Sour and sweet

If you have been following my angsty tweets (poor you), you would have known that I was having the SHITTIEST. WEEK. EVER. at work.

It was BAD. I would go to work reluctantly, switch on my computer and get really mad at all the email I was receiving and then be royally pissed off for the rest of the day. There are days when I enjoy my work but that week was truly testing the limits of my tolerance.

But it all turned sweet on Wednesday afternoon. I got a call from my receptionist, who asked if it was my birthday. Obviously not! Am at ripe ‘ol age of 30, ain’t no spring chicken. Oh and my birthday is in January (hint, hint). So anyway, I said into the phone, Are you sure it’s for me? And my receptionist said, without a hint of amusement in her voice, No, maybe I just can’t read the alphabets.

I love her, she’s really quite funny and sweet.

Off I went to the reception area and lo and behold! A gorgeous bouquet of lilies – my favourite – was sitting there singing my name. After a quick, cursory glance at the accompanying card, yes, the flowers WERE for ME! And they were, contrary to popular notion, not from Mr Thick but from the Squirts! Just because they knew I was feeling bummed about everything.

Aww.

It melted my sad, cynical heart and I was all ready for a sniffle or two. But of course, my friend the Squirt doesn’t pick up her mobile phone and the sniffles went right back into the back of my eyes.

But that was not all.

During my angriest and most royally pissed off moments, I decided that I was not going to let myself get into such a state during my IVF. After paying through the nose to try and make a petrie dish baby, I was going to make sure that I give it my best shot. I don’t want to have any regrets.

I would take the entire month off from work.

Now, of course there teeny tiny problem of getting my boss’ approval. And I was really hesitant about doing it. Not because she is a tyrant or anything like that, but because I felt awfully guilty about abandoning her. We are a pretty tight two-woman team and she’s already covered my minuscule ass during my recovery from the laparoscopy.

But she was an absolute angel. She smiled and said if this was what I wanted, then I should go right on ahead. There was no hint of irritation that she would have to cover me for the month, no sign of unhappiness. Best part was, she had my back covered and said that all that I had been dealing with was in no way my fault, and that I was doing everything right.

And just like that, the week went from hell to, well, okay. It’s not heaven but with friends and bosses like that, I might as well be on heaven on earth.