Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known

• Miss Jones now reads my blog, she’s read all the gushy stuff I have said (and you guys have commented with) but best of all she’s totally down with the blog thing and has given the nod for photos, intimate details and everything in between to be posted…not that I particularly want to share some of the details (mystery, boys and girls!) but photos will be fun. Last night I took her with me to a screening of Milk at the Open Air Cinema, it was amazing. Obviously it was a delight to see Miss Jones but it was just a really beautiful night – the outdoor cinema is just magic, I finally got to meet the people I’ve been writing for and the movie was amazing. Milk was totally heartbreaking but also really inspiring at the same time, it really makes you think about how far gay rights has come in the last couple of decades but also how far it still has to come. During the movie there was a woman screaming something from outside the gates about killing and going to hell. I couldn’t really hear her but I suspect it was something with an anti-gay sentiment – considering the content of the movie and the number of queers in attendance last night. Aside from the possible haters, I had a really awesome night. After the movie I fell asleep for a microsecond with Miss Jones at her place and then woke up having no idea what time it was or anything. Convinced I’d been asleep for hours, I threw everything back on and left an equally tired Miss Jones at her door so I could drive home and return D’Mummy’s car so she could go to work…only to find out it was 11pm and I must have been asleep for like 3 minutes. Fuck. It was really disorientating but it just meant I got home at a semi-reasonable hour and no one had to worry about not having a car and stuff. Tops.

• Speaking of cars, I found one I am looking at buying. I had my heart set on a Barbie Dream Car (aka Ford Capri) but seeing one in person yesterday, the idea was firmly quashed by D’Olds. After reading more about them online I found out they a prone to leaking like a mofo and generally being a bit shit so maybe it’s not so bad after all. The car I am looking at is a red sports car. It’s old but in amazing condition as far as we could see from looking at the inside and exterior of the car yesterday. Today I am having it inspected by a mechanic so if that turns out to be alright it should be mine in the next few days. I was not planning on getting another car but I have come to remember that Brisbane PT is notoriously unreliable and fucking expensive without a student card and that borrowing a car from D’Bro or D’Olds is just tricky. Many jokes have been made about my quarter life crisis (changing career, young gf [yeah, Miss Jones is six years younger than me! At a 90s party on the weekend I said how a song reminded me of Year Eight...which was when she was in Year Two!!] and now a sports car) but fuck it. I am happy

• My textbooks finally arrived today. For just under $300 I got four books the size of small novels. Nothing is more depressing than the value for money represented in textbooks, it’s utter madness. The upside is that now I can actually do my assignments and may not cock up this whole Masters thing. Yay for not failing.

• I am so sore today. Yesterday I helped do gardening – I used many gardening tools and now my arms and back ache. Proof I am both old and unskilled in the field of manual labour. I also got sunburned. Hi Insult, meet Injury!

• Seriously, last night was just so awesome. I brought a picnic blanket so we had something to sit on, but because I was old and broken from my brief stint at gardening, Miss Jones hired chairs for us so I wouldn’t be uncomfortable. It was so nice to have someone to lean on and hold hands with during the movie, it was perfect weather, everything just was so right but best of all, it just happened. I didn’t have to try and force any sort of perfection to happen – it just did. I have a bad case of the warm and fuzzies today.

• Off to do shitty assignments and wait to see how the car inspection goes. Fingers crossed please! This week I am going to update my links as they are sorely neglected and fix up the Who’s Who bit. Stay tuned!

• I’m a bit cheesed today. I missed out on the Kindy job – someone with Special Ed. training trumped me, but rightly so, it was for an additional needs assistant. The Director was just lovely about it though and wanted to call me and let me know that I was amazing, and she thought so highly of me and that it was just because the other person was specially trained that I missed out and that I should apply for any future vacancies because the company would be lucky to have me. That kind of stuff. It was above and beyond the general “Sorry, you were unsuccessful” call so it was just lovely. I am pissed about the continued lack of income. Money would be great.

• Also, Centrelink won’t pay me. Only some Masters by coursework are approved for funding and (of course) mine is not one of them. I asked the guy if there was anything I was eligible for and he offered me a health care card…as far as I know, shops don’t accept health care cards as payments for goods and services. Bitches. I understand that Centrelink helps a lot of people who need help but I can safely say they have done pretty much fuck all for me thus far. Thanks Australian Government, you’ve just further inspired me to piss over overseas when I’m finished studying so I never pay Aussie taxes again, top job!

• I saw Miss Jones again today and last night. Last night was really good…but it’s not something I am gonna blog about (let’s leave a little mystery). Today was kind of our first “date” I guess, around other people. It was fun to see her and I met a couple of her friends and we saw some other mututal friends. Today we kind of noticed some differences in terms personal preferences towards PDAs and some other stuff. I, as you may know, am pretty low key. I’m not really loud, outgoing or particularly pleased to be center of attention. I kind of keep my drama internalised and it generally only relates to me and I am not one for huge PDAs – I’m not a touchy feely person (ask anyone, I’m just not a hugger) and Miss Jones is basically the opposite to me on these things. It’s not bad by any means, god knows I would hate to be involved with someone who is similar to me, and she is totally a breath of fresh air in so many ways, it’s just a bit of an adjustment for both of us. I’ve been single for a really long time, so I am used to kind of doing what I always do but I’m not above compromising. I guess it’s just part of getting to know someone and all of that. It’s fun

• I am so very tired. I have been leaving Miss Jones’s place pretty late or staying up and chatting to her until some silly hour and as a result I am just wrecked. Add onto all of this the fact I have two assignments due Monday and my mood is foul, at best. I am gonna sleep like nobody’s business tonight and then work like a mofo tomorrow and Friday to knock out these assignments. It’s gonna suck and be shitty and boring but I want my Masters, really bad, so I’m gonna have to harden up and do it…even though I have much better things to be doing.

It’s kinda hard to write about the stuff with Miss Jones. I suppose because in the entire time I’ve been blogging I’ve never really been involved with anyone so it’s just not something I am good at writing about. She’s totally amazing and lovely and wonderful. Sunday night was pretty much the best night ever and confirmed everything I’d ever wanted to know about the lady loving business.

Seriously, pashing girl = best thing ever. Soft, warm, non-scratchy, it was just perfect. Other things with girls are great too

It was kind of a strange feeling to want to kiss someone back, and all that. I quite regret all the time I spent with boys trying hard to feel something towards them, turns out it’s not something you have to try and feel when you are with someone you are really into. I honestly never knew that it was possible, all the giddy stuff about wanting to see someone all the time and all the other gushy pathetic stuff.

In other news, I am in the thick of the semester now. More assessment than I can jump over and more reading than is humanly possible, this is made particularly difficult when you can only think about pashing someone and cannot concentrate on linguistic competence and dialects and things.

So, judging up the very sharp spike in hits after all the girl business started, I am gonna go ahead and guess you all want to hear about it. For the sake of not just being gushy for several thousand words I am going to just be brief.

• Thursday was great. No pashes but much hand holding, leg stroking type stuff.
• I get butterflies when I think about her.
• I miss her when she isn’t around.
• I woke up smiling on Friday morning, just because she was the last person I spoke to before I went to bed.
• I’m going to hers tonight because I don’t want to wait until next week to see her again.

But alas, she is moving OS, around the end of the year. We have kind of decided to just play it by ear and take things as they come and then see where things are when the time comes. I’m not against moving OS again but it won’t be at the end of this year (unless I get an amazing job offer, cause then I would. I’d just rather not move and be totally poor again). Right now it’s fun so why overthink it? I should give her a name for the sake of the blog…let’s go with Miss Jones.

The media stuff is going awesomely, the Chicago preview was amazing! Gina Riley is just outstanding, she has such a powerhouse voice! I urge everyone to go see it, it will be in Brisbane until May and then moves to Sydney and Melbourne so heaps of you will have the opportunity to catch it. I don’t know if I’ll go and see it, I don’t wanna drop money on tickets until I am officially employed*, we’ll see. I have also been invited to a screening at the open air cinema next weekend as a thankyou for the writing I’ve done so far so I’m gonna take Miss Jones with me to that one, should be fun!

* Remember the job I am wildly overqualified for? I think I might get it, they called my lovely Jac referee who said they sounded pretty keen and the fact they are following up references seems promising. I suppose I will find out soon! Fingers crossed!

Also, remember the new shelf thing I bought and it was broken? Well, they didn’t deliver my new one last week like they said so we called yesterday and they brought one over yesterday evening for me. I opened it all up and……fucking broken! Again! Needless to say, it’s going back today and they can shove it. It’s the same piece and it has broken in the same way, so obvious there is either something wrong with the way they cut the piece or the material they use if it keeps happening. I’m going to IKEA, their furniture may be cheap and sometimes shitty but it’s never broken on me like that!

So the interview went swimmingly. I went a bought a voice recorder this morning, it was $80 I really didn’t want to spend (since when does a dictaphone thingy cost fucking $80??) but I knew I would just freak out and not actually listen to anything so for the sake of not making a dick of myself I got it.

I met the publicity person for the theater who took me to the meeting room where the guy was waiting. He was incredibly lovely and kept thanking me for interviewing him. I found this enitrely perplexing as I’m not the one who has worked with Kylie Minogue, nor did I take time out of my busy day creating international dance projects but it was very flattering nonetheless. I won’t talk about the interview, I’ll just link it once it is up, but he is incredibly passionate about what he does, dedicated to his craft and will do fantastic things, there is no doubt of it.

I think I did an alright job, he didn’t look at me strangely because of the questions I asked and seemed genuinely interested in what I was asking and responding with lots of information and personal stories. I kept it to about 20 minutes, I could have gone on longer but I didn’t want to tie up his time for too long and I figured it was better to quit while I was ahead. The publicity lady met me again and walked me out, I met the head of publicity and got her card and they both thanked me again. The first lady asked me if I would be doing any reviews and I said I was and she said she’d accommodate my editor and I for opening night of this production. I was planning on seeing it anyways, now the my interest has been piqued and the man I interviewed even asked me to email him and let me know what I think!

When I got home I had an email thanking me for coming (again) and another one inviting me to a media call on Friday. A fucking media call, like what actual journalists and media people go to, not just girls who faff about and write on line articles, I am media now! Needless to say this is all mind blowingly exciting for me. It’s more than I ever thought I’d have the opportunity to do and I am so very thankful for it.

Not to mention the fact I am staring down the barrel of a pash if not more with someone I like a whole bunch. And she is really lovely and clever and super fun! It almost feels like a trick, she is extraordinarily complimentary of me and thinks I am clever and funny and cute. It just doesn’t happen to me, there is always a catch but there doesn’t seem to be any this time. She is actually single and available, has no immediate plans to move OS  and there is every possibility we could actually become involved. I am seeing her tomorrow and usually I’d be nervous but it feels so surreal that it’s almost impossible to get nervous about. It was kind of like today, it happened so fast and was so unexpected that I couldn’t get nervous about it.

Crazy times, boys and girls, craaaaaaazy times.

Maybe it is true what they say?

Since the party when I saw Tex last I kind of decided that I don’t want the drama associated with her. She’s amazing but perpetually confusing and I spend 80% of the time wondering what I did wrong and how I could have done something better and 20% of the time be thrilled I managed to do something “good”. Plus, she’s just unavailable and I have already spent far too long torturing myself falling for girls who are unavailable so it’s onwards and upwards.  I resolved to do exactly as I please for the rest of my life, and if that meant I was going to be single forever then so be it – I would so much prefer to be single and happy than involved and desperately trying not to cock it up every moment of every day. I am highly strung enough without that kind of added pressure!

And then I got a message on FB. I met a girl at the party, I thought she was lovely and fun and she spent a lot of time with Tex and I but I assumed she either knew Tex well or was trying to hook up with her which is totally fine, she’s fair game. I must confess I did’t really pay a great deal of attention to her because I was too busy trying to keep Tex happy and sane and only really sussed her out in terms of why Tex would prefer her over me (heaps of reasons – she’s younger, incredibly attractive, fun and exciting. Basically everything I am not!)

So anyways, the FB message was kinda a gushy friend request saying we met at the party and she hopes I remember her and that she wants to know me more and that we should go out. I accepted her, and just assumed she was being generically lovey and didn’t think much more about it and made plans to see her at an event later this week. Since then, it has become incredibly clear that she isn’t keen on being merely friends and wants to be involved with me.

Holy Shit! This doesn’t happen to me! I fall for girls who aren’t available, get crushed, spend a few months dwelling and then rinse and repeat. This is all incredibly strange and confusing, plus she’s like incredibly attractive and could easily pick up anyone she chose so it perplexes me that she would choose me. I have no idea how I managed to come across as somehow intelligent or charming when I first met her and I’m terrified that she’ll be painfully disappointed next time we hang out. We chatted until 4am last night, which is eairliy similar to the first night Wifey and I really hit it off. I decided to lay my cards on the table with her, it’s not very cool or charming but I just want her to know what she is getting into. I have been single for a long time, I am incredibly content doing my own thing and I don’t need to be needed by someone else. I am useless at playing games and all that sort of shit and I am incredibly oblivious to the most obvious advances. Despite my very best efforts to explain exactly how much work I can be, she is still keen.

I have like butterflies and stuff going on, it has been a REALLY long time since I felt that way, and there is a good chance I’m gonna get a pash sometime this week. Tops!

In a very recent development, I am doing an interview tomorrow, like a media interview. I’m interviewing the Artistic Director of a ballet company, a big deal one. I’m pretty well terrified and fairly convinced I’ll cock it up but from what I’ve heard the guy seems pretty cool and has worked with a bunch of big names, so hopefully I’m not the first amatuer to cross his path. Interviewing is not something I particularly want to do but it’s a foot in the door and a “real” writing piece to keep for the resume. I am gonna go and buy a voice recorder tomorrow so I actually have the interview on tape because I know I’ll panic and forget everything once I am there. Wish me luck! If you hear on the news tomorrow that a big name ballet guy stormed out of an interview and pulled his show out of Qld, that’ll probably be my doing!

Here it is!

Spilled salt*, in honor of Friday 13th. It looks a bit red and angry but it’s only a few hours old so that is to be expected. It’s down the side of my right inner ankle with the grains spilling out along the inside of my foot. It took about 15 minutes I’d guess, from woah to go, and all for $20. I really can’t speak highly enough of True Love Tattoo they did a fantastic job, were totally lovely people and despite having at least 50 people already signed up for $20 tattoos they were ensuring everyone got what they want, where they wanted and really spent time to make sure the tattoos were done to everyone’s liking. I expected a bit of a “slap on the transfer, scratch the outline, out the door” type deal for $20, but they were so generous in their time. I will absolutely be going back for my future tattooing needs and if you are in the market for some new decorations I’d suggest you check them out. The store is also really spacious and has that delicious hygienic smell! Also, look out for the receptionist – the tiny girl with white hair and a purple mohawk. She is exceptionally beautiful, extremely well presented and has a salt and pepper shaker behind each ear – as if I needed another reason to think she was lovely! SusieQ got a little black cat face on one of her ankles and Ange came along to suss out what flash was available but she wasn’t tickled by anything so she played photographer for me.

The bonus of having a photographer was that I got some pictures of my hair so I can show you the mohawk and the shaved bits before they grow out, they are already growing out a little so it’s lucky I got the picture when I did. The other bonus was that I had time to act like a complete twit (the endorphins were kicking in) and have someone capture it on film.  Ange did well and happened to catch the charming receptionist in the back of this photo. Isn’t she delightful?The pics are a little grainy because they’ve been cropped to spare you the horror of my poor posture and me sitting in a fairly awkward position getting tattooed. The second hair photo is pretty ordinary – just me having the tattoo transfer placed on my foot – but it shows the side of my hair well.

Every now and then I get an email from someone saying “Were you here at this place, at this time!? I think I saw you!!”. Now that I have a red mohawk and a salt shaker on my foot I believe it’s becoming less and less likely that I could be mistaken for someone else. Go ahead and come say “Hi’ if you like, I am awkward and ordinary in person so chances are I’ll be a fair disappointment but chances are it will make me feel like a rockstar for the rest of my life, so that is never a bad thing. Definately come talk to me if you see me with a drink in hand, it is incredibly likely that I will be feeling endlessly hilarious and charismatic. This is probably more fun if you are also pissed. If you aren’t, I will probably just seem obnoxious and chatty (if this leads you to be overcome by the urge to glass me, please don’t get my left side – it’s the pretty one).

For some reason my camera has developed the ability to place a thin red line down the middle of photographs. I believe this was not helped by the time I stacked outside my grocery store in Japan and in the process managed to slam my handbag into the tiled floor. There is no mark on the LCD and the lense seems to be clean so I am perplexed, it’s probably not worth the cash involved in having it fixed – it’s only a relatively cheapie one.

* So technically it’s a pepper shaker, salt shakers have several holes and pepper shakers have one hole but I suspect that I’m the only person pedantic enough to have noticed that. I knew it wasn’t “real” salt when I saw the flash but spilled pepper has no superstisious connotations so obviously it has to be salt, if you know when I got it done. I LOVE it, so wonderfully random, how many people do YOU know with a seasoning on them??

• It’s been a while since we had one of these, hasn’t it?

• It’s finally Tattoo Friday! No pictures yet, I’m gonna set off in about an hour so I’ll have pics up later this afternoon. Seeing as I have an hour to go from unwashed grub in PJs to clean, dressed functioning member of society I felt it was paramount to blog right now. Seriously, and I wonder why I run late at times??

• Job interview: okay. Like I said on FB it would be like hiring someone with a degree in Fine Art to be a casual house painter. I believe I answered all the questions well and that I came across as sufficiently charming and capable and I seemed to gel well with the Director so I am reasonably confident of getting it. The position doesn’t actually close until the 21st and they have to interview up until then but she told me she’d be in contact after that.

• Shit, now I am running late. I fail at being on time. I’ll write more when I get home, plus PHOTOS!

• Mac people, is there a way to keep your Macbook looking pristine and white? I got out of bed this morning and it looked like one of those arty farty “messed up sheets and an open laptop on the bed” type pictures, but the top of my Macbook look slightly discolored. I am a pedantic hand washer so I don’t think it’s simply dirt. It’s possibly caused by overheating, my Mac gets extremely hot (I have the daily burn on my left thigh to prove it) or it’s not actually especially dirty and I am just being nit-picky.

• I have developed the horrible habit of waking up sometime between 4:30am and 6am and being unable to go back to sleep. It sucks, I have no reason to be up at that time at the moment! Not to mention the fact I go to bed fairly late and as a result am usually achingly tired by about 11am each day. Balls! Are normal sleeping patterns so much to ask for?

So, it’s Wednesday. Tomorrow I’ve got a job interview for a job I am over qualified for, but I want it. It’s at a kindergarten working 5 hours twice a week. The days and hours are set, gives me plenty of time to do other shit and uni stuff and still keeps me tied to the industry in which I trained. The lady I spoke to on the phone when she called to arrange a time sounded really awesome and I believe I was the first person they called back as I could choose any time for my interview, so hopefuly that is promising.

I started reading some of my uni stuff over the past few days. The institution I am doing my Masters though is much different to the place where I did my undergrad. Everything seems terminally chilled, extensions on assignments can just be taken if they are under a week, the weeks of the semester can either start when the semester offically started or from the week you first recieved your materials, whatever works best for you. They also advise that academic writing need not be “wooden” or boring, but can be an entertaining read and you can also refer to yourself in the first person to add in anecdotes to your writing. Amazing! It’s not even a creative writing course! The readings are actually super interesting and kind of stuff I would just read for interest’s sake, even if I wasn’t studying. I am even excited to write assignments again, I actually do really love it. I’d even write assignments for other uni students (but I hear the university folks tend to view that more in the light of academic misconduct than someone who just likes writing assignments).

I have started making jewellery again. It’s funny, of all the crafts(arts?) I do, I am probably the most indifferent about jewellery making. I don’t wear what I make and I wouldn’t say I have any particular gift in creating jewellery but it’s the craft which has made me the most money and it’s the thing I miss most if I don’t do it. I love sewing, I love designing projects, I love doing them and I love the end products but I don’t miss it in the same way I miss making jewellery if I don’t sew for a while. Strange, no?

The new site is going swimmingly. I am thrilled with the design of it and the feedback I’ve got on my first article has been really good. I feel like it will be really good, it just seems really…fun.

Job interview reflections and tattoo pictures on Friday, stay tuned!

So, two weeks into this whole Masters jag and I’m yet to buy text books. A-grade slacker? Yep, that’s me. I actually really want to do it, and I’m keen to start but it’s just the actual starting bit that I need to do. It’s sort of like assignments, it takes me ages to actually begin them but once I’ve started that then it’s all sweet.

I’m going to print out all my unit outlines and junk today, that will be almost like getting started without having to do much. Don’t wanna go too hard too early on, you know?

In other news? Ummm, nothing.

On the weekend I bought a new bookcase shelf thingy which came flat packed. I don’t love furniture that requires you to crawl around on the lounge room floor with an allen key in your teeth, tightening bolts and trying to hold the pieces in place while you join it all together, but seeing as I am currently unemployed and still a dirty student – flat pack is my reality. Anyways, after opening it and laying out all the pieces I discovered the essential inner shelf thing was cracked in half. Tops. Called the store and they said to bring it back and they’ll replace it on the spot. Swapped it over, rebuild it all and discovered the replacement shelf was the wrong thing and was a good 5cm too short and they’d given me the wrong piece from the other packagae they took it from. Fucking tops. So I spent all Saturday afternoon building my shelf only to have to un-build it all and take it back to the store. They’ve ordered a new one for me and will deliver it for free which is nice, but I still have to build the shitty thing again just now I get to wait 2 weeks before another round. Bastards.

I also bought some bone earrings (sorry vegans! Though I do believe they use bone which is a by-product of other industries) on Saturday. The gague of the post is larger than my regular earring one so I have to stretch slightly. I tried to put it through dry and it hurt so I stopped. I will try again after I get out of the shower and my lobes are all soft. I’ve also found out KY Jelly can help…which is awesome seeing as I don’t have any water based lube simply lying around and will now have to go buy some. Exactly what I need…for all the boy sex I won’t be having. I am hoping I can buy a tiny amount, like those little packets you can buy with only one condom or a single dose of Panadol or something.

Wow, a post that is all about post graduate study, flat pack furniture and lube, I am a true example of a classic student. Go me!

Study tuned for: adventures in crafting once I get all my fabrics unpacked and tattoo Friday!