up and walked into the next room, my bedroom, to get my glasses. She continued talking to me as I rifled through bags in my room: “The other thing...” she started, then stopped to choose her words. “Now I’m not going to ask if you and Janek are doing it, but...” she faltered, “well I need to know you’re being careful.”

I died standing up.

“Yes Mum. There’s a box of condoms in my bedroom, you have nothing to fear.” Her reply: “Oh good.”

I continued searching in silence for the elusive glasses. After five minutes I couldn’t restrain myself from declaring “I cannot believe you asked me that, Mum.” “Well, you know, sometimes teenagers get carried away and don’t think of this kind of things.” “But I’m not a teenager, Mum, I’m nearly twenty-five.” “I know, I know, but I had to say it.” I continued searching in silence.

The next day, about fifteen minutes after the appointed hour, Mum and I drove into the carpark at Maccas and parked the car next to Janek (who had been there for half an hour, for fear of arriving late and making a bad first impression on my mother). The way Janek tells it, I leapt out of the car as soon as it stopped moving, bounded over to him and kissed him. In reality there was no leaping or bounding; however I did kiss him, though there was no tongue. This shocked him for two reasons: it was in front of my mother and it was in a Maccas carpark in the middle of Western Sydney. They met and talked briefly, but as Mum and I were (fashionably) late, we had to leave quite quickly.

There was no embarrassment, no awkward questions and she was very impressed with Janek. Yay.

One month

This week I’m spending the week at home with Mum & Dad. The plan is to relax and do nothing, except write my speech and catch up on some reading, but experience tells me this is not going to be the case. Anyway, this post is going to be very uneventful; it’s late and I’m tired, but I wanted to say hello and let you all know I’m alive and well.

Things with Janek are going well… I don’t want to jinx it by going into graphic details, so I guess you’ll have to use your collective imaginations. Grin. He’s incredibly sweet, charming and has made the last month fly by on a cloud of grins, double entendre and corny innuendo.

In other news, the Midnight Cat puked on my carpet the other day. So that’s that. More to come soon!

Dude, we're so awesome

True to form, I was the last to figure it out. When I started talking to Kate about it, she immediately said “No shit Sherlock… I’ve been WAITING for you to have this conversation with me!!!” Even Lance, a seven year old who resides in a different state to me, had it figured before I had. I really need to work on my inner detective skills and learn to interpret the signs a little more accurately and much quicker.

Janek and I have been hanging out a lot, whether on campus or at my place watching videos etc. He hasn’t been well so I’ve even had him sleeping there during the day while I gallivanted around learning and being the model student. On Friday, I called him at about 3pm and asked if he’d like to pop round to watch a video because, well, there was no reason… I just wanted to spend time with him.

He arrived at about the same time as a sudden spasm of back pain so I couldn’t get comfortable sitting up. I lay down, with the electric blanket on full blast to try (rather vainly as it would turn out) to relieve the pain. Janek lay down next to me, our bodies pressed up together on my tiny single bed, and his head on my shoulder. We watched the movie and then lay there talking, me topless by this point. I realise that at this point this story is beginning to sound like bad porn fiction, but I swear that (on my part at least) it was all innocent. As we spoke, I had a sudden spasm of pain run across my left shoulder blade; he asked if I was ok and held my hand. Anyway, the time came for him to leave so I accompanied him outside and bid him farewell. And then it hit me. I have feelings for him.

I jumped on MSN. Kate was online, thankfully:
Dan: Kate!
Kate: Hey babycakes! How’s your day been?
Dan: I think I have feelings for Janek.
Kate: No shit Sherlock! I’ve been WAITING for you to have this conversation with me!!!!
Dan: As he was leaving today it hit me. Fuck I’m dumb sometimes!
Kate: Dan… he wants you too ya pair of fools!
Dan: I know!!!
Kate: It’s so funny… I have known for AGES… and I have said zip and you worked it out FINALLY for yourself!

I smsed him and asked him to come back here, that I had something to say. He wrote back that he had just got home but would come as soon as he could. An hour later he was on my doorstep. He came in and I told him that I knew he still had feelings for me (he looked at me with a look somewhere between confused and non-committal) and that I knew he did because Kate had told me, and that I liked him too but I was too nervous to do anything. He pulled me in and held me tight… I lifted up my head and looked at his face—beaming like a sun on laughing gas—and kissed him. Unfortunately our blissful reverie was cut short by the fact that his brother was outside waiting for him in the car, so he had to leave after about twenty minutes. Then it was my turn to grin like an over-enthusiastic clown doctor.

Later that night I went into the kitchen for some water and bumped into The Optimist. We talked a little then he too beamed at me and announced that he had kissed The Girl From Down The Street. “Ahhh,” I said, “I was wondering when you two would get together. I see the way you are around each other.” It turns out I can see these things in other people, just not in myself. “Well, I kissed Janek today,” I told him.

“Dude,” he replied, “we’re so awesome!”