“Women has this thing in her body called expectation.”
“So, expectation is bad?”
“It is for us, men. Because we’ll never reach their expectation.”
-taken from Chowder, the tv series
This year on the 14 of October, we have been in our 14 years of partnership -and another 10 years of relationship- and expectations often become the roots of all heartaches. Especially on my side. Chowder’s father couldn’t be more right telling Chowder about expectation. Women hold to it firmer than men do.
Despite being so realist and cynical about life (and relationship between men and women, husbands and wives), I do have expectations about my partner in life. One of them is for him to show up at wherever-I’m-on-14October-each-year with a big bucket of red roses and tell me ‘Happy Anniversary! I love you so much. Can we get out of here and go to Paris right now?’
It never happens.
Okay, perhaps that expectation is too much 🙂 .
Anyway, I still thought it was possible for Papap to wake up and decide to buy me a bucket of Happy Anniversary red roses for the special day. So, I did keep my hope and my expectation. He didn’t. Instead, he asked me to spend the night and the day just the two of us in Puncak to do whatever.
We spent the night before 14 October on the road in Puncak to have a very late dinner at Sate Haji Something that turned out to be really expensive and not chew-able. But, we didn’t care. We got no hotel room because it was already late when we arrived, except for a Caravan at Taman Safari. We giggled at the room -or the caravan- because it would have been a perfect room if we had been a boy or girl scout. Anyway, it was only a night and we would head back home early in the morning. No fuss, although I did expect to have a nicer room that night. With mountain view, maybe?
Morning came and we woke up feeling quite lost from the sound of children and animals shouting: where are we again?
Breakfast time! We walked slowly to the restaurant while enjoying the forest view only to find the food was gone at 9AM! Well, my expectation of having a complete eastern and western styles breakfast was substituted by Papap’s wide grin and invitation to find something yummy to eat on the road.
But, the way home was closed by the Police already. We only had a way up to go home. We ended up arriving at Taman Bunga Nusantara and spending our afternoon at that awesome garden. The 3.5 hours back home left me with a headache from heat and long trip, but I didn’t complain.
If it was up to me, the day would have been carefully planned even with the surprises. But, the long years of our relationship have taught me things can be a lot nicer than my expectations. I just have to have the courage and willingness to give it a try.
But I will definitely try expecting a bucket of roses again next year…
Happy Anniversary, Papap!
