I'll start that... in a minute... or two

Instead of working on assignments today, I've procrastinated in the most spectacular ways possible. Here's all the things I've done instead of what I should be doing:

Changed my room around: chest of drawers, bed, bedside drawers and desk. As in, reversed the room completely. Head of the bed was against one wall, now is against the wall which was closest to my feet. That took a good hour.

Vacuumed room. Including taking the head off and running the nozzle along the architraves.

Did three loads of washing: sheets, doona, pillowcases, mattress protector. Fought with putting new doona cover on doona; fought with cat who thinks bed-making is play-time.

Baked chocolate chip muffins. Packet mix variety, not from scratch.

Washed dishes straight away, rather than let them pile up or for someone else to do.

Wrote this post.

All that and it's only 1.15pm. Imagine what I could achieve if I put all that energy to things that I should be doing...

What are the things that you do to procrastinate?

{it's really not like I need any new ways, but variety is good}

Image is from weheartit.com but I can't get the $%*& link to work. Apologies if this is your image!

Thank you

Dear teenage boy in school uniform standing on the side of the road,

Thank you for shedding the inhibitions of an adolescent and losing yourself in an epic air drum solo. You had your iPod on and your eyes were closed, I thought you looked tired, until cut loose. Even now, two weeks later, the memory still makes me smile.

Dear super-stylish woman with the dog,

Honesty, lady, I thought people who looked liked you belonged only in the more well-known fashion blogs of the internet, and not walking down the street of my city. Your leopard print jacket might have made anyone else look like a hooker (not unlike Mischa Barton on SVU: Special Victims Unit last night), but you looked so amazing, it didn't even make me jealous, it made me happy. Of course, what made your whole outfit was the gorgeous miniature sausage dog you were walking. The way he trotted along the street made me want to stop the car and dog-nap him. But he would never look as good with me as he did with you.

Dear sparrows in the supermarket car park,

I usually hate you and your filthy pigeon mates, and was on track to do so when I saw you yesterday. But when you moved out of my way, I saw that you had been crowded around four squares of chocolate that had tiny little peck marks in it and your good taste impressed me. Maybe I won't be so quick to hate your friends next time.

Lots of love,

Annelise

One gold star, please

Another assignment down and man, it feels awesome. I'm such a procrastinator and have been putting this assignment off for weeks but given that it's due on Wednesday, I thought now was a good a time as any to get started... and as it is always the way, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The Issue of Ethics in Fiction Writing. You see why I was having trouble getting started.

I'm going to put the fact that I have to do an oral presentation as part of the assignment out of my mind until Wednesday morning. Oral presentations can suck it.

Ooh, and in keeping with the Things That Make Me Smile list, today's is:

* Finishing the assignment

* Jumpology at she left on a monday

* Dad handing out a Chomp chocolate bar. Haven't had one for years! Yum!

I've got another assignment due on Thursday that will be getting my attention tomorrow. I'm also going to have my hair done and I'm going to sneak in a visit to Miss Ruby :)

Ruby Sunday

It was a good day today.

I met this little lady:

She is a Lakeland terrier, eleven weeks old and belongs to my aunty and cousin. Her name is Ruby and she is so damn gorgeous that my head nearly exploded.

Straight after meeting Ruby, I bought myself some jonquils. After plopping a bunch into a vase, I took off to the other end of the house to find another one and came back into the kitchen to see my cat, Archie, giving the yellow flowers the once-over:

on the bench and all, if you don't mind. Judging by the way he's got his ears back, I'm going to guess he doesn't like the smell of them too much.

And another thing that made me happy today was finishing and submitting an assignment, and then being able to put a solid line through it on my Things That Give Me Grief list.

Add to that tacos for dinner, a night in front of the television rugged up in flanelette pyjamas and going to bed in my warm bed, it's been a pretty good day.

To stop myself from wallowing in a pool of self-pity, I'm going to start listing at least three things, every day, that have brought a smile to my face. It's so easy to let the shitty feelings take over. Mind you, I've done this sort of thing before and lasted two days, but it's the thought that counts, surely?

I hope you all had (are still having) fantastic weekends!

Friends

Did you make it to your late-twenties/early-thirties, stop and think Where did all my friends go?

I did.

I don't really know how it happened. While I was never one of those girls who had a massive group of girlfriends, I was never friendless. I seemed to have a lot of stand-alone type friends, lots of friends who weren't in a group of our own. And I liked that, it meant that I was part of several different groups, filled with loads of interesting people.

Somehow, over the years, the friends have dwindled. Even the trusty high school best friend, who I love and hope I'll always be friend with, has drifted away. Granted, our lives are pretty different these days. She and her boyfriend have been together since they were about fifteen and now have two gorgeous children and I guess I find it hard to relate to. She has all these new friends, friends she met through her kids' school, friends from mothers' groups, friends whose interests are more like her own. Every now and then I freak out that I haven't contacted her and feel like such a terrible friend, but then a small voice in my mind reminds me She hasn't contacted you either...

I had friends who have moved interstate and to the States. Emails are nice to receive but they don't - and cannot - replace a coffee date on a Saturday morning. I have friends that live abroad who I met when I lived in Ireland for a year. That's where email come into its own. But still, they don't replace a noisy Saturday night at a bar with a beer in hand.

I spend most of my time with my cousin and his girlfriend. I love them both to bits. So much so that when I play the game of "When I get married, my bridesmaids would be..." Cousin K is the one I'd want to be my bridesmaid. Bridesmate. I'm friends with their friends. I used to be especially close with his sister but we have drifted apart over the passed three or so years. I'll just add her to the list...

When I was 27, I took off to Ireland by myself and I met so many people. I was alone, I forced myself out of my comfort zone because otherwise I'd go for days without talking to anyone and they would talk back because they were in the same situation. But here at home, I guess I don't have the courage to strike up conversation with a stranger. Funny, isn't it?

So what do you do? How do you make new friends when you're in your thirties? I can't really 'take a class' or 'take up a new hobby' - my time, learning ability and creativity is stretched enough as it is at the moment, but I don't know how else.

Does anyone else feel like this?

:(

I have a cold.

On my way home from uni yesterday, I sneezed so hard, my forehead hit the steering wheel. Clunk.

The inside of my top lip is split from sleeping with my mouth open.

Such bad timing - on Tuesday, I got all motivated and headed to the gym. For the first time in five weeks.

And that just helps to prove my point: exercise is bad for your health. My body has turned on itself.

I'm going back to bed.

Happy, Happy

Gorgeous Natasha from she left on a monday gave me an award! The Happiness 101 Award. Like Natasha, I've been feeling a bit down lately so it is a very timely award to receive. The deal is to list ten things that make you happy and then pass the award onto another five people.

Here is my Happy List:

1. Reading

I could (and often do) read all day. I read all kinds of books, every genre - with the exception of science fiction and fantasy. I don't get it. Goblins, hobbits, other universes? No, no, no. I think I was the last person in the world to read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (didn't think all that much of it, to be honest) and now I'm reading This Charming Man by Marian Keyes. I love her work. Her writing makes me snort with laughter, but all the lightness is balanced out with the serious themes - domestic violence. Next on the To Read List is The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

2. Writing

Writing really would need to be on the list, seeing as I'm doing a Bachelor of Arts/Diploma of Professional Writing & Editing! I made the decision last year to go back to school and I love it. Everything about it. I love being surrounded by like-minded people. I write every day, whether it is in my journal, or a blog post, stories that jump into my head with characters saying hi. Just so you know, writing is also on the list of Things That Give Me Grief. It's a love/hate relationship. I haven't come across a writer yet who doesn't say the same thing.

 

3. Family

My two-year old niece whose face lights up when she sees me; my five-month old nephew whose chubby cheeks and gummy grin never fail to make me smile; they both make me happy. My cousin, he's probably one of my best friends. When I was working full-time, we would email each other all day with stuff that would make me have to hold my hand over my mouth to stop myself from exploding with laughter (before email came along, what did people do at work all day?). My family, I love 'em.

4. Travelling

I don't get people who aren't interested in travel. My brother is one. He's happy at home. I just don't get how you wouldn't want to walk around a corner in London and see Big Ben for the first time (yes, yes, I know Big Ben is the actual bell, not the building itself), or sitting on a bus being driven into Paris and saying (too loudly) God, is that it? That's the Eiffel Tower? Bit small, innit? only to have your (smart-arsey) ex roll his eyes, point out another window and say That'd be the Tower and to be blown away by how amazing it looked, all its lights twinkling in the night sky. Or to sit back in the gondola and listen to the gondalier tell you that was where Marco Polo was born, as you drift along the canals of Venice. Or burn the soles of your feet, running across the burning black sand of the Santorini beaches. Or climb down inside one of the Great Pyramid's of Giza in Egypt or see Tutankhamun's mumified body resting in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. I could go on. And on. And on. But I won't.

 

5. Movies

I have a thing for movies made in the eighties. The Goonies is my absolute all-time favourite ever in the history of the world. Love love love it. Those kids, a secret underground tunnel, booby traps, pirates, treasure, baddies, Sloth. And which girl did not want to be Andie, the redheaded cheerleader? The Goonies, along with Fletch, National Lampoons Vacation (Chevy Chase is the King of Comedy), Dirty Dancing, Ghostbusters... I could go on. And on. And on. But I won't.

6. Seeing dogs hanging out car windows and farm animals acting silly

Pretty well explains itself. Dogs out of car windows crack me up every time. They just look so damn happy. I drive an hour and a half each way to uni three times a week along a country highway and see lots of farm animals. They never fail to amuse me: goats climbing all over each other, just to get to their hay; cows having a moment of madness and bucking themselves around a paddock; sheep all crowded under the only tree when it's raining (actually, this makes me a bit sad too). Oh, and if there's a mound of dirty anywhere, you can be guaranteed at least one animal will be standing on it. And oh oh, llamas (or are they alpacas? I don't know the difference). They make me happy. They're funny-looking.

7. Pay Day!

Definitely no explanation needed.

8. Clean Sheets

I changed the sheets on my bed today, they smell so good and so clean (makes my old sheets sound filthy, but they weren't. I promise). Just about certain to have a good night's sleep with clean sheets.

9. Tipsiness

You know that point, after about three drinks or so (depending on your tolerance level) and everything is funny? Everything you say, everything other people say, is just hilarious? I love that point. But then, inevitably, someone offers another drink and because you're having such a great time, you say yes and it usually ends with a massive headache the next day. That's not so much fun.

10. Waking up, looking at the clock and seeing that you've got another two hours of sleep before you have to get up, so you can snuggle back down into your warm bed. So good because it's cold, but you're toasty and it's raining, you can hear the drops hitting your window, the wind whipping the branches of the trees. But it's all good, because you've still got two hours... That and waking up and suddenly remembering it's a Sunday and you don't have to get out of bed for anything. That makes me really happy.

Well, that took just about all of Sunday to do :)

Now, I pass this award onto:

Habebi at The Constant Search for More

and Cheryl because she's making a comeback to blogging and this could be a good way to kickstart things for her. (Sorry, I just can't get the link to Cheryl's page to work. Grr)

I would do more but Natasha already got Kate from flufflefritz and Phil from green ink is already doing a list of things she loves, and I don't really know that many other bloggers at the moment... but feel free to award yourself!

Sometimes, it's kinda nice to be proven wrong...

like in the case of Jessica Watson, the sixteen-year old girl who sailed non-stop and unassisted around the world. Man, when I was sixteen I was still playing with dolls - well, now, that's not exactly true. I was getting drunk and sneaking into nightclubs, but you get my point.

I'll admit that I was one of the people who sniffed at her attempt, saying quite loudly and to anyone who would listen, that it would end in tears. She'd be back home within a month, the boat having capsized or with her just having a sixteen-year old's-type tantrum and refusing to go any further. And don't even get me started on what I thought of her parents - who lets a kid sail around the freaking world by themselves?

But she made it and she proved us all wrong. I spent most of the day yesterday at work, watching on the internet as she sailed back into Sydney Harbour with tears in my eyes. (I'm pretty sappy. I'll get teary at just about anything) While I'm sure the media will milk this story for all its worth and until none of us can stand the sight of Jessica, for now, let's just think about these words of hers:

You just have to have a dream, believe in it and work hard

Pretty good advice from someone most believe didn't believe in.

So, um...

Well, now I've gone and gotten stage-fright, haven't I? Gone and introduced myself and you've all been lovely and said hello back, and now I can't think of anything to say. I've never been good in social situations. Except, maybe, when there's alcohol involved. Then I won't let you get a word in edgeways while talking your ear off, laugh too loudly at my own jokes, without a doubt say a few really inappropriate things and then fall over on my way to the bathroom, where I'll fall asleep in the stall with my head resting against the wall.

Wait... What?

 

I was going to write a post about needing a hug and as it turns out, I did write it. Then deleted it. What a sob story. I decided I was sounding too needy and a little bit desperate, and that's really not a good way to start off a friendship, is it? I'll ease into things, letting you think I'm normal and stable before I let loose the crazy.

Anyway. Thank you for your welcome. Thank you for your encouraging words regarding losing the fear of judgement. It means a lot to me. Hopefully soon I will be less tongue-tied (finger-tied?) and write something vaguely interesting and that doesn't involve sleeping in toilets.

hello

I don't share my feelings with other people very well. I don't like other people knowing what is going on inside my head. I'm a writing student but I don't like people reading what I have written.

I think these are some of the reasons I like keeping a blog.

I can still write in my journal every day about the various thoughts that swim around in my mind, but sometimes it is nice and comforting to have some interaction with other bloggers. It's just nice to know that someone is reading; in effect, listening to what you have to say.

Listening to lecturers university and looking around at authors on Twitter, I've come to realise that part of becoming a successful author isn't so much about talent as it is self-promotion. People need to know your name. Network. Interact. Writing is not a solitary profession anymore. You need to Get Out There.

And so I suppose that is why I've got this blog. I'm not ready to put my surname to it yet (people cannot know what I'm thinking!! Because I'm sure so many people want to know and care about what I'm thinking... I'm so afraid of being judged.), but at least my first name is there. Let's build it up slowly. Baby steps.

So if you are reading this, please say hello. It would be lovely to hear from you :)