Separate Adventures - Day 10
Double digits...day 10, ugh again. I told my best friend R that I am so ready to join Pedro. We've been apart before. Even longer than this, but not this far away. I want to be there, to help him and make decisions with him and just be his wife again. I've had my airport/seeing-him-again outfit picked out for days. R says it's just a rough chapter in our life. It's true, and I'll join him eventually, but it still sucks... Enough with the pity party, to Pedro!
I woke up at 6:30 to my international phone app buzzing. The app is a bit finicky when someone is calling. The app shows in the notification bar, but shows no way to answer it, so I just kept pushing buttons while Pedro kept calling until I finally connected with him. He said he was able to find both a bed, a bed frame with drawers (yay storage), and a bike with all the accessories.
He took the bike home and waited on the delivery guys for the bed. Unfortunately, the delivery guy showed up with the bed, not knowing Pedro also paid for installation (since he has no tools). The delivery guy did not have enough time to install the bed today, but at least he has a bed to sleep on. Next step was sheets!
He called me from Asda (basically our Wal-Mart) about bed sheet colors, but it turned into a 20 minute conversion about what a duvet is. I know we have duvets in America, but I personally never had one and neither has Pedro. We've always used blankets or comforters. So he's sending me pictures of fitted sheets and duvet covers and duvet sets. And that's where we got confused. What's the difference between a duvet and a comforter? What comes in the set? These seem flat, where's the stuffing?
Then I heard Pedro ask a local what all this meant. I heard this sweet lady not only answer him but explain all the options and what he should and shouldn't get. I'm just on the other end, thinking this is the cutest conversation between him and local at a store over duvets. Oh, and apparently, we've been pronouncing it wrong, at least in Scotland. In America, we say doo-vay, in Glasgow it's a duhvee. So cute. Anyway, she explained the duvet is the actual stuffed insert, kind of like a plain white American comforter. The duvet cover is the fabric case that the duvet goes into to make it pretty. Freaking genius in my opinion. Easy to clean and a simple change of design with different covers instead of trying to store multiple giant fluffy comforters. She also explained the different categories of duvets, which are related to how warm they are. He ended up with a 10.5 (a medium warmth) and we may need to upgrade to a 15 (extra warm) for the winter, according to her. A duvet should also be changed every five years, perfect for our timeline. So helpful, these Glasgow natives.
So Pedro's mom was asking me what was left to buy for the apartment at the end of the day…and it all went downhill from there. His mom has a giving heart, to a fault.
See, the issue right now is, Pedro has a bank account but no card, so he is still limited in what he can do until he has his loans. He wants to buy a microwave, vacuum, and simple things like that for the apartment, but he can't exactly take it home on a bike. He also can't order delivery without a card. Our solution was amazon. Just about everything is sold on amazon, and it is delivered to your door in a couple of days. Pedro even gets a 6 month free student account. So we found a few things and saved them to buy later when I join my money and his loans come in.
His mom: Does amazon have everything else he needs? Look it up, see how much it will cost if we get everything from amazon.
You can see where this is going, right?
She's telling me to look up a microwave, desks, chairs, dining sets, trying to furnish our entire apartment. Then she gets out her wallet.
S: We can't buy all of this stuff now. We're waiting to see what he can find at secondhand stores.
His Mom: Why not now? He can save his money, and everything is delivered next week, he doesn't have to wait.
S: Ok, but at least wait until tomorrow, he doesn't know about any of this, and I want to have his input too.
But she wanted to help, so I said we needed to call Pedro. It was past midnight, but I needed him to know what was going on. What if he woke up, went out and bought stuff before we could even tell him? Plus, I don't want to buy stuff he doesn’t even like. Both of us like to do a lot of research before our purchases, him even more so than me.
We spent 2 hours on the phone talking back and forth, setting up a UK student account with an American credit card, and discussing purchasing. We tried many times to tell her no, but she still insisted. She told us we needed to buy this and that and had us look up something for each of us and add it to the cart.
In the end, we had our own desks, desk chairs, desk mats for the carpet, a microwave, a toaster oven, a space heater, an oscillating fan, a dining table set with chairs, a grocery bag with wheels, a vacuum, and a bicycle seat cushion (for Pedro’s sore butt).
S: Are you sure you’re ok with this?
His mom: Yes, you need all of that. You guys have nothing, and the loans won’t come in for weeks.
S: Thank you. But no more, please.
His mom: No, I don’t have money for anymore.
S: That’s what you said last time!
So Pedro now has 14 items coming to the apartment between tomorrow and Tuesday. Tomorrow the bed installation guy should be there too. The apartment is really coming together.
Honest to goodness, I am so grateful to Pedro’s mom for everything. Both of our families have helped us so much. I just hope we will be together again, and we will be self-sustaining again. I hate feeling like I have to rely on others, not being able to say ‘no, we can take care of it’ and truly mean it. We’ll get there. Eventually.
I woke up at 6:30 to my international phone app buzzing. The app is a bit finicky when someone is calling. The app shows in the notification bar, but shows no way to answer it, so I just kept pushing buttons while Pedro kept calling until I finally connected with him. He said he was able to find both a bed, a bed frame with drawers (yay storage), and a bike with all the accessories.
He took the bike home and waited on the delivery guys for the bed. Unfortunately, the delivery guy showed up with the bed, not knowing Pedro also paid for installation (since he has no tools). The delivery guy did not have enough time to install the bed today, but at least he has a bed to sleep on. Next step was sheets!
He called me from Asda (basically our Wal-Mart) about bed sheet colors, but it turned into a 20 minute conversion about what a duvet is. I know we have duvets in America, but I personally never had one and neither has Pedro. We've always used blankets or comforters. So he's sending me pictures of fitted sheets and duvet covers and duvet sets. And that's where we got confused. What's the difference between a duvet and a comforter? What comes in the set? These seem flat, where's the stuffing?
Then I heard Pedro ask a local what all this meant. I heard this sweet lady not only answer him but explain all the options and what he should and shouldn't get. I'm just on the other end, thinking this is the cutest conversation between him and local at a store over duvets. Oh, and apparently, we've been pronouncing it wrong, at least in Scotland. In America, we say doo-vay, in Glasgow it's a duhvee. So cute. Anyway, she explained the duvet is the actual stuffed insert, kind of like a plain white American comforter. The duvet cover is the fabric case that the duvet goes into to make it pretty. Freaking genius in my opinion. Easy to clean and a simple change of design with different covers instead of trying to store multiple giant fluffy comforters. She also explained the different categories of duvets, which are related to how warm they are. He ended up with a 10.5 (a medium warmth) and we may need to upgrade to a 15 (extra warm) for the winter, according to her. A duvet should also be changed every five years, perfect for our timeline. So helpful, these Glasgow natives.
So Pedro's mom was asking me what was left to buy for the apartment at the end of the day…and it all went downhill from there. His mom has a giving heart, to a fault.
See, the issue right now is, Pedro has a bank account but no card, so he is still limited in what he can do until he has his loans. He wants to buy a microwave, vacuum, and simple things like that for the apartment, but he can't exactly take it home on a bike. He also can't order delivery without a card. Our solution was amazon. Just about everything is sold on amazon, and it is delivered to your door in a couple of days. Pedro even gets a 6 month free student account. So we found a few things and saved them to buy later when I join my money and his loans come in.
His mom: Does amazon have everything else he needs? Look it up, see how much it will cost if we get everything from amazon.
You can see where this is going, right?
She's telling me to look up a microwave, desks, chairs, dining sets, trying to furnish our entire apartment. Then she gets out her wallet.
S: We can't buy all of this stuff now. We're waiting to see what he can find at secondhand stores.
His Mom: Why not now? He can save his money, and everything is delivered next week, he doesn't have to wait.
S: Ok, but at least wait until tomorrow, he doesn't know about any of this, and I want to have his input too.
But she wanted to help, so I said we needed to call Pedro. It was past midnight, but I needed him to know what was going on. What if he woke up, went out and bought stuff before we could even tell him? Plus, I don't want to buy stuff he doesn’t even like. Both of us like to do a lot of research before our purchases, him even more so than me.
We spent 2 hours on the phone talking back and forth, setting up a UK student account with an American credit card, and discussing purchasing. We tried many times to tell her no, but she still insisted. She told us we needed to buy this and that and had us look up something for each of us and add it to the cart.
In the end, we had our own desks, desk chairs, desk mats for the carpet, a microwave, a toaster oven, a space heater, an oscillating fan, a dining table set with chairs, a grocery bag with wheels, a vacuum, and a bicycle seat cushion (for Pedro’s sore butt).
S: Are you sure you’re ok with this?
His mom: Yes, you need all of that. You guys have nothing, and the loans won’t come in for weeks.
S: Thank you. But no more, please.
His mom: No, I don’t have money for anymore.
S: That’s what you said last time!
So Pedro now has 14 items coming to the apartment between tomorrow and Tuesday. Tomorrow the bed installation guy should be there too. The apartment is really coming together.
Honest to goodness, I am so grateful to Pedro’s mom for everything. Both of our families have helped us so much. I just hope we will be together again, and we will be self-sustaining again. I hate feeling like I have to rely on others, not being able to say ‘no, we can take care of it’ and truly mean it. We’ll get there. Eventually.
