Huh...

Olivia had an orthodontist appointment recently.

Because Tom hates (HATES!!!) appointments that are not near the end of the day, I specifically asked for a later appointment, even though it’s summer.

To be fair to him, he’s less loathing of early appointments in the summer but when school is in session, he can be kind of a jerk about having to go to the school, pick up either (both?) child(ren?) and then bring her/them to her/heir appointments.

He acts like I’ve committed one of the seven deadly sins if this happens. Which sin would that be? Probably sloth, I feel like I'm all over that one.

But anyway, this time her appointment was for 3:10 (pm, obviously, why on earth would I set up an appointment for 3:10am? I don't even know.) And since she (and he…for what it’s worth) are both home all day, bringing her to town for the appointment is not really a hardship.

And what’s more, I get leave work EARLY so that I can meet them at whatever appointment is happening so he doesn’t even have to STAY for the appointment.

Yeah, he’s got a really hard life.

So the morning of the appointment, as I was leaving for work at 6:30 so I could get my full 8 hours of work in and still leave at 3:00 for the appointment, he followed me around the kitchen (for the record, our kitchen is not that big) asking me to remind him of what needed to be done before he and Liv left for her appointment.

I ended up writing him a note with the time of the appointment and all the things I’d like him to do for Livie, such as brush her teeth (it WAS an orthodontist appointment, duh) and brush her hair because, well, she needs her hair brushed before going out in public lest she look like she lives in a van with her delinquent parents.

I’d already laid out her clothes for the day. I’d washed her hair the night before. I’d started even started a load of sheets in the washer that I will put in the drier when I get home.

I mentioned to him the things Liv and I were going to do after the appointment and that was when he said, “So you’re not going back to work?”

Wait, what? Why in the world would I go back to work? First of all, her appointment wouldn’t be done until at least 4:00, and hello, I’ll have the child with me, should I take her to work with me and let her watch me work for twenty minutes? The whole freaking point of making the late appointments (for ME) is that I get to leave work and NOT GO BACK.

He shrugged and said, “Well, they’d probably let you work until 5:00, which would give you almost another hour.”

Yes…he was sort of joking; but not completely.

And see, here's the thing, I wouldn’t have to leave work early to begin with if HE would stick around with her for the appointment, then schedule the next appointment and after that run to the bank and deposit Alyssa’s most recent paycheck and then go to Walmart and buy me a data card for my phone and then take Olivia to dinner because, hello, she ALWAYS gets to eat out after an orthodontist/dentist/eye doctor/regular doctor appointment. That’s just the way it is.

But that doesn’t happen and so…I go to work early to get my hours in so I can leave early.

Then I run around taking care of LIFE things while he goes home and rests on the couch because driving Liv to town and then driving himself home is EXHAUSTING.

Which, okay, it probably was very tiring what with him being BROKEN and all. But still!

When he made the suggestion of me working until 5, I just blinked at him because, seriously? You want to talk about who is working what hours these days?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.