"It'll be OK"

I had a BAD day yesterday. I picked up my little one from school and we got on the train to Leiden to pick up my thesis, as I was told it would be done on Friday. I got to tell you that I had anxiously been waiting for this moment. It’s one thing to see your work on a computer but I could not wait to see it printed. The disappointment was huge when I was presented with four poor quality copies. Everything, and I mean everything was a mess. Who on earth would get it in their heads to print a title page on the back of a cover? Didn’t I say I wanted it printed single- sided? Why did I get double-sided? Why was the print so pale in some places? Not enough ink perhaps? Why was the cover so flimsy? And WHY were my COLOR images black and white?!?!

I am not so good at confrontations so I admit, I payed and walked out, and I hated myself all the way home for not standing up for myself and giving that a**WIPE a piece of my mind! (well, I can vent here no? It is my blog!) Comforted myself a bit by getting a Rembrandt mug and a set of Rembrandt napkins and by stopping at a local café to have a fudge brownie and a yogurt shake with my sweetie, but I sort of fell apart at home.

Thank goodness I have a husband who’s one in a billion and thank God he has access to decent printers. He spent the whole Saturday in his office, printing everything the way it should be: beautiful colors, thick paper and the quality cover my thesis deserves. When he came home, I cried. I am lucky and I don’t get tired of saying or acknowledging that. Now the only thing I need is to get it bound, which I will do bright and early Monday morning (shops that do this service are closed Sundays here in The Netherlands). I hope my professors don’t hold it against me that I left the miserable copies in their mailbox and I hope they see the difference in quality. I did mail them as soon as I got home and explained how very disappointed I was in the copy shop of my university.

As I type, I can smell my favorite pasta being cooked by my favorite man. These things happen I know. Things can’t always be perfect. At least in my life, the things that matter most, definitely are.

PS: Did I mention that my daughter surprised me last night with a cover for my thesis which she made herself? She did see me in tears and to comfort me she took out her markers and by looking at the the "bad" cover,she drew her own version and presented it to me. :)