Me and my neglected blog...

You know it's funny; every time I come back to this thing, after an extended period of time, and read through my entries, I'm struck by one fact...

I'm a little bit mess-obsessed

Seriously; almost every post mentions the state of my room and my lack of tidiness...

... so now that I've just added to the problem...

I've been investigating other ways to procrastinate lately (which would be good considering that I like to think procrastination is just a brain-break and blogging isn't really a brain break per se). You know, things like watching a DVD, going for a walk, doing my washing, watching TV etc. Unfortunately, I've inadvertently settled on the one thing that is probably more addictive than you-tubing... The Twilight series...

Oh yes, I have succumbed to the latest girlish craze, the author heralded as the next JK Rowling (although that's clearly a form of blasphemy... heh), the series that is essentially a teenage romance with vampires...

Good grief, when I put it like that it sounds a little silly...

Ah well

On a random side note (although this is a little related) Annie pointed out something hilarious to me the other day. In the women's toilet on the concourse level in the tower building, some love-struck soul has drawn a love heart with "Edward Cullen" written in pink letters in the middle...

I think that level of commitment should be admired to some degree...

Oh and I've also decided that the two guys who were busking together in the tunnel on Tuesday are my new heroes - they were playing a duet on piano accordion and didgeridoo - fantastic :)

My tidy room...

Today, I did the unthinkable... I tidyied my room...

Or at least I thought I had - one of my friends came to borrow something off me and, noticing that I'd rearranged my furniture, said this;

"Wow, looks like you've got some tidying to do"

...

Perhaps I need to redifine the work "clean" in my head...

I will call it "Girl Procrastinating"

I've decided that...

...showers in winter in a bathroom with no heater make me sad...

Musings...

I've been reflecting on this for a while but I've realised that I am an extreme version of a "words of affirmation" person. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, a guy called Dr Gary Chapman wrote a book on how people express or feel loved. The five languages listed are;

• Quality Time


• Words of Affirmation


• Gifts


• Acts of service


• Physical Touch

Of course, these are very generallised and often people are a combination of a few of these.

However, below is a diagram arranging these on a line of most relevent to least relevent language for me...

...Ok, so it's not quite that extreme... Physical touch is somewhere in the middle (i'm definitely a hug-a-holic) and gift giving and recieving is somewhere off this page (in the "I so don't get it" section of the line) but you get the point.

The thing I've realised about this though is that I'm looking for affirmation in the wrong place. It hit me at ETC really; I was one of the music organisers and it's a well known fact that in ministry, you shouldn't expect to be thanked very much (which is fair enough - you're not really supposed to be doing it for your glory... but that's getting ahead of myself).

This, was a severe problem...

You see, when people don't tell me I'm doing a good job at something, I start wondering why. Is it because I suck at whatever it is I'm doing? Is it because they don't like it? Do I look funny out the front? Does anybody like me? Am I... What's.... Why?

And so the stress builds up and I start to implode with worry...

This is exactly what happened at ETC. I ended up a in tears a few times because no one was telling me how much they loved the music and that I should keep up the good work!

Now please please please don't get me wrong here; I'm not saying that you all suck for not telling me I'm awesome (that would seriously not be helpful) I'm merely telling you all this to illustrate my point: I need to stop looking for acceptance and affimation from people and start looking more to God.

The way I see it is as long as I'm doing what He tells me to do through the bible I'll be fine. Of course this would be a lot easier to do if I got emails or something from Him to let me know I'm doing ok but unfortunately that's not how it works. I need to learn to do what He wants me to do and to be satisfied with the knowledge that God loves me no matter how good a job I do at it.

Maybe then I'll learn to see the occasional word of encouragement from a friend as icing on the cake... :)

I've been meaning to explain....again...

OK so i'm not sure you can see the circle, but my thumbs don't bend at the second joint - the one closest to my wrist...

So perhaps I should explain...

Alright so I've had a few people ask me to show them my non-bendy thumbs... so I will!




Yes... it is weird... Actually here's a better picture...

So now that I have fully cemented the knowledge that I'm a crazy person in your minds I'm going to sign off with a last comment along the lines of;

"I'm on holidays! Yay!"

heh...

Have you ever had one of those days where odd and unexpected things seem to happen continuously? Well admittedly, neither have I, but odd and unexpected things have been pilling up lately... (it should be noted that these events are odd and no surreal as helpfully pointed out by Adam Hills here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNFbG75hS5Q)

For instance...

A few weeks ago, I discovered that I don't have opposable thumbs. Most normal peopla have two joints in thier thumbs. This helps them grip things, write and freak a large number of people out if they happen to be extra lucky and double jointed. But in a small number of people one of the joints is fused and, tragically, results in a reduced ability to function... or so some people may think (...ok so perhaps I made that last bit up...).

But I say "poo" to them!

I thought I was normal! I play violin! I write! I still freak people out....possibly because i'm "no-jointed" (yeah... made that up to... but I like it) and it's weird... but hey - we don't have to focus on that.

Anway, the odd thing about this entire incident was not only that I discovered it was weird after 20 years of living, but that another of my friends dixcovered the same thing in the same conversation! This resulted in a "no-jointed" high-five and rather strange command from a "normal" person to never, under any circumstances, have children...

Secondly, lately I've been getting weird emails from a hybrid half crocodile, half platypus named (creatively) croco-pus. Apparently he got lost after ETC and now wants the Science and Nursing faculty at CREDO to sing him and song.

So basically, we're being blackmailed by a giant stuffed animal in a SaN t-shirt...

Great

Lastly... it occured to me last thursday that I'm learning how to synthesise illegeal drugs...




Ok so I should really expand on that one hey....

I'm doing a subject at Uni called "Chemistry and Pharmacology of Illicit Drugs" where we literally learn how to synthesise things like ice and speed and then get told not to because we will get arrested.

Seriously, last Thursday I was sitting in my lecture and our teacher suddenly pauses in his explanation of the various clandestine routes of synethsis of methamphetamine and says something along the lines of "and this was quite popular with bikie gangs in the 70s"

I'm going to let you all just think about that for a bit and see if you develop the same mental picture as I have...

"Boring Women Have Immaculate Homes"

My friend looked into my room yesterday and I swear her eyes very nearly popped out of her head! The conversation (from memory) went something like this:

Friend: Oh my goodness Joh, how has your room gotten this messy in a day?

Me: raises an eyebrow... or tries to... then gives up as I realise I've only cemented the knowledge that I'm mad in my friend's mind... Messy? What are you talking about?

Friend: Sounds exasperated Well there's all those clothes on your bed and the unemptied box and... (proceeds to list all of the things that are out of place which, admittedly is a rather long list)

Me: You've obviously never lived close to my room before have you?

It's true... I am the mess Queen. And I should probably just stress that the title of this entry has no reflection on my view of tidy people. In fact I admire them because no matter how hard I try, I can't be tidy.

Seriously - on the rare occasions that I get it into my head that perhaps having to take a running leap over clutter to get to my bed is not the best of signs and actually attempt to do something about it, I tidy things and then in five seconds my room looks like some long lost section of the himalayas...

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I grew up surrounded by mess... Our house was (and kinda still is... but maybe that's because they're renovating... not sure) always filled with clutter of some description. Fortunately it was only clutter and there was no chance of finding a rotten apple core that had been forgotten and had developed into intelligent life!

Mum tries to get us to be at least a little bit tidy... I remember once when I was little she sent me on a full on treasure hunt (with clues and everything) around my room to find the floor. (I was highly disappointed when I discovered that the hunt had nothing to do with chocolate of some description)

Unfortunately for her, I've come to the conclusion that being messy has some degree of eccentricity... it's different! Maybe that's why I never put anything away or throw my clothes all over the floor when I've brought them back from the washing machine - it gives my room character!

...

Or maybe I'm just lazy....

Either way, being messy is a habit that, hopefully, I'll be able to break someday because no matter how much I tell myself that I can "concentrate better when I have to physically clear a space on my desk with a bulldozer in order to study", a tidy room is so much less embarrassing and easy to vaccuum...

But for now, my idea of cleaning is to sweep the room with a glance :)

This is great...

www.xkcd.com