October the 2nd, 2011

Lord only knows how long its been since I wrote here..... There have been deaths and births and earthquakes and graduations and many many months and miles but perhaps its time to get back to it?
Let's just say its not entirely inconceivable that I will be writing again within the next few months.

To Do List...

- sign up for yoga classes
- organise papers into some semblance of order
- fix comments on blog
- fold the washing
- write dissertation
- purchase more bookshelves
- defrag hard drives

Right so I've tried fixing the html but as it transpires, I know precisely diddly-squat about it, so still I have no comments.
Anyone who knows what to do........ help!

right well I've got the fancy new templatey thing going on, but its eaten my comments and haloscan isn't haloscan anymore its all foreign and I'm confused and despite following the instructions I cannae get it to work, so I'm going to have a shower now.

This will serve me right for neglecting my blog for several months now, won't it?

Testing, testing, 1,2,3....

*taps mic*

Is this thing on?......

Can anybody hear me?

and......

so it goes and so it goes and so it goes.

Or, so it keeps coming. I'm so tired, but I need to count my blessings because around me there are those who are losing the things they treasure the most, and for the most part I still have the things I treasure the most.

Thats the lesson.
Count your blessings and don't EVER take anything for granted.

One whole month....

...since I blogged.

Since then I.... quit my job, got another. Went to Wanaka for 4 days and didn't wear shoes once. Had my prayers answered about leadership of the country I lived in for three years. Watched the first few episodes of season 9 of CSI. Missed Caleb, especially pertinent since its his first birthday today. Didn't send Caleb's birthday present. Did a bunch of teacher's college assignments. Was driven insane by both my social studies tutor and my replacement profs tutor. Tried to fix the tiny sick roses on the property in Wanaka. Thought about my friends in North America.

Didn't really think much about blogging though!!!!

So what, I'm still a rock star

So, after Lord-knows how many weeks of forgetting and then remembering late at night then forgetting again by the morning, I have finally got the wireless router to work.
Which means..... I has the internets in my room. And in the bathroom (both of them!!), and in the dining room and in the kitchen and in the living room and possibly even in the garage.

Now I have no more excuses for being a blogging slacker.

So, here we go.

Question time: what is the nicest compliment you have ever received? Possibly this could be answered in several categories, i.e. compliments about your appearance, about your abilities, about your character etc.

Recently I was told that there was nothing about me that was not absolutely beautiful, which got me thinking about the whole thing (aside from the fact that there are, in fact, several things about me that are not beautiful).

Answers in the box.

Ruby, don't take your love to town

So busy busy busy...... and also slack......

Working at the restaurant, finishing up the section at school, thinking about my teacher's college stuff, trying not to think about my PhD, trying my damndest to get the last of my university job done. 

I'm frightfully tired all the time, so I've started taking my vitamins again. I'm also considering taking days off and doing some relaxing. I'm also considering a meal of steak and spinach, I hear thats good for one's energy levels. 

Last week I had a dry week, as in a week off drinking. No glass of wine with dinner!!!! It was thoroughly awesome, and of course I had loads of energy and felt completely virtuous and spent the week polishing my halo. However, right now I am sitting here with a glass of lovely buttery chardonnay because today I earned it, working 9 hours in the restaurant. Tomorrow... a day off!!! 

Perhaps I will go for another bike ride, perhaps I will clean... who knows. 

Its a mystery. 

I love a good mystery. 

Now they'll sleep all night

Yes, I am being out-blogged by Ben!!!
This is me hanging my head in shame.

But just quickly, cos I have some Year 9s to teach.....

First: the Hadron collider is up and running. There is a good chance we are all going to be sucked into a black hole. Cross your fingers and toes that we don't.

However, should we get sucked into a black hole of our own making, judgement day is going to arrive a little sooner than we though. Which goes to show that I really shouldn't be publishing this picture the delightful fishboy sent me via googlechat the other day.
But I am going to. Cos Jesus loves me and my sense of humour.
I hope.

I do believe its true that there are roads left in both of our shoes

Hello, blogland.

I am still alive. I am still in NZ.
I'm currently on teaching practice, where I have managed to mostly behave myself, despite the best efforts of others.

Unfortunately I haven't had much time to see people, what with being super busy and all, but happily I am managing to establish some friendships with new people, and see my old friends for a little bit as well.

Um.... this update sucks.
I've been out of "blogging" headspace for so long that its hard to get back into it.
I'll get to work on that.
Right.
Back soon.

My Mum

Yesterday.
Context:I went to the loo, and on my way back into the living room, jumped on the bathroom scales and weighed myself.

Conversation:
Me: "Hey Mum. I've lost about 4 kilos"
Mum: *starts giggling*
Me: "Umm.... wtf?"
Mum: "No dear that's great, I just thought.....*laugh laugh laugh*..... that perhaps you had a really successful trip to the loo there"

Today.
Context: I have to get up mega early to get to the bus by about 7.20 am to get to school by 8am.

Conversation:
Me: *sneaking around the house all quiet like, while the wind and rain batter the house*
Mum : *in sleepy voice* "Claire? I will drive you to the bus stop cos its cold and raining"
Me: "Awwww.........that's sweet but you should stay in bed. Its horrible out there."
Mum: *ends up driving me not only to the bus stop, but the bus stop 3 stops further down the road, the one that has a proper shelter so I don't get wet while waiting for my bus*

I do not like it Sam I am


No, not Teacher's College, I like that well enough, what I am currently waffling on about is the news that my beloved Grissom is leaving CSI.
Le sigh.....

In other news, Teacher's College is fine, not too challenging intellectually, but it just takes up loads of time, which means that I haven't done much work on my proposal or my work-that-I-get-paid-for which is kind of stink but really, whats to be done? The routine is coming together so it won't be long until I've got a handle on it, and have my days planned out.
The lack of easily-accessible internet is a double edged sword, because while there are a bajillion things I haven't caught up with online, there are also a bunch of other things I have done because I haven't been wasting time online catching up with things that aren't really that important in the grand scheme.

Teacher's College is weird in a way because we are constantly asked to think about our time at high school and the teachers we had, and it almost feels like now-me is visiting then-me.
If only I could, oh the things I would say to myself.

Right, back to the salt mines.....

Steady as she goes

This whole 'absence of immediate and fast internet' thing is certainly proving harmful for blogging. As soon as I have some money I am buying a wireless router so I can has the internets in my room, and therefore will never have to get out of bed again. Schwing!!!!

I've been watching "Weeds". Admittedly I have only-just-last-night finished the first season, but I can safely say that I love it and have a big girl crush on Nancy Botwin.
Watching it prompted a big thought the other night, about suburbia and the popular culture representations thereof, and I was going to speechify in defence of suburbia but right now I have a belly full of tikka masala and an absence of motivation so I think its time to crawl into the recliner with a cup of tea and watch the Food Channel.

I miss Maggie.

In Dreams

Do you ever have those moments where you think things are okay in your mind, and you are just fine with the way they are and think that maybe if one had more time one would sit down and really think things out but its really not urgent or pressing or whatever?
Then one night you will be just chilling out about stuff and things and not worried at all about anything in particular, and then you go to bed and have a dream in which things happen and people appear and there are events and sequences and interactions and then you wake up in the morning and it all just makes sense? All this stuff that you thought might take some serious figuring out eventually just turns out to be so simple and you are kicking yourself for not realising it earlier, even though its not even the time for it now, let alone earlier and may only be the half promise half possible time for it more-than-one years down the track from now, but at now at least you know and somehow that makes it all a bit better.

Yeah, me too.

Phew.

Yes its great to be home. 

Yes I miss my friends in the US.

No, I don't miss the heat. 

No, I haven't finished my dissertation. 

Yes, I am going to be a teacher. 

No, I haven't recovered from the jet-lag.

Yes, I miss my wireless internet access.

No, I don't miss the crap food. 

No, I haven't uploaded my photos to Flickr yet cos I can't get my laptop to work on my mum's internet connection. 

Yes, I am excited about getting on with my life. 

Strange, I have been feeling short of breath. It's almost like I can't really breathe until I get back here, so what is normal breathing anywhere else feels like being short of breath here. 

Gotta love that clean green nuclear free New Zealand air.....

On the phone to ISP tomorrow about installing a second plug for the internet in my room. There is a good chance I will be residing at Chateau Mum for some time.... at least until she gets tired of me and kicks me out, then I'm off to Chateau Dad. I have become so spoilt with internet access and I'm really not so ready to give it up. 

Is that sad?

Angry angry flight gods

I don't know what I did to piss them off, but it must have been something good.

The most recent examples: Last week, flying from Syracuse to Memphis, via Charlotte, North Carolina.
The flight left Syracuse on time (miracle!!!) but by the time we got to Charlotte the bad weather had caused many delays. So, we sat there on our poky wee plane for half an hour until we could get a gate. Fun times.
I was supposed to wait in Charlotte for maybe an hour and a half, but the delays meant that I had to hot-foot it to the gate to catch the flight to Memphis. Luckily I checked the boards for the times, and because of the weather, my next flight was delayed for an hour and a half. Time for a wee feed.
Finally, after a second delay of another 40 minutes (yes, that's two hours and ten minutes) I get on the plane to Memphis, where dear Sunshine and Van-Nasty were waiting for me and the other members of our party, wee Sethie and HKD.

We then proceeded to rock Bonnaroo, but that's a story for another day.

From Memphis, I took off for LA, via Phoenix, for a 9.30pm flight from LA to Auckland. The flight to Phoenix was fairly uneventful, except for the 45 degree heat that blasted me as I got off the plane onto the airbridge.

In Phoenix I got on my plane headed to LA, and we taxied out to the runway, at which point the captain informed us that we had to head back to the gate cos the plane was broken.
Mechanics ensued. Plane was allegedly put back together. We taxied out to the runway again.

Rinse and repeat.
Clearly the duct tape they used to fix the plane was no match for the Arizona heat, and we had to get off the plane and find a new one.

At this point I realised that the chances of me making the 9.30 from LA were rapidly shrinking. Off to the US Airways desk!!!
The pretty lady there informed me that we were going to get a plane soon and that I could get on the 10.30 from LA to Auckland, and she would call them to arrange it all while I got on the new un-broken plane to get the hell out of Phoenix.
I finally make it to LA at 9.25pm. Wait in line practically eating the luggage trolley while waiting for my bags, so I could load them up, take them to Terminal 2 and check in with Air New Zealand. Check in completed at 9.45pm. Continue to security.

Happily the usually insane security at LAX was fairly quiet, which was good because I was foul and tired and smelly and ready to crack some skulls.
I arrive at the gate just as they announce the boarding, simultaneously singing the praises of the nice people at Air NZ who are so accommodating and didn't charge me the $150 to change my ticket; and wondering what I did to anger the flight gods to the extent that I clearly have.

The occasions upon which I get on a plane that takes off and lands on time and meets all proper connections are considerably fewer than situations like the above.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky that my bad-flight-luck extends only as far as delays and missed connections, rather than the exploding-planes alternative.

But anyway, now I'm in Auckland airport waiting for my flight to Christchurch so I can see my mum and have a shower and wash all my clothes and get on with my life.
Boarding in half an hour...... fingers crossed.