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Tonight we’re going to a Mexican restaurant with a bunch of Matt’s extended family.  I’ve been craving Mexican (food) for a few weeks now, and I’m told there will be pitchers of Margarita, so it should be a good night!

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I know I’ve been absent from my blog and most of my family&friends back home probably thinks I’m dead in the week between posts, but I have a good reason….besides being lazy.  I was going to go self-hosted before, but that didn’t really go according to plan.  No worries tho!  I signed up, and have been working on my new site!  It’s very frustrating at times, so I tend to give up after a couple hours and don’t have it in me to pump out a post.  The site should be up next week tho, and after that I have no excuse but to blog regularly.

Add ‘eating m+m’s’ and ‘watching Shortland Street’ to that photo and you have me…right now.  Yum.
I’m not feeling all the great, although I’m the only one to blame.  I may or may not have walked around Wellington for hours, in the rain, wearing very inappropriate footwear (read: flip flops).  In my defence, my feet hate me right now thanks to walking long distances in high heels…damn job interviews…so I thought it would be smart to wear flip flops then put on my heels once I got to the interview.  It would’ve been the perfect plan if I had factored in the fact that it rains almost every day.  Oh well, I have chocolate so it’s all good.

The job search is going pretty well.  I’ve had a few interviews and signed up with a temp agency, but nothing has gone much further than that.  I do have a 2nd interview next week for one place, so we’ll see how that goes.

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A couple months back I posted the shorten version of how Matt and I met and got to the point we’re at now. That ‘short version’ turned into three parts that you can read here, here, and here.  Anyway, I walked past a few places in our story on the way home and decided to take a couple pictures.

The hostel Danielle and I stayed at

The main street

The first bar we went to on the night I went 'missing'

Where Matt worked and we met

Pen + Paper + A modern cafe = Philosophical Babble.  I’ll stop with that now.

This week has gone over and beyond any expectations I had.  Thankfully, the last time I was in Wellington most of my time was reserved for club hopping/sleeping in to the late afternoon.  Why thankfully?  Because if I hadn’t, I would’ve never met Matt and he would have nothing to show me this time around.
I think we’ve done most of the major sightseeing Wellington has to offer.  The weather has been really nice and the notorious Wellington Wind hasn’t been much to complain about.  I think it’s pretty much the same as Vancouver’s experiencing right now, just a little colder.

I’m starting to feel settled in.  I finally unpacked and organized all my stuff yesterday, and by some miracle, everything fit without having to cram random things into the closet or under the bed (for the most part).  Today I had a job interview, and signed up with a temping agency.  At least now I have a better idea what to expect job-wise and will hopefully get a few assignments while I look for a more permanent job.

I leave you with some pictures from the last week, and promise my next post won’t have you waiting for a week.

This time it’s different.

I’m going to work, pay rent, live (I’ll a bit play too) – basically the same thing I’d be doing here, but in a different country.  Of course I’ve been excited to go, but I’ve been equally sad this time around too and it’s made saying goodbye even harder (with a lot more tears).

At least it was until I walked off the ferry this evening. I realized there’s nothing left to plan or organize, and only one more goodbye to get through…everything’s DONE! I don’t have to worry and can just be excited!

I get to go on a 16 hour flight with airplane food and my own mini tv! I’m aware that most people don’t look forward to those things, but I was raised on an airport – it’s in my blood.
Then I get to see Matt, live with Kiwis, and have a fresh start in a country I LOVE.  So I’m in no way complaining, even if leaving my family and friends has made me cry more in the last 3 days then the last 3 years. 

Life is getting really insane right now.   My flight isn’t until Wednesday night, but I’m leaving the coast tomorrow afternoon and will be spending the night at my dad’s.  It’s just easier to go in the night before and not have to worry about ferries being late, plus I get to have dinner with Danielle and hang out with Dad and Gail.  The only problem is that I leave my house in less than 24 hours, and still haven’t packed.  Go. Me.

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Last night was Lance’s 19th birthday.  The dude’s awesome!  He lives up in the Okanagan with our sister, so it’s always good times when he comes down to the coast for a visit.  We went out for dinner at the pub with mom, Lance’s friend Seth (who also turned 19 this week), and Seth’s parents.  After dinner we all went to our house for birthday cake and some presents then it was back to the pub for some drinks and free pool with friends.

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I’m adding another project to my never ending list of things to do.  That might seem a little backwards, I know, but I like to have a lot of things on my plate.  This is really just to force myself to put (and keep) equal attention on each thing because if I don’t…it’ll all fall a part.  I do enjoy a good balancing act.
I’ve signed up with Bluehost.com to start hosting my own site!  And I have no idea what I’m doing! Actually, the first couple problems I experienced had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with my domain being transferred from my sister’s account.  All that’s sorted now, so when I get a few minutes of free time *cough*good luck*cough* I’ll get my site looking all pretty and hopefully, fully functional.  Cause it’s not all about looks right?

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Speaking of being hot, I made the final vote for the Hot Blogger Calendar!  I find the whole thing more funny than anything, but it is my first blog-related contest so I’m kinda excited to see what happens with it.  I’ve already been told that I’d be the hottest person there, but that was from my boyfriend and he may be a little biased.  Anyway, you only get to vote for ONE chick, so it’d be sweet if you voted for me   There’s a button on my sidebar – GO VOTE FOR ME!

I think I’m a little late in posting this, but I was nominated as a Hot Blogger (as were a TONNE of other people)!  The deadline is tomorrow, and the bloggers with the highest number of nominations make it to the final vote.  So, GO NOMINATE ME! 

That’s my bed.  I’m not posting this picture for any other reason but to set the scene for what is so far, the most terrifying moment of my life.

It all started at about 1am, Sunday morning.  I had only been home for a couple hours and was sitting on my bed, typing off a quick email to Matt before I called it a night.

Most of you know I also share a room with my little bro (Chad), due to lack of space in my mom’s house and my stay here only being temporary.  His bed is to the left, and a few feet up from mine, since I’m kinda tucked into a corner.  Anyway, our room was extremely warm and humid thanks to the weather we’ve been having lately, so Chad asked me to open the window (see above photo).

This prompted the following conversation:

Me: “I don’t really like sleeping with my window open.”
Chad: “Why not?”
“I don’t know…I always get scared that somethings going to rip through the screen and get into the room, and I’ll be the first victim.”
“Uhh, ok….”

Chad usually falls asleep listening to his Mp3 player, so once our chat was over, he put his head phones back on.

Not 2 minutes later, I hear the loudest growl/snarl/roar RIGHT OUTSIDE MY NOW OPEN WINDOW.
I froze.  Chad heard it too, and ripped off his headphones just in time to hear me say in a frantic whisper,
“THIS is why I don’t sleep with my window open.”
As soon as he realized I wasn’t the one who made the noise (thanks dude, I’m not THAT loud), he instantly knew what was out there,
“Oh my God, that’s a freaking bear.”

So I’m lying frozen under the OPEN WINDOW, Chad’s in his bed absolutely FRANTIC, and we can both still hear the thing grunting and sniffing around right outside.
I have 2 choices.  I can either stay frozen, let the bear get in, and proceed to be MAULED…OR I can close the window.
In what felt like forever, I reached my hand up to the window and SLAMMED it closed as loud and hard as I could, hoping in would scare the bear away.  Then we both leapt out of our beds and ran out into the living room, only to stop suddenly when we realized every. single. window. in our house was wide open.
So we rush around closing them all (of course, Chad left the ones closest to where the bear had been for me), then ran upstairs to get mom.

At that point, I let myself start freaking out.  I had so much adrenaline going through me and my legs were shaking so bad, I thought I would fall over…but I was also laughing!  Even though I was scared out of my mind, it was probably the most fun I ever had too.  Chad dealt with his rush in the same manner as he usually does, by talking…A LOT!

Once we got back to our room, Chad asked me how I worked up the nerve to close the window, cause he didn’t think he would be able to do it.  I reassured him that it wasn’t that easy, and I nearly wet myself in the process, but it was a hell of a lot better than the alternative.

]]> http://songsinblue.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/danger-danger-high-voltage/feed/ 9 Dayna http://songsinblue.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/hello-creeper-google-searches/ http://songsinblue.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/hello-creeper-google-searches/#comments Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:37:16 +0000 songsinblue http://songsinblue.wordpress.com/?p=543 ]]> Last night I did a serious purge of all my clothes.  I can now fit every single article of clothing I own into ONE drawer of a previously FULL SIX-drawer dresser.

Did I mention I had to get rid of all those clothes because I’ve lost 17 lbs and don’t fit them anymore? No?  Well, considered yourself informed.

I’ve been losing weight somewhat consistently for about 2 months but didn’t want to say anything because I usually give up after a couple weeks a day.

I’ve always been a bit of a curvy girl (I have child-bearing hips, yo) and hovered around the same weight for the last 2 years or so.  But after Matt left in January, I gained a little bit more than I was used to.  Did NOT like that at all.  So even though I’ve lost all that I gained (and a bit more), I don’t feel like I look that much different.  I’m just back to normal.

It’s just that now, ‘normal’ is no longer good enough. It’s not a matter of being skinny (I love my boobs WAY too much to lose them) but I want feel good, healthy and a little more confident.

Yes, I said ‘confident’ (stop laughing). You might not think that I lack it, but I am a GIRL.  More importantly, a CURVY GIRL.
I trick myself into feeling good about my body.
Instead of standing in front of the mirror, picking out every flaw, I focus on the good (my boobs(ok, fine. my hair, eyes etc.)) and voila! Instant confidence.
But I know I can do better, work harder, get healthier, so I’m going to.  I want to be in the best shape I can be, so I can worry about more important things.

Like all the shopping I’m going to do this weekend.  Kidding.

They’re both so awesome, I just had a momentary loss of words while thinking of their awesomeness.

We spent a lot of the weekend just hanging out.  One night, a few of Grandma’s friends came over for dinner, which turned into one of the funniest evenings I’ve been a part of in a very long time. 
My fear of getting old is completely gone after hearing some of the conversations, and seeing how much fun they were having. 
There was even a debate as to which one of us kids was going to be the ‘designated driver’.  Chad, Courtney, and I all won that one and walked one of the ladies home after dinner was over.  In her defense, her husband just died and I felt really bad for her after we dropped her off.  I think I may even get her email from Grandma and keep in touch.

I think as we’ve gotten older, Grandma’s become less censored. Now, she virtually ignores any and all of mom’s ‘Don’t-you-dare-’ looks, leaving us kids (and mom) in shock but extremely amused.
It’s fun seeing your mom, embarrassed by her mother.

For someone who has been through so much in her life, she is one of the most positive people I know.  She is unwavering in her opinions, but says what’s on her mind without any form of judgement.  She’s real, honest, and believes in the best of people.

I want to be like her when I grow up.

Grandma, Mom, Me, Nancy, and Courtney