Like I said, I’m not a huge fan of naps.
But when you hardly slept on call, they are a necessary evil. It does feel sort of nice to fall into my bed after being awake for I-don’t-want- to-think-about-how-many-hours. Sometimes I think I fall asleep before my head even hits the pillow.
But no matter what, waking up is always a disorienting experience. I am never entirely sure where I am and why I’m first waking up in the mid-evening. Especially when what wakes me up is a pounding at my door. That will not stop no matter how hard I stare at the door and silently plead for it to stop.
Finally, I stumble out of bed and throw open the door. Unsurprisingly, it’s Julia. Also unsurprisingly, she doesn’t look the least bit tired, despite likely being as sleep-deprived as I am. And her ponytail is absolutely perfect as usual.
“Jane,” she says, her unidentifiable accent nearly a monotone. “You got my note? About the bathroom?”
“Oh,” I say. “Yeah.”
Is today one of my days to clean? If it is, then that’s too damn bad.
There is no way in hell I’m cleaning any bathrooms right now. “Did you see the receipt?” Julia says, raising her eyebrows.
I groan inwardly. Right, I have to pay Julia for the stupid cleaning supplies.
“Hang on,” I say.
After a brief search, I locate my purse, which is under a pile of scrubs. I pull out my wallet, and retrieve two twenty-dollar bills and four ones. I’m now left with only a five-dollar bill to my name. I think I’m going to be mostly eating ramen noodles for a while.
I bring the twenties and the ones over to Julia and hand them over with a twinge of regret. She counts the money then frowns at me.
“What?” I say.
Julia holds up the bills. “It was 44 dollars and 67 cents.” You have got to be kidding me.
I take the four one-dollar bills back from her and hand over my five.
Oh well. Ones are better for the vending machines anyway.
When I give Julia the money, she says, “I’ll get you change.” I almost tell her to forget it, but then I remember that I can use the change for the vending machines too. I’m not nearly rich enough to turn down 33 cents.
Days living with my crazy roommate: A million billion
Chances I will be doing a half-assed cleaning the bathroom in the very near future: 11O%
