My 4 year old sister:
- talks with a full on Kiwi accent
- waves around her arms as she sings
- wears black boots with her white lacy dress
- can recite a whole nativity speech without prompting
- and can say a speech holding a lit candle with zero fear
She is so precious!! forever & always. I can't wait to lovingly embarrass her with this
So while baby Kim's multitasking, little me is threading my dress through a tambourine, acting surprised when my tambourine doesn't work so well clogged up in fabric, and eating on camera
Also hey now I totally dress like a 90s lady: the jean shirts and oversized sweaters. Actually I wore them last week
* I just realised it's not a Christmas 1996 performance I'm watching, it's every single rehearsal for Chrismas 1996. IT'S THE SAME SONGS OVER & OVER, which escaped my notice only because... Christmas songs. Gosh, even the locations switch - couches and driveways etc; how many practices were there??
** the practice I'm up to says it's the 15th of December THERE'S 11 DAYS LEFT
*** The things you do for your beautiful little sister I swear, I mean look at her :'D
- Current Mood:
sleepy
I think the hardest part of studying at night was getting on the train after work and knowing if you stayed on it you could blow off uni and go home. Every now and then I'd bribe myself - in my last semester, I raced to McDonalds in the 10 minute break of my Financial Statement Analysis lecture; and on Fridays I found myself lugging along marshmallows and M&Ms to share with the tutorial because it takes a special kind of person to sign up for Friday night classes. (The semester before that I was motivated by bubble tea and cute programmers. Enough said.)
If I could give advice to the 17 year old me, fresh out of high school, I'd tell her to relax a little bit. Work will always be waiting for you, so you have to learn to carve out time with the people you can be happy with.
#2 Exam!
My first post graduate exam with the lovely Khajal was made so much better by travelling together! We entertained ourselves through the traffic by asking pertinent questions such as why can't you have car banana peels like Mario Kart? We'll see if I actually pass- but I'm proud of us for giving it our best shot and rocking our study sessions :)
#3 Maritime Museum!
Holly and I had a little time to wander around Darling Harbour so we stalked the ships. I cracked a terrible joke about this sign saying "YOTS" so close to the boats
#4 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS X3
Elspeth, Elyse, Holly, Kii, Sass, thank you!!!!! <33333 Awesome dinners and post-movie dessert and pre-movie dessert and just everyone being so lovely and letting me squeal manically on the way to each screening. There are never enough hugs for friends like you!
#5 THIS!
... Elyse and I smuggled in our TNG cups and mock Romulan Ale (blue Powerade) into the IMAX screening for a toast before Into Darkness. I LOVE IT WHEN WE GEEK OUT.
This week's highlights :)
1. Saw Holly after work last Friday night, we had dessert first (mint choc-chip and salted caramel gelato. waffles. melted chocolate.) and then wandered around until we found a reasonably priced teriyaki salmon place. We poked around a couple of late night bookstores and got both the 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' novelisation and a guide to being more alluring to men. We agreed that maybe pre-dinner sugar wasn't such a great idea ;)
2. Also she put up with my movie poster squealing.
Again.
3. Yesterday I walked down the street to Khajal's place for our amazing study group- one that involves being fed delicious cake and musk-stick flavoured milk; and meatlovers pizza and reality TV. EXCEPT, only as a reward for HOURS of bewildering questions. We can cry together about our first exam though. It's in two days!
4. Made 7 Wonders cupcakes.
5. Stood around a backyard firebox and made small talk *fist pump*
6. Managed to park the car in tricky places *double fist pump*
7. This week's goals:
* graduate (tomorrow)
* finish first post-grad exam (Tuesday)
* hand in work (Wednesday)
**** STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS X3 (in Aussie cinemas from THURSDAY)
1. Read the first chapter of Deltora Quest to my little brother tonight- in exchange for a couple games of Jenga-style Angry Birds (all the little plastic pieces are so hard to knock over!!) and card Fruit Ninja. It's funny because he's played both apps so sometimes he pauses game play to tell me what would happen "on mama's phone". Von found out the hard way I don't really use apps- one time we were waiting together and all I could offer was my phone's calculator. Which he still played with. :)
2. Kim tried to pick up Andrew from work last week, but we ended up a few suburbs over since she thought he was working at job #2. We parked then found out we were in the wrong place. I spotted a BBQ so I got out of the car, bought a sausage sandwich and we drove off. Kim thought it was hilarious, so she was giggling and teasing my happy munching noises while the rain fell on the car's roof. We did pick up Andrew! Eventually ;)
3. Surprised myself immensely by scraping together a presentation to some managers last Friday. The paddling I mentioned? Skipped lunch and flowcharted at 3am (lesson learnt). The managers appreciated the presentation!
4. Have been dropping Kim off to her night shift at the hospital for the last couple of days, I really love just checking in with her :) Her Kina Grannis CD plays on repeat and Kim says random sweet things like "I'm not as tired when you drop me off"
5. On Sunday I took my mama, Kim, Andrew and Von to Max Brenner for chocolate-covered waffles and to watch The Croods. :) Also we got the second half of Digimon Season 2, so Von was happily quizzing me on all the Digivolutions - it'll never come up in a trivia contest but if it did... ;D
6. We bought another budgie to keep my little sister's one (Clark) company. Our neighbour's daughter breeds them. Von named her Chloe, which means we have Smallville budgies.
7. Everyone has been so sweet with my almost-premiere Star Trek messages! I've pre-booked three sessions since not everyone could make one night and when it gets a bit crunchy at work I stare at the little pdf icons for the tickets.
I will keep breathing slowly and getting through my tasks. Because the payoff is worth it. I have never been more tired, but also I have never been more grateful <3
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
The world is a giant, awful black hole of evil conspiracy. Sometimes that’s because you have perspective on what the world’s really like, and sometimes it’s because you’ve completely lost perspective and you’re having a terrible day. But no matter what, everybody shares that feeling, and life is kind of about your way around that, your way around certain truths. Some people combat it with faith, some people combat it with work. For me, if I’m not writing or creating something, I get very antsy. That’s my little defense against darkness.
- Joss Whedon
1. Janet handed out Cadbury eggs in purple cardboard boxes to our audit team today, it was so nice of her!
2. Ali and I were messing with our flowchart and he unexpectedly slid in a box right where we wanted it. Promptly he went "gangsta!" and we cracked up.
3. My sister on the phone with me after work: "Andrew's here, we're playing board games, we're waiting for you!"
4. My sister's incredibly sweet boyfriend played rough and tumble games with our little brother today. Kim and Andrew played Ticket to Ride, made a salad and then we played Dixit late into the night. He and my sis were so adorable gazing at each other, even on the ride home, they're just precious!
5. It's Friday finally!! Which also means 35 days to Star Trek Into Darkness. I CAN BARELY SLEEP, what will happen when it's my crazy graduation/ CA exam / TREK PREMIERE week?!!!! May, you are so close and yet so far.
at evening smells of roads still to be traveled,
while the sound of leaves blowing across the lawns
is like an unsettled feeling in the blood,
the desire to get in a car and just keep driving.
1. Yesterday I dragged my sister out to help me with a fundraising auction. I signed up for wine delivery. The guy I liaised with tried to expand my thimbleful of wine knowledge. He'd say something like "it's a Jeroboam", and I'd blink slowly and go "uh, a really big bottle?" (Yes! Three litres of the good stuff.)
I made it worth Kim's while by throwing in random errands and buying her a board game (Dixit- pretty French pictures and bunny pieces!) In Saturday's half-drowsy adventure we bought vegetables and a box of apples at Flemington Markets, had pizza and hot dogs at Costco and sipped on lime & sugar cane juice in Parramatta.
2. But mostly, this weekend was dedicated to acknowledging my body's attempt to remind me that I'm not invincible. When I'm sick, I'm an angst machine. After I snuggled up to episodes of NCIS and Nigella's Kitchen, I went to sit in my backyard and I got over myself. I have to remember that having insecurities is normal, an unrequited crush is not the end of the world, and the best thing to do is redirect my energy to nourishing people and things I love. Including myself.
3. I got a little mint plant for $3 at the markets, so I spruced it up with a pot from K-Mart (and a plastic dinosaur watering can). There's just something refreshing about giving a plant room to grow.
I nicknamed the plant Minty :)
4. I gave up chocolate and Twitter for the 40 day Lent period, which ended today! Guess what I gave up for good? Spoiler: today I made chocolate cake in a mug.
IT'S MUG CAKE, get it??!
5. Made it through the bulk of the weekend because of my beautiful sister, good food and little accomplishments. No different to how I get through everything else, really.
...into the place where the answers are kept-
the ones telling why you get up in the morning
and how it is possible to sleep at night,
answers to what comes next and how to like it.
- Stephen Dobyns
"The people on Level 9 have magical phone powers."
"You lost me at tall. Everyone's taller than me." (true, but maybe the manager didn't exactly need to know that right then)
"C'mon baby." (my laptop appreciated the sentiment, I'm sure)
There are probably a thousand other examples but those were the ones today when I thought 'hmm, did I just say something out of context?' *sneeze* *bafflement* *sad face at loss of healthy long weekend*
I can't help but be reminded of two things
1) the character Sydney in Max Barry's book Company who is completely evil but no-one takes seriously because of her small stature and high squeaky voice (moral of the story: don't be bitter unless it's funny and you're a book character)
2) I AM SO SICK RIGHT NOW why did I pay $160 for this Management Accounting seminar I don't want to goooo tonight
2a) I really love eucalpytus tissues. STOCKPILE!!
2b) If this is retribution for having such a ball at the FOB concert? Still totally worth it.
2c) I love subpoints. YAY LISTS.
In the words of Michael Buble (my cousin calls him Michael Bubbles, how cute right?)... LET ME GO HOME.
Just, not until after this expensive class. *shakes fist at past self*
- Current Mood:
sick
2. I saw Fall Out Boy with Holly last night, making one of my high school dreams come true. Oh. My. Gosh. We had Japanese for dinner instead of lining up outside the door (rationale: even if I was able to nab a decent spot, I'm not willing to be aggressive to keep it) and we had an thoughtful, silly chat over teriyaki salmon (just like our epic study sessions).
Because the Metro has an awesome set up with levels, we still had a fantastic view of the stage- while the band got ready, they kicked off with a DJ who played every late 90s/early 00s punk/pop rock song ever and the packed room was singing along; when the band started their set we were so unbelievably pumped.
We both laughed about our Tuesday work schedules (Holly had it worse- 8am start and a performance review), but we acknowledged we HAD to be there. These were the songs we blasted from our shared headphones, the lyrics we murmured in maths class, the music that still sets off our karaoke sessions. What did we do? Scream beautifully rhythmic emo lyrics, shake our hair, stomp our feet, clap our hands and just yell random nostalgic things to each other over the music ("the ski trip!!" "you look so good in blue!")
It was an amazing night. It was also wonderfully circular; bouncing along to the soundtrack to our puzzled, sunny, crazy high school experience and still being friends after all of these years.
In reality, he's maxing out time on his big brother's computer and watching Cartoon Network.
For lunch we grabbed burgers from down the road - he ordered one with a meat patty and mayonnaise, but if you need two hands to hold it, it's still a burger in my books.
I read somewhere that you should never let the kid you're raising distract you from the great kid you have. Because there's twelve-and-a-half years between us, I tend to take on a very bossy and disciplinarian role with my bro, but I'm working on not being so hard on him. So today we'll just mess around on the computer and not worry about homework, or finishing every last crumb on our plates sitting down.
2. This means I can celebrate William Shatner's birthday by watching TOS and videos of him singing :)
3. I asked Von what he was playing online and he said "Warcraft- there are orcs, and humans..." and gave a very cute explanation.
4. Khajal posted these pictures of the Darling Harbour fireworks from her birthday, and I just really love looking at them :)
I've been anxiously tackling my work tasks since we've got a few kinks to plow through (& I'm upskilling yikes!) - but the downtime has given me something to look forward to!
Playing Ticket to Ride in teams :) I love board game days!
At the first game of the season!! I missed being an obnoxious fan :D
This bar was literally smoky, and it hosted a really neat celebration! We went to McDonalds first to grab dinner and walked around Martin Place in the light rain before we headed inside. We had a toast and talked about Denzel Washington, country roads, machinery and then danced in a pillowed room.
Pretty bird cages hanging in Angel Place
Baking experiments: Resistance cupcakes for a gaming BBQ, Tiramisu for a colleague and then blue and gold chocolate bunnies I saw at Big W (totally an omen- we won our game that night!!!)
