It is AJ’s 2nd birthday today, and unlike last year we have decided not to overextend and do a lowkey marking of the occasion, just the way I like it. We had to learn that lesson from last year. There is no point inviting people over only for me to be stronging face instead of being a good host. I also like the fact that it was a joint decision to not do anything, rather than me having to convince Tiwa to see things my way.
I should make it clear that it is not as if I don’t want to celebrate AJ, not at all, in fact I will throw a bbq to celebrate her this summer (this is like the 10th bbq I have thrown in my posts). I just have a legitimate reason for not wanting to celebrate on both occasions, last year we didn’t have the mental bandwidth to do anything and this year, I have a professional exam so I need to study for.
I can’t study if I have to play host, and I feel under pressure because I cannot afford to fail the exam because my company paid for it. If I paid for the course myself that would have been a different case, I am accountable to myself and I can rebook anytime. This is the first time someone is paying for my education since dad paid for my A Levels in Taidob back in 02. So yeah I am a bit tense for the exam.
The exam, on paper is not that difficult, it is a project management exam and I have been in the field for a few years so it is not absorbing the knowledge that is a big deal, it is fact that they want you to answer questions in a specific way. I knew I was fucked when the first two hours of the training for the course was educating us on how to decipher and answer the questions. You would think Explain three differences between projects and business as usual is pretty straightforward but nope, not for APM.
Then there is the 5 days training I went for this week. 8 hours training for 5 days, after which I had to come home and do goo goo gaa gaa with AJ and before I blink, it is time for bed. Was this what it was like pre covid and pre working from home? It is gross. Thank God I only had to do it for a week before going back to work. That was not even the point I was trying to make. The point I was trying to make was that I don’t think the human brain is designed to absorb information after information for 8 hours, with a 45 mins break in between. The set up for the A levels I mentioned earlier was 8 am to 6 pm every, fucking, day. The school owner was trying to cram AS and A level into one year and our set was the guinea pig. Naturally, I didn’t go to class 5 days a week because I was not a dickhead, but I cannot believe a grown man had an idea to teach 15-16 year olds maths, physics and chemistry for 10 hours a day (with, no, fucking holidays) and sold the idea to my Dad and my Dad thought that was a brilliant idea and put me forward. I was not even the smart one in the family! Such a horrible idea, and if I had failed, it would have been my fault!
I digress. 9 – 5, especially for someone like me who is a morning person and is mainly productive between 6 am and 12 noon, was not ideal. Anything this dude said after 2 pm was entering my junk mail. I kept making note to “do self-study” on the topics that enter the junk mail and the junk mail got filled up pretty fast.
So yeah, committing to throwing a house part would have inevitably led to me stronging face for the second year in a row. They say third time is a charm so hopefully next year, I won’t have any other commitment and AJ would be a year older and she might actually have friends here age that we can invite over rather than using her as an excuse to throw a house party .