Holidays - for action or for rest?

As a teacher, I'm in a fairly unique situation, knowing that once every ten weeks, I get a two week break. The Rugby World Cup has warped the holiday situation this year, but that's another post entirely! While most people have a sarcastic reaction ("Lucky for some", etc), the reality is that teaching is all-consuming during the term time and for the last couple of days of my holidays I will be focusing a large amount of my time prepping for next term. Some teachers spread it out so that they do a little each day but the big, solid, knuckle down time is what works for me.

With two out of the fourteen days gone, that leaves me twelve to spare. End of term has usually been a crunch time for me so there is almost always household chores (or at the moment, wedding things to do) and that takes up a couple of days also, leaving me with around ten days left.

What has intrigued me this holidays is that I've barely had any time to just sit and vegetate. Part of it has come from the surplus of energy I've had, part of it has been from obligation (pet-sitting my parents animals has involved my input with them for at least three or so hours each day) but part of it is that I've just booked myself up with a lot of socialising and a lot of projects... all of which is a choice. Does it defeat the purpose of a holiday or is it an efficient use of time? I'm unsure.

I'm going to take tomorrow a bit more slowly - while today had me rushing round to accomplish a variety of different tasks, tomorrow is just baby-sitting briefly in the morning and then having a delightful lunch with Bronwen... and perhaps going for a wee stroll around the city before heading home. Oh, and trial a new recipe for dinner. And maybe do some vision planning... and label the envelopes if the return address labels arrive. CANNOT HELP MYSELF. There always seems to be cool fun stuff to do and such a limited amount of time to do it in. I think I am scaring myself because this feels like such a new place for me.

What are your thoughts, Scribblettes? Are you the sit back and veg type or the can't sit still type? Am I normal or completely batshit insane? Let me know in the comments while I tootle off and make SB a home-made batch of muesli bars :)

Grown-up stuffs

Talking to some of my students the other day, I realised that no matter how old you are... some life changes seem more grown up than you feel. For my older students, it is the thought that a year from now, they will no longer be at school. A significant percentage of them will be in some form of tertiary education but it's not the same (as I'm sure that many of you can attest to). Some will be working. Although young, some will move out of home, get jobs and be financially responsible. Chronologically, they're definitely old enough - I moved out of home at seventeen - but it does scare the pants off some of them... that this change in life is very grown up and more grown up than they feel.

I don't think it ever changes. It seems odd (but awesome, don't get me wrong) to me that we're discussing wedding plans and registries and combined incomes - at 28 and 26 we're definitely old enough to be making these changes and we're some of the last of our friends to do so - but it's a big step. Other friends have similar big life changes - mortgages and babies for a start. As we look to our parents' generation, we can see that they are having to make the adjustment to being grandparents and they also don't feel "old" enough to be the grandparents (although they made their parents grandparents at a similar age).

They say that you are only as old as you feel... and for me, that age differs. My students don't remember apartheid or a time when the internet didn't exist, that makes me feel old! Get me on a dance floor on a Saturday night and I feel sixteen again. Licking the filling of a cupcake and the pleasure I get from that experience makes me feel about three! I'm so excited to be moving forward in the story of my life but this new chapter will take some time to not feel so grown up!

Exhaustion... the Hollywood kind

Right now I am sitting on the couch in a flop... still using the heater to dry off washing (item by item) and blogging so I can't say that I am completely lazy but I know that I've sure run out of energy! Why so exhausted? A busy week last week followed by a fantastic weekend - I have nothing but an awesome life to blame for being so tired LOL.

First week of term is always a bit of an effort - even teenagers take a while to settle when they have had a change in routine. I still loved getting back into my routine - I guess I am a creature of habit :D Highlight of the week definitely had to be one of my students asking me where I worked! Bless him for thinking that I just did it for the fun of it :) I definitely was looking forward to the weekend, however, and this is why:

• a dinner date with Leah, Bronwen and Aimee. The drive over to Takapuna was long (espesh in the rain) but was totally worth it. A bit devastated that Leah and Aimee are both heading overseas fairly shortly - top quality girlies!
• a lunch date with SB - we went to C.A.C in Mt Eden. The food was delicious and the architecture amazing - a wonderful renovation of an old stone building. He then took me to MOTAT in the afternoon; bless the man, he knows he's dating a total museum nerd.
• a surprise party for a friend's 25th - although I think that we've safely established that that particular group of friends sucks at waiting quietly! E was surprised though and that is the main thing.
• a photo shoot on Sunday for Miss Melicious cupcakes - I'm going to be a cupcake cutie! This woman is seriously talented, not only does she make divine cupcakes but she did all the make-up and hair for the shoot. You can also follow her on Facebook!
• a family dinner on Sunday - I love Thai food! And my mummy!

Very busy Monday didn't help either! SB woke me up this morning and I promptly went back to sleep - not a good start. All I have left to do on my list today is dinner, laundry and exercise so hopefully an earlier night for me tonight! Hard to complain about being tired when life for the most part is being pretty awesome :)

What's cool with you, Scribblettes?

Be careful what you wish for...

My life is soooo dull... yeah right.

So life stepped up about a million notches since the last time I wrote. After feeling like I wanted things to happen, they did. And they weren't quiet about it!

In the last week or so:

• SB and I have started seriously considering into the rental property of a friend's mother. While literally only just down the road, the thought of moving brings round a zillion other thoughts. We're hoping to view this weekend to make our final decision.
• ERO is coming to visit the school I work out. It's basically like a massive audit all NZ schools have to go to about once every three years and it is a freakin' nightmare. In theory, it would be fine and we would just be business as normal. For those of you who have ever worked in a school, you'll know how much admin falls by the wayside so you can actually, you know, teach. This week has seen everyone from senior management down fluff up the pillows (so to speak) and so the instructions and updates have been rolling in thick and fast
• In answer to an email from one HOD (I report to two separate heads of department), I said that I would work on a lesson plan to teach a unit. I meant just for me, turns out she took it to mean for all three teachers that are taking the unit. Guess what I just spent the last two hours doing?
• Teaching the "now" generation - they finished their creative writing assessment on Tuesday. Today in class: "Miss, have you marked my creative writing yet?" No sorry, I'm too busy trying to have a life with a side of nervous breakdown.
• A job has just been advertised in the school I work in and I want to apply - it's permanent, I'm currently on contract. So I'm cracking on to getting an application sorted.
• Trying to sort accommodation for New Years somewhere vaguely near a beach. Word to the wise... don't do it.
• Had plans to get a relaxing pedi this afternoon only to realise as I was leaving work that I had pants on that I couldn't push up my leg. Going pantless in a mall nail salon, not an option. Gah, postponed!

Hope that you are having a more peaceful time than I am! If you are in a tizzy like me, Scribblettes, let a sister know!

High School Mixtape

A lot of my friends have been joining a group on Facebook that you like "when a song reminds you of a person, a place, a memory"... coincidentally, I had just such a moment on the way to watch SATC2 with a friend at the movies last night. One of Ice Cube's songs came on the radio and I was instantly back in 2002, my seventh form (Year 13/last year of school) year, partying underage and grinding up against strangers on the dance floor... such a tease. I thought it would be fun to make a blog mix tape of songs that were important to me in high school - let you guys get to know more about the me of the past.

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris:3rd and 4th form, I was very much a "Top of the Pops" sort of girl. I didn't do a lot of searching for music, just listened to a couple of music shows on TV and followed the general trend.

Eminem - Stan: Started dating FirstLove. His music tastes a little darker, more rock than pop. Around the same time, my first exposure to Linkin Park.

Linkin Park - In the End: FirstLove says he wants this played at his funeral and he plans on dying young and leaving a good-looking corpse. He didn't, but this should have been ringing alarm bells for me that we didn't want the same things out of life LOL.

Public Domain - Bass In The Place: Introduction into the world of house music and techno.

Darude - Sandstorm: Reminds me of movement (dance) routines in drama class, some of my most enjoyable classes in high school.

Train - Drops of Jupiter: First heartbreak. Thought the world would end. It didn't.

Ice Cube - You Can Do It/Eve - Ladies: Drinking underage, partying hearty being single for the first time in my adult life. Learning how to bump and grind. Little bit of a surprise that the radio was playing Ice Cube as a old school throwback song... guess I'm really getting old!

Funny how songs can take you back so quickly to those awkward teenage years. Some songs full of joy, others full of sadness. Would love to hear your stories - what songs take you back?

The old and the new...

I don't think it's any secret on my blog how much some of my exes have f**ked me over. I'll never understand how someone can move on so quickly, even if they are the dumper. I'll never understand the idea of giving someone bullshit reasons for the split, even if your aim is for them to hate you so you can move on. I'll never understand the keeping your options open for later (FirstLove) and I'll never understand the ignoring as if you never existed (Ex-S). SB knows my past and although we can't really imagine a future without each other, I know he would let me down gently if this became the case.

Enter awkwardness... NZ clearly isn't that big of a country or the people I know don't move. Within the past year, I've met the current girlfriends of two guys I've been friendly with. At one party, SB and I were sitting at an outside table and introduced ourselves (as you do). This sweet girl pipes up with "I'm (name redacted), (another name redacted)'s girlfriend". SB, familiar with my limited dating history, looked at me and I looked at him. We said nothing and now the girlfriend of the only guy I've ever had a one night stand with has added me on Facebook. She's a sweetheart but I think my gap of saying anything has passed and that's just something I need to keep to myself from now on.

I've also developed some new friendships this year, one of which is with a girl whom we'll call A+. A+ reminds me of a 20-year-old version of myself - not conventionally cute but certainly attractive, funny, geeky and generally a great person to chat to. She usually comes to parties in our circle of friends with a guy we'll call A-. The hitch? A- is not her boyfriend. Ex-S is.

Yes, that is right. Completely unexpectedly I have become friends with Ex-S's current girlfriend. Both A+ and I know that it is completely bizarre but I've moved on so far from my relationship with Ex-S that she has no fear of me "wanting him back" and while I think she has appalling taste in men I'm willing to judge her on her personal merits LOL. While we've been friendly for a while now, what made this blogworthy is that on Saturday night, we hung out.

Scribbles, SB, Ex-S and A+. Standing on the lawn at a house party. SB officially introducing himself to Ex-S. A+ and I comparing that we had the same hat (she in pink, me in red). Noticing the similarities and the fact that A+ and I could be taken for sisters. Noticing the differences and the fact that SB stands tall and proud that he is with me. Noticing the feelings - my hope that while I still don't like Ex-S for how he treated me, I hope that this works for him; my wishes for A+'s sake that he treats her well because she doesn't deserve to be shattered; my admiration of SB for being the better man, the wonderful man and the man I want to spend the rest of my life with; the content in myself that, really, this is the way that it was all meant to pan out, that the pain has gone and that I wouldn't have it any other way.

Amazing the difference a couple of years make.

Quarter of a century!

"So when did you come to this high school, Miss?"

"Way back when we kept a stegosaurus on the back field and had T-Rex drills instead of fire drills - fire hadn't been invented yet"

"Ha ha ha ha seriously, miss?"

"No, but it took a lot longer to get to school in a horse and cart in those days..."

It's quite funny how much you can pull students' legs as to how old you are. My Year 9s from last year still stick by the fact they think I'm thirty, whereas I've also been asked if I've had my twenty-first birthday. I still get IDed at the supermarket for buying alcohol (must be over eighteen) yet some mornings I feel as stiff as a pensioner. I don't have a wedding ring or children so I must be young. I have three university-level qualifications so I must be old.

But as of today, I am twenty-five! It's a bit quiet just for today - haven't been called into teach today and the lovely SB is at work, as are most of my friends. I had my family birthday lunch yesterday as today is Mama Scribbles' first day at uni (she's tackling a four year social work degree, looking to major in health and disability advocacy) and I know she'll be knackered tonight. We're still in the process of unpacking - shocker, I know - so having a big party at our place isn't really a go either. With dear friends' wedding taking up the earlier part of March (not to mention our anniversary trip this weekend) we won't be having our joint birthday/housewarming party til the end of this month. Still, I'm enjoying the Facebook messages and looking forward to having dinner with my lovely boy tonight.

Looking after yourself...

This blog has probably sounded like a broken record the last couple of weeks... so busy, so busy, things broken, me broken, so busy LOL. This week and next, I have the benefit of being on holiday from university (and also for the most part my job, the hours drop right back in school holidays) and I'm using the time to get my life back on track.

Big and small changes occuring in the Scribbles household. I'm moving out into my parents' internal entry garage. My abode during my teens, it gets me living at the opposite end of the house with my own private entry, making life at home far more tolerable when I'm not at SB's. For many reasons, this seems like the best option over summer so I am quite excited. However, my sister left a lot of junk behind when she moved so there's a fair amount to tackle there. This along with walks with Mama Scribs is good exercise!

Today I went and got a pedi and my brows done; after my hair cut next week (huh, just typed Hair Cute... hope it is) I think I will feel much more pulled together and professional - job interviews are hopefully just around the corner. As well as teaching position interviews, I'm currently on the look out for a job over Christmas to bring in some extra cash. I'm so picky though, and lucky that my parents are willing to pay me to be their housekeeper to cover my basic bills over Christmas. Meaning that I'm going to be staying at mine more often to be here to tidy... thus the move to the bigger, more independent summer space.

On that cyclical note, I'm off to finish tidying my room. Hope that you are managing to take time for yourself, Scribblettes!

But what if I miss out?

Last weekend was crazy busy - I spent Saturday morning working on an assignment and time just slid away. By the time that I'd finished my laundry in the afternoon, I'd run out of time to visit my grandmother before having to head out for the evening. After a brief stop at SB's house, we headed out to a 30th birthday dinner which we then departed early from to go to a housewarming around 30kms away from the dinner party. Sunday was barely a sleep in before going into church early to do a job there, shot up into the central city (again, about 30kms, not a small drive) to attend a baby shower, which I departed early from to attend the 2nd birthday of Ms.Bee's daughter. By the time I got back to SBs at around 6pm that evening, the last thing I felt like was cooking dinner but I had promised that I would. SB picked up the load once I had seasoned our burrito beef and then we curled up and watched Grey's Anatomy... well I did, he read a magazine.

SB looked at me on the couch looking absolutely shattered... he said gently that he worried that i over-commit myself. I agreed, and told him I didn't plan on doing it again this semester as I have so much to worry about at uni and I also value our alone time - I think it's important for all relationships. In my head I have this picture of saying yes to maybe one or two things each weekend, depending on how busy I am with uni stuff.

BUT The little whiner sitting on my shoulder is going "What if you miss things?" "You need to stay in touch with your friends" "How are you gonna choose?" "People are going to be sad if you don't choose their thing". I'm getting to the point when I need to knock that little whiner right the hell out. It's no life if I sacrifice the things that are important to me in order to make everyone else happy. Does anyone else struggle with managing their friends and responsibilities while creating the right life for them?

Resuming your regularly scheduled programme...

With practicum out of the way, I'm hoping that things can get back to normal. It's a common blogger challenge, walking that fine line in between sharing about your life and actually living it. Living it this past weekend involved bed until noon and curling up on the couch watching movies but that's all an important part of life and touching base with PianoMan after a week apart.
On the other hand, it's important to me to maintain my online presence - this blog provides me with an outlet to share about both my life and my literary knowledge and I've made great friends through this community. I'm so much more calm and comfortable having a place where I can share without judgement - that opportunity not often available in real life.
In the end it's all about balance and that's what I need to look at. Do you like the regular features or would it be more preferable to just have my "life stories"? As much is a blog is a reflection of the reader, it should also reflect the needs and requirements of the audience. Feed back to me in the comments!

Lists and spreadsheets - oh how I love thee...

A lovely Easter weekend this weekend - a massive drive/walk with the boy on Friday that felt like a real adventure; hanging with the family on Saturday for little sister's birthday (Aliens vs Monsters & Denny's for dinner); lying in bed with the boy on Sunday night, looking at... the computer???

I'm a compulsive planner, as those of you who have been reading this for a while will know. The boy has decided that he would like to tag along on my Sydney trip in July and with April rapidly powering along, we're deep into the planning phase. Late Saturday night I whipped up a rough budget in Google Docs (so we can share it) and last night we did more research into some more recommendations we had been given. I was content to be going by myself but it is amazingly exciting to be planning to go with someone that is as excited as you are.

So far I have a budget spreadsheet and a timetable spreadsheet and I'm struggling to decide between whether having about 8 extra hours in the city is worth an extra $50. Also in the draw is whether we head out to the Blue Mountains and whether we can justify the expense of a hire car to get to Palm Beach - we really want to go (well, I really want to go - I love me some Home and Away :D). List upon list trying to work out the best results combined with two people who have never travelled overseas as adults!

Any advice on travel to Sydney (or international travel in general) for the newbies that are PianoMan and Scribbles?

March, you've been a month...

March is usually a fairly crazy month at the best of times - it's the last of the summer (although it's officially autumn) and you get a lot of people trying to squeeze in events at this time. I know already of a wedding I'm going to in March next year! This March was as full on as I had expected - even more so really! Let's recap:

• Birthday dinner, where I had a great time with those friends who are dear to me.
• Started uni - was totally overwhelmed in the first week.
  
• Mum back into hospital where they finally detected a bacteria that shouldn't have been there and gave her the appropriate antibiotics - she hasn't been back since
• Met a certain handsome boy who had been sending me lovely long emails - and have been seeing a fair amount of him since
• Felt more au fait with things the second week of uni - got used to class and schedules and the fact that one of our assignments was to READ (I mean, how cool is that?)
• Finding a pair of jeans that fit my butt!
  
• Got surprised by Gothika who usually lives in Australia - she asked me to pick her up to go to our friends' engagement party
• Engagement party - this couple has been together for years but it doesn't make it any less special.
• Worked a shift as I was coming down with serious illness - I swear I actually felt kinda delirious.
  
• Got my ass absolutely booted by a cold - it was not cool. An ear infection made me deaf for a week and I'm still fending off a snotty nose and a cough
• On the upside, that didn't seem to make the boy like me any less.
• Dates... lots of dates. Including holding hands at the movies - oh man, have I missed that.
• A weekend away in Waihi in which I managed to miss the boy, feel stressed about Gothika's personal circumstances in Sydney, feel relieved that Ex-S has decided to be not so much of a baby and enjoy spending time with my crazy friends. There is also photographic evidence that I spent most of the evening in my sleeping bag - damn March nights are cold :D
• Handing in two assignments, one early - damn it feels good.
• Getting assigned to practicum at the school I wanted and prepping for the experience, purchasing a $160 dictaphone - yikes!
• Having two classes cancelled yesterday and resting for most of the day - for what feels like the first time in March.

There's only two days left of March and at this stage it looks to be relatively quiet, the boy is going out fishing tomorrow morning and I'm doing a church thing so tonight will just be some snuggling on the couch and then I've got a housewarming thing tomorrow night (which I am hoping the boy will come to... just quietly) - if the rest of the time can just be uneventful, that will be fantastic!

In the blink of an eye...

When trying to come up with something clever, witty or pop-cultural reference for today I was drawing a complete blank... My brain is clearly in need of a defrag, loading a boy into my system has got my virtual memory running too low. My apologies. Things seem to be going well on that front for those of you that are playing along at home. I haven't been able to see him for a week so I'm really really really looking forward to seeing him tonight.

The thing that's been crossing my mind lately is the death of Natasha Richardson, actress and wife of Liam Neeson, at the age of 45. And it's not for the reason you might think. Ever since Mama Scribbles got cancer, everyone goes "Oh that's so hard! How do you cope? Morbiddy morbiddy blah blah". The answer is you just do cope - when you're there, it's not like you have a choice to do otherwise. Driving to the hospital one day (oh probably about the second time mum got admitted because of that darn infection), I saw an accident on the other side of the motorway that was most likely fatal. All that could cross my mind was that my mum was in hospital, with cancer and an infection, but at least she was safe. These people hopped in their car, heading to a destination and had no reason whatsoever to believe that they wouldn't arrive.

When my grandma passed of cancer, we only had a short time to say goodbye (six weeks from diagnosis to her passing) but we made each moment count. Mum and I have big long talks some days because I know and she knows that there's a possibility of her not being round five years from now. Natasha Richardson's family? They had no time... no time to say how much you are loved, no time to say how much you changed a life, no time to share your words of wisdom, advice and dreams.

So on that deep and dark note, my Scribblettes, seek out those people who mean the most to you and tell them now, not later, what they need to know. They may not have cancer, they may in perfect health... but one day, it may be too late.

Time...

Halfway through March already - it's crazy how fast a year slips by! One night, in deep drunken conversation with a couple of friends, we decided that the years seem to go faster because the percentage of your life that they contain reduces. When you're ten, a year is 1/10th of your life. When you're forty, the fraction is a lot smaller. And yes, I can only do maths when I've been drinking :P

I turned 24 recently, that's not that old - some people are married with kids at that age, others aren't. You're definitely a grown-up (even if you live under the same roof as your parents - ahem) but in essence you're at the beginning of your flight of adulthood, regardless of your circumstance. For the most part I still feel really young.


For the most part...


Until another student in my curriculum study class pipes up that for his 21st, he's going to do X and I realise that my 21st was three years ago. When I speak up in class that we were the last high school year before the new New Zealand high-stakes assessment regime (NCEA) was instituted - and that was seven years ago. When my high school boyfriend texts me to say he's been back to a place we went on vacation to, telling me how much it's changed... and I think, well duh, that's because it was nine years ago that we were there. When Ms.Bee leans over in the church service on my birthday and tells me that we've known each other for twenty years - and I realise that it's almost a quarter century that I've known NavyWife. When I think about the time that has passed, it makes me feel ancient... then I realise that my adult life has only just begun.

Holey Moley...

The first day of anything is always an eye opener.

It starts with your first day at kindy, first day of the school year, first day at a job...

Today was the first day of my one-year intensive teaching diploma.

Yikes.

Concepts seem to turn real and at the same time become somewhat overwhelming - in four weeks, we will be observing in a school. In only 6 weeks of class time, we will be starting to teach classes (albeit fairly unsuccessfully to start with). In the second semester of this year I will be teaching classes ALL on my own. And less than a year from now I will have my OWN classes - I will be a fully fledged teacher. I knew all of this before I started the course, don't get me wrong. But looking at our full-on assessment schedules and hearing about lesson plans and thematic unit structures and mapping out (on the first day) the books I will be reading as my Young Adult reading log (a pass/fail requirement for the semester) makes it so much more real.

I'm really excited to be finally doing the study that will allow me to follow my dreams but, at the same time, feeling really overwhelmed. It isn't the first time I've felt this feeling and I need to bear in mind that I just need time to sit and digest the information and work out a manageable plan. Scribblettes, do you ever feel overwhelmed with anything? What are your coping techniques?

Change of Schedules

Photo Credit

The golden days of summer are slowly disappearing... and with it my extra available time. As those of you who follow me on Twitter will know, I am currently tutoring on an arts holiday programme. The kids are insanely fun but have bundles of energy that can leave me feeling a little ragged. Flowing on into Feb, I'll be stepping into the breach as we continue our search for a superstar admin to replace our wonderful office administrator and then roll on March and the start of my year-long training to be a teacher!
It's certainly shaping up to be a full on year and as much as I love writing my articles and reading all your comments (and seriously, comment more! I still get so excited when it pops up that I have comments to review) I realised that I needed to create a plan; ensuring you get top quality articles despite the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. Posting will now be as follows:
*Monday: Random Article
*Wednesday: Literary Inspirations
*Friday: Random Article
*Sunday: Sunday Afternoon Reads
and if you are extra special sparkly good, there may be some "Saturday Afternoon of Love" thrown in there for good measure. I have a feeling that this is a good way to ensure that you still get your regular dose of Scribbles but I continue to keep a quality standard of post that I am happy with. Thanks so much for your continued support guys... it's SOOOOOO appreciated.

Change of scenery!

Photo Credit

Hey Scribblettes!

I'm off on a wee holiday... clear over the other side of the town that I live in! I'm housesitting for PP and PW while they are down south and taking some time to breathe and mooch. Will hopefully get my laptop up and running there and continue posts as usual, but just a little heads up that until Jan 01 posting may be a little sporadic.

Enjoy the sun if you're a fellow antipodean, and make snow angels for me if you are not!

Lots of love,

Scribbles

Preparedness

–noun
The state of being prepared; readiness.
Possession of adequate armed forces, industrial resources and potential, etc., esp. as a deterrent to enemy attack

And considering the nature of my blog, I'm guessing you know I'm going to talk about the first one (although I do play a mean game of Risk). If you've followed my tweets, you'll notice that I've been appallingly sick this week - in fact, today is the first day I've felt truly human again. I had one of those wretched summer fevers that makes you feel like you're boiling in the all-encompassing fires of hell while making you shiver like you've been dropped off in your panties at the North Pole. All while having to tend to myself and sponge my own brow because there was no way I'm taking these germs to Mum while she's in the middle of her chemo cycle.

Yet I've continued to post, and you've continued to comment, hopefully marvelling at how eloquently I write even though I am supposedly dying. Well, I wasn't...dying or writing marvellous posts either :D

I'm a planner... the girl who runs both paper day planners and uses Google Calendar to keep track of her committments. The girl who has the majority of her Christmas presents bought, wrapped and labelled, just waiting for a more appropriate time to give them out to people. The girl who starts writing her Christmas cards in the middle of November. And the girl who also auto-schedules posts three days out for her blog, just in case something happens.

I was talking to my mother about this last week and she didn't quite understand. I set her up on a blog a couple of months ago and she uses it to keep her geographically dispersed relatives in the loop about how she's going with her cancer treatments. I explained to her that its sort of different - a lot of my topics are generalised, I can talk about them on Tuesday or I can talk about them on Thursday and it's no big deal. Her blog is really "slice of life" - it's about how she is feeling and treatments she is having on a particular day. If I have something that I decide I really want to urgently communicate to you guys, I just change the day of scheduled posting out and impart my important urgent news to you all :D And it means that you get to enjoy my company, even when I'm not enjoying my own.

Preparedness just seems to be part of my personality, is it part of yours? What ways do you get organised?

Taking the night off...

So often I feel committed to doing things in the weekend, especially at nights - going out with friends, parties, the whole social butterfly kit and caboodle. But keeping up the energy levels after a week of uni, part-time work (usually about 15-20 hours) as well as all the other assorted bits and pieces that I'd never want to give up (like this blog) is sometimes very difficult. After my usual "partner-in-crime" decided to head down the line this weekend, I made the scandalous decision to do absolutely nothing with my evenings this weekend. Scandalous, I know! Last night I caught up with a whole lot of little bits and pieces I had been meaning to do, and tonight I watched a girly chick flick "Cake" and then I'm going to curl up in bed and have a relatively early night. Belissimo! Believe me, my skin is telling me it could do with the extra beauty sleep at the moment :)
BTW... think I have found my new summer fragrance - Viktor & Rolf "Flowerbomb"... was describing it to TJ by telling him I smelt like the lovechild of a cupcake and a rose garden and the packaging is to DIE for. Now all I have to do is save my pennies to buy it LOL

Give yesterday: My time - I filled in for mum with an obligation she had that she could no longer do.
Give today: Bought my mum her favourite type of fizzy lollies

Lunch Time Love

Just popped home in between training I had this morning and work that I have in a couple of hours - with the price of petrol at the moment, I was tempted to stay out, but then realised I'd probably spend just as much money on lunch and keeping myself occupied as I spent on petrol to get home. So here I am, heels shucked off but still in the rest of my corporate gear, about to get in a hour or so of mindless day-time television watching and eat my body weight in mandarins LOL Nice to be able to slot in some "thoughtless time".
Also, isn't it great when work schedules in mandatory training for everyone that's almost completely useless if you are a Gen Y-er and brought up around computers since they were Commodore 64s :D Ah well, I get paid extra, and that means more fun money for Christchurch!