Here comes the bridesmaid

Guess what? I am going to be a bridesmaid!

I am going to wear a pretty dress* and stay in a castle (yep, a CASTLE) and oh yeah help the bride out a little, maybe.

The wedding is in February and it belongs to my very first frisbee friend, and it's all very exciting.

Any tips for being the best bridesmaid ever?

*If you are going to the wedding and you don't want to spoil the surprise of how pretty I will look, I suggest you don't click that link.

So much to tell you

Hello imaginary internet friends. I feel like I have so much to tell you. Yes, well, that's what happens when you tell NOTHING for half a year or so. Today I will just tell you about work (fascinating, no?) and then maybe soon I will tell you all kinds of other stories.

I have a new job! And not just any job. A Full Time job. And it's also an Office Job. And an Into The City, On The Train job. It's only until next January, but hopefully it will look so awesome on my resume that many other people will want to also give me Full Time Jobs. The first couple of weeks I felt like my brain was going to explode, what with all the learning of new things, but it seems to be better now.

At the moment, I am training for it three days a week, but at the end of the month I will be training full time, and then soon I'll be on my own!

The other two days a week I am doing a placement for uni at a small digital library (also in the city), which has been fun and also good-on-a-resume-ish and also good to just talk to people who were/are on kinda the same path.

In addition, I am doing half a day of cataloging at a public library each week, for another uni class, which means on the weekend, since you went and got yourself a weekday job, didn't think that one through, did ya. Actually I did think it through, and it's all working out how I planned, as everyone has been extremely accomodating of the days I allocated to them, which is nice.

And it's all been so educational and everyone's been so helpful, I'm just really enjoying all this practical stuff after learning it all in lectures last year.

And then those last two will end soon, and I will just have my regular 9-5 job, five days a week. You know, as you do.

Money Matters

A month or two ago, I decided to put myself on a strict budget. I would get the money out every Saturday, and anything I bought that week had to be paid for with cash. Anything left over at the end of the week went into a special Summer Clothes Shopping fund.

Today I counted up all my money: in addition to the money I'd saved by being on this budget, I had not spent $64.30. I gave myself a bonus for being so good, and took myself shopping.

I came home with three tops and three dresses and $41.55. (The 'and $41.55' part is good as I still would like some new bathers. Not that that will get me any surf brand pair.)

I ended up with a lot of stripes and navy-coloured things. This is not to say there there was really an exceptional amount of these things in the shops, just that of all the things the shops had to offer me (florals, peach-coloured things, rompers), I only liked the small percentage that was dark or striped.

And I figured out that I almost always come around to fashion trends eventually. Like those shoes that have many many straps across your foot? They are looking cute now. And today I bought a maxi dress. I fully expect that next years' shopping trip will involve me purchasing a by-then out of style mullet dress that I will have finally been persuaded looks good.

I have enjoyed my little experiment, and think I will continue it. It is interesting to consider whether paying extra for a name brand is worth it, or if I really need a jar of Nutella, or if that dress is $10 cuter than the other one.

(Often it's not, but sometimes it is. Yes I totally do, alright no I don't. No, it wasn't.)

One Year (and assorted other exciting events that occurred this weekend)

It was a dark and stormy night, one year ago...
I said yes to a nice boy who'd asked me to go the movies. This weekend we celebrated our one year (dating) anniversary, and I'm pretty damn happy about that.

Friday night was a Halloween Party. The next day I attended a high tea for a hens night, before heading to the drinking and games portion of the evening, before heading to our One Year Dinner, before heading to a birthday party. It was a busy day, let's say. We'll just run through the highlights:



Halloween: I spent the afternoon listening to the soundtrack from The Nightmare Before Christmas and putting the finishing touches to my costume - which included a cape AND a purple wig. Best costume ever.

High Tea: I drank tea! (I do not ever drink tea or coffee or things that are hot unless they are soup in which case it has to be in a bowl with a spoon and not in a cup. So this was a big deal. I had strawberry tea!)

Hens Night: It is really hard to not cross your legs. And to not hold your drink in your right hand.

Partying It Up: I feel sorry for boys, who are the ones who do the drink-buying. We scored free drinks from two kids who looked to be about twelve years old - even after they were shown my friend's wedding ring. Aww.

I Saved The Best For Last: For our One Year Dinner, I wasn't allowed to know where we were heading (which, also, I had to dress appropriately for all of these events at once. It is a magic dress indeed that is appropriate for tea with your grandma and drinking from a penis straw and making your bf happy he's dating you and getting hit on at a pub), but it turned out to be an extremely fancy and nice restaurant, where they give you palette cleansers in between your courses and put your napkin on your lap and there's too many knives and forks. Also there was delicious food there that I've never had or heard of and looks tiny but somehow you love it and it fills you all up.

The company wasn't half bad, either. We decided to give another year a go.



Edited to add: This picture, of the dress for all seasons:

Pillow Fight Part Two

At the start of 2009, I began playing ultimate frisbee. In October that year I attended my first national competition: Mixed Nats with an awesome team called Pillow Fight. Last year, sadly, Pillow Fight did not attend, although I went with the sixth best club team in the world, Smurf. THIS YEAR, however, we were determined to make P-Fight happen again, and happen it did! Stakes were higher this time around, as only two spots were allocated to SA instead of the usual three. Naturally, though, we were amazing, and nationals-bound! (And off on a frisbee road trip! My first one since my very first tournament, the Keith Calippo Classic, Tournament of the Year 09.)



Last time, the Pillow Fight theme extended to wearing PJ shorts (for most people, just on the first day) and a couple of random pillow fights. This time, we fully embraced it. Uniform shorts were, naturally, pajama shorts.



In addition, the night before the tournament, as we were all gathered in our accommodation, we had a pillow case-painting party to create our MVP prizes for the next day. Surprisingly and awesomely, the boys got into it way more than the girls, and created some masterpieces of pillow case art. At the tournament, instead of the traditional MVP voting in the circle, we selected two people who would be Most Fun To Have A Slumber Party With and made them pillow fight it out to win the grand prize of a handcrafted P-Fight pillow case. Word on the street was that at least one team wanted to play us in order to partake of this excellent new P-Fight tradition.



We lost all three games on Day 1, but came out and won three of four on Day 2, and won our last game on Day 3 to take 11th place and become officially the best mixed team in SA, as UE sadly only came 17th. We had a ton of fun in games, with 'fluffing the pillows' (pictured) and wiggling (not pictured, you're welcome) happening all over the shop. I threw my first scooba in a game and got a handblock on the first day. I threw some goals and caught some goals.



I fully endorse the P-Fight policy of selecting people based on whether they are fun to play with. It was an exceptionally fun tournament, and I hope it happens again next year.

Happy Birthdays (5th and 50th)

On the 21st of July, 2006 I moved to Adelaide and posted the first entry on this blog. Today is my blog's 5th birthday. DUDE, FIVE YEARS. Happy Birthday, blog I mostly abandoned but occasionally feel the need to post to. You are fun.

***

It is also MY birthday coming up, and for the first time since my 18th, I am having a party. (This does not mean that I have done nothing to mark the day in all the years since then; I love my birthday and there is always cake and friends involved.)

This year I am co-throwing a party, which seems like a good way for no one person to have to freak out too much. Our combined birthday age will be 50, so naturally we are having a Gold Themed 50th Birthday Party.

I went shopping for the perfect dress today, and got quite excited when - for the first time ever - I thought my imagination matched what was actually in fashion. Sadly, the gold dresses turned out to be either more hoodies than dresses, or more beige than gold. The perfect dress remains elusive!

The invitations have gone out (and let me tell you, once you start inviting frisbee people, all the spaces fill up pretty quickly) on actual paper, none of this Facebook invite crap. We are going for the old-fashioned ideas that RSVPs actually mean something, and that we want you at our party enough to hand write your name on a piece of paper and on an envelope.

Dear Birthday Gods,
For my birthday I would like the perfect dress (gold, under $50, preferably sparkly), for everyone to respondez s'il vous plait on time (preferably with yes), for everyone to actually turn up as RSVPed, and for everyone to have an absolutely smashing time.
Love and birthday cake,
Missy.

Here You Go / Just Kidding

I have a question that I would really really appreciate some input on. It is a frisbee question.

Team A knows that they will not have enough players to field a team for the Grand Final. Team A's captain advises the League of this.

The League advises the captain of Team B that Team A forfeits, and therefore Team B has won the Grand Final, congratulations.

At the last minute, all grand final games are postponed (by which I mean other grades such as Mens Div 1 and 2, as well as Womens).

Do Team A and Team B play their Grand Final the next week?

First there is a question of whether Team A forfeited the week or the game. If they foreited the week, then the game is on the next week. But if they forfeited the game, as in, they knowingly forfeited the grand final, then the forfeit stands.

If you look at it as just another week: I think for the most part people would be happy to have a game to play, and given that the stakes would ordinarily not be so high in a regular-season game, it would end up being replayed the next week. However, I think the first point still applies, and a case could be made for the forfeit to stand.

I can't help thinking that this is the risk you take with a pre-advised forfeit. In this league there is no fine for a forfeit, unlike some I've played, so pre-advising is just a courtesy to the other team. However, on the day, it could have been quite possible for Team B to also not be able to field a team (due to, in this case, players returning late from a tournament). If Team A hadn't pre-advised and Team B also didn't show, then - if games weren't cancelled - it would have been a double forfeit, or - if they were - there would have been no question about whether the game was to be replayed.

Do Team A and Team B play the next week?

PS SPOILER: Team A and Team B do play the next week. Team A has 7 players and Team B only has 6, and yet TEAM B WINS!!!

This week is Remember How You Have A Blog? Week

Every "summer" I get excited for Camp Stimey, which may seem odd, since I am not a little kid nor do I own any. But I still love the idea, and I love parents who put in effort. Plus I am still holding out hope that ultimate frisbee will make an appearance in a Sports Week.

Since I am at uni now, and therefore have some holidays that coincide with Camp Stimey, I have decided to hold my own right here.

***Brief interlude while I talk about uni: I had an interesting semester. I was working too much and playing too much frisbee (it was Nationals! What was I supposed to do?!) during the first half of semester, but I settled down in the later weeks, and managed to get erratically consistent results. By which I mean in one class I consistently got Passes, one I consistently got Credits, one Distinctions, and one Ds/HDs. Until I absolutely ruined it, by getting a HIGH DISTINCTION for my major assignment in my P class. I had one exam which I think I did ok in; I expect a Credit if the pattern holds.***

Anyway, on to my plan! The first week (last week), was Catch-Up Week. My exam was on Monday and I didn't get a sleep-in til Friday, as I'd packed all the other days with catch-ups of the old work friends, sibling, and boyfriend varieties.

This week was Organising Week. I moved my room entirely around. I found approximately ten bajillion bobby pins, broke a vacuum, and did something not good to my back. I wish I had photos, because I loved the before: it included a sleeping alcove and a couch! The after includes two whole new bookcases which are already not enough space for my books. I also packed up all this semester's uni stuff, organised my hard drive, made myself a new car-driving CD, and may even do my taxes.

I have decided that next week will be Books And Movies Week, as I have a massive pile of library books all ready to go. It may also be Knitting Week, as I had planned to double my scarf-knitting from last year and knit TWO scarves this year and am yet to start even one.

(Just realised I'm not actually sure how many weeks I have. Ah well.)

The week after that will be Gym Week, as it will be (less than, since I wanted to read books and watch tv and movies) three months until Mixed Nationals, and that should be just the right amount of time to develop a six pack get me into shape. During Gym Week I will go to the gym every day! I will be so enthused! I will able to train hardcore for seven days straight, despite having not done any strenuous exercise for quite some time!

Pretty sure the week after that will be Whinging About Going Back To Uni So Soon (And Why Is My Body Acting Like It Hates Me?) Week.

Also, I know I have been an irregular poster here, but you should check out our Book Challenge Blog, where we are FORCED to read books not of our choosing and then write about them!

I've got a theory - it must be bunnies

I would like to share with you my theory of allocated time.

I am very big on allocating time. It is how I know what I am supposed to be doing at any given time. Most of the time this works well for me.

Earlier today I had allocated Work Time. Then I had allocated Swimming Time. Now, I do have an exam on Monday that I suppose I could be studying for right now. However, this is not allocated Study Time. So even though I am not going to bed for maybe another hour, I obviously can not start studying now, in non-Study Time.

Sometimes I allocate Gym Time. The gym I go to requires you to check in at reception on the third floor when you go in. Now, I could take the stairs, but the stairs involves exercise. And allocated Exercise Time does not start until I am in the gym. You can't do exercise in non-Exercise Time!

Of course, it's a bit harder to enforce the idea that Facebook Time and TV Time do not belong in Study Time. The exceptions that prove the rule?

The Saga Of That Time I Did Something To My Heel And It Hurt, Like, A Lot

This is the very long story of what happened to my heel that time, most of it from long-ago and probably only vaguely accurate memories.

January

In January, this happened:



I took an awesome grab. Yes, that did happen. Also, I hurt myself when I landed funny.

That night we went to Vili's (awesome 24-hour bakery) and picked the furthest possible car park so I could look like a fool limping my arse along.

Later in January

I happened to be going to my local GP for another matter the next day, and he suggested that I had an enraged tendon (IDEA#1!) (actually he said something else, but for the life of me I can only remember what we started calling it. What the hell did he say?*).

I went to my physio a day or two later. She's not much for naming things, although she suggested a couple of things like a bone spur (IDEA#2!) and something else. She was pretty sure I hadn't done anything too drastic to my achilles, what with the still walking around and all.

I googled a bit and decided I had achilles tendon bursitis (IDEA#3!)**.

*Inflammed?

**I should mention that perhaps the reason it was a bit tricky to diagnose was because there were about three different pains happening: an annoying ache down the side (enraged tendon), a painful ache at the back when it was stiff, and a stabby pain when I tried to run.

January, or maybe February sometime

I took about three weeks off. Where 'off' means if we were doing something light I would join in, and probably I still went to the gym every now and then but didn't run much.

Let's say February

I had been to the physio and for some reason convinced myself that this day, this was the day I would be pain-free. Um, why? Needless to say I was fairly devastated when my heel still hurt like a mofo. (Stabby pain is stabby!)

It still hurt on the second test warm-up run I went on. And then the third, because you never know! Uh, yeah, you do. Sit your arse down.

Maybe a week or so later I deemed it well enough to play and train, because - and I should have mentioned this before - Nationals was April 1-4 and goddamn I needed to be fit for that.

Tangent - 'fit' here has two distinct meanings. At this stage I wanted to be able to run and run without losing my breath. Later on we will see that I changed to wanting to run pain free, which is a different kind of 'being fit to play.'

March

Train, train, train. Ouch, ouch, not so much, double-ouch. You know how it goes.

April: Nationals!

Play, ice, lunch, play, play, iceiceice, dinner, homework, sleeeeeep.

Another tangent, wherein I am the best girlfriend ever - So one day at Nationals I was icing my heel with my foot in my boyfriend's lap, when all of a sudden this massive umbrella fell out of the sky and cracked him on the head. Everyone was most concerned and calling for ice and medics and shit, but I had it all under control: Here have some ice, I have it all ready for you!

Anyway, Nationals actually went ok, although I was frustrated at times with my shithouse first step which was nowhere near as explosive as it should have been, partly because of the pain and partly because the pain had limited my sprint training leading up to the tournament. So that was a bit of a bitch, because I don't know if you know this, but girls at Nationals are fast.

The rest of the month of April

Missy: *does nothing*
Her heel: *continues to be achy*

May: The tests

Her heel: *continues to be achy*
Missy: *has had enough*
Her heel: *continues to be achy*
Missy: *goes to the doctor*
Doctor: *sends her for xrays and ultrasounds*

That was my first xray, by the way. Exciting! I am now radioactive like Spiderman!

May: The results

Mild achilles enthesopathy. Small area of calcilification. Slight small bony osteophyte.

I DID have a small tear in my achilles. Now it is healed but scar tissue continues to hurt me. (Um, why?)

So: Enraged tendon, probably from walking funny. No bursitis (teh interwebs, how could you fail me?). Small bone spur (something I just now noticed on the report) that wasn't even mentioned by the doctor. AND a tear in my achilles, which sounds SO MUCH MORE DRAMATIC than it is/was. Collect your winnings over there.

May: The treatment

Treatment is to be like Payson from Make It Or Break It. Become an elite gymnast. Or get a shot of cortisone.

Tangent, about people and achilles injuries - Whenever I said something like "I hurt my achilles" (which I didn't, a lot, because who the hell knew what I'd hurt? Usually I was just like, "I hurt my...self" and "I did ... something ... to my foot"), people were consistently going, "WHOA MAN THAT IS BAD." And then when I asked the internet about cortisone as a treatment for the heel area, it told me in no uncertain terms, "DO NOT GET A SHOT ANYWHERE NEAR THE ACHILLES, IT WILL EXPLODE AND DIE."

Anyway, I chose it anyway, and it took place today, and you know what? Needles hurt, man. Especially when they wiggle it around to get it in a better spot.

But I am pretty much pain free - a few days of rest, a week of stretching, and I'm back on the frisbee field.


The cold, dark, wintery, possibly rainy frisbee field. Oh yay.


Update #1: I have to do 30 minutes of stretching a day. THIRTY MINUTES. That's the amount of time I spend convincing myself to get out of bed, or getting ready for work, or thinking I really should get off the couch and do some homework.

Update #2: So, the good news is the stretches don't hurt my heel. The bad news, THEY HURT EVERYWHERE ELSE. The heel lifts cane my calves and makes them shake uncontrollably. The lunges hurt my quads AND my knees. But hey, I can't feel my heel anymore! Whoo!

Update #3: I can play frisbee!!!

Me, all day Friday: Frisbee tonight, frisbee tonight!
The doctor: You can play at 60%.
My team, Friday night: *fails to entirely show up*
Me: Hmm, running savage may not equal 60%. [Running savage is playing without subs, FYI.] Still, yay frisbee!
My body: Are you freaking serious with this running crap? OMFG WTF I AM DEFINITELY DYING HERE.
Frisbee: *is so much fun*

So now I am allowed to run once a week (frisbee). Biking was recommended, swimming a little less so, and the stretching must continue. And I shall be well just in time to start training hardcore for Mixed Nats.

Update #4: I throw my first hammer in a game and it goes exactly where I want it to. (I am choosing to ignore the shit one I threw at Nationals. It was embarrassed to be called a hammer.)

Book-Sharing Challenge

Between my brother and I, we belong to about seven different libraries. We like to read, and we like to force our books on each other share what we read. Sometimes we are too busy, however, and the other person is all, "But dude, it's awesome. You really need to read it. Like, now."

And so, the Book-Sharing Challenge has begun.

Each month, one of us recommends a book for the other. The next month, the recommendee writes a post reviewing the recommender's choice. Then we switch.

This is a good way to:
Make me read something that's not a textbook and do something with my free time that isn't watch One Tree Hill.
Discover new authors.
Talk to each other. Although, we are seeing each other twice a week (as a result of our unofficial Sport-Sharing Challenge, where he plays ultimate and I play wheelchair basketball), so maybe that's not really necessary.

The first ever challenge is already up, and in between Challenges/Challenge Reviews we will be posting other book- and reading-related stuff, so if you're into that kind of thing, you should stop by.

Bits and Pieces

Some cool stuff happened on blogs recently:

My pretty sparkly wedding shoes were featured on Shoe Friday. They are sparkly!

I won a hockey tournament! Pretty sure that's what happened anyway. (That's not what happened, but other truly amazing things did.)

***

Some stuff happened in real life, too:

My dad came to visit me and we had lots of fun times. Including my baby brother's 18th. 18!

Six months ago I started dating some guy. And now six months later, we've been going out for six months! (And as a reward, I get to go see Disney On Ice later this year.)

***

Some sport was in there as well:

Safire came 7th at Nationals (which is brilliant!) and won the Your New Uniforms Are Awesome competition.

I went to a doctor about my heel that I injured in January. He was like ... so, you were busy for four months? Um, yes. Yes I was. (No diagnosis yet, scans this week.)

***

And uni happens even when I try to ignore it:

So far, I have been given a Pass, Credit, and Distinction. All I need now is a High Distinction and we've covered all the grades!

I have learned that people are annoying and make me feel the need to use CAPS at them, I need three or four days to write an essay, and I much prefer analysing books than business models.

***

All of these could have had their own posts, but I do not think that was likely to happen, and waiting for time to write one post would have just given more things time to be added to the list. Now I can tick ALL these things off the list!

I have some issues...

My main issue at this moment is my insane lack of unallocated time. Uni, work, frisbee - there is no free time in the world. Bitching time, however, oh there's plenty of that:

There's always one. I know this. There's always that one annoying person in your class, and you can't do anything about it, and you just have to suck it up. But seriously, this is ridiculous. The sheer irrelevance of everything she has to say is astounding. But what gets me is the arrogance of "helpfully" "clarifying" something the lecturer has said THAT WAS PERFECTLY CLEAR TO THE REST OF US ANYWAY OMG SHUT UP. Grr. Ok. I'll be over here, trying not to roll my eyes tooo hard.

Who decided that -785937537 degrees was a temperature at all conducive to study? Show me your research. I can disprove whatever you've got.

Slides. Something no lecturer is without. But can we just revisit the point of slides? If all you are going to do is read something that I have (printed and on a screen) right in front of me, I might as well have stayed home. Slides are for notes, lectures are for lecturing. I will of course complain about how much writing I have to do, but I would much rather be actively note-taking than having a nap. (Wait, that doesn't sound right...)

What happened to mandatory ten-minute breaks every hour?

And for that matter, although this is no-one's fault really, what's with finishing class on the hour? Flinders started on the hour and finished at ten to. Now UniSA starts at ten past and finishes on the hour. This is not a major problem, except for when I am sitting in class counting down the seconds, and the clock finally ticks over to ten to ... and I still have ten minutes to go. The longest ten minutes IN THE WHOLE WORLD EVER, let me assure you.

Uni is quite vexing, as it turns out.

All I Needed Was Some Uni Work To Put Off

I am back at uni, a different uni this time, one not built on a hill. Not that that means less stairs, because every single one of my classes is on the third floor or above. I am doing a Masters course with a very long name, but if people ask what I'm studying I just say Library Management.

I'm taking four classes (which is standard, is it standard elsewhere?) and I managed to fit all of them onto one day. Which: yay for working the other full days, but also: 9am til 7pm with a one hour break. Yeah. The names of those four classes are pretty much just different variations in the order of the words 'management,' 'information,' and 'project.' Those words are also the basis for the drinking game I plan to play as I do my readings.

And jeez there are a lot of readings. I should be doing them in all the spare time that uni students have, but did I mention the working full time thing? That will start to slow down soon, and Nationals is only weeks away, so soon I will have a life. Right? Please?

I am enjoying uni, even if most of my classes fall under the "boring businessy stuff" category and not "exciting new library career path" one. All my essays are short, I only have one exam (worth 50%!) ("Shut up," says a certain little brother now at uni, but I can't hear him over the sound of his four 70% exams), and I get to design a mobile phone app. Learning - it's what all the cool kids are doing.

What's this? There's colour everywhere...

Christmas!!!

***

I don't know how I went for so long without ever watching Nightmare Before Christmas, but it's awesome. I borrowed the soundtrack from my library today and am now listening to it on repeat, learning all the lyrics.

What's this?
There are children throwing snowballs
Instead of throwing heads
They're busy building toys
And absolutely no-one's dead

Turns out I should have worked a bit harder at learning the lyrics to certain extremely well-known carols. That or learning how to count backwards from twelve. Whatever, New Tradition: Carols By Candelight was a (very cold and windy) success!



***

I have worked in retail for a ridiculous number of years, and for at least the last THREE, I have had Christmas Eve off. This year I was scheduled to work, but in a Christmas miracle, got it off, so I could continue my Wishing Tree Present-Buying Tradition.

Which was slightly not as per tradition, as the Wishing Tree people had evidently decided that yes, we should make more decisions at Christmas, and forced us to pick our own girl/boy aged [blank]. SO HARD.

In the end, I sat down and wrote a number so I wouldn't continue wandering around, changing my mind every five steps, or worse, end up with a present for a five year old boy that he could share part of with his sixteen year old sister and also his grandma. Actually that sounds rather nice.

***

For Christmas I bought myself a new hair straightener, my housemates a vacuum, and books for everyone I know.

Oh! And a Christmas tree! A real one! The discovery that this is a real thing that you can do (as in, you can do it without having to fly to America/Europe/The North Pole) is still very exciting to me.



***

I saw Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, at Marion while I was Christmas Eve traditioning. It's pretty cool that she just wanders around shopping centres having coffee (and posing for photos for ages. Seriously, I did all my 'maybe a three year old girl?' 'maybe a ten year old boy?' shopping while she was taking photos. That is a long time).



***

I visited my Grandma for Christmas Eve Carols and Mass. And SERIOUSLY, People In Charge Of My Traditions, WHY MUST YOU CHANGE THEM? 'Happy Christmas' is the exit song. Followed by 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas.' That is all. I expect the world to be back on its Christmas tradition axis by next year, thank you.



After our Christmas Treats With Grandma Tradition, we continued our Awesome Present Buying Tradition. This year's theme? Replacement jewelery. (Not sure if you can see that we're wearing matching necklaces, or that I'm wearing three. Not pictured: the ring I will get the next day.)



***

Christmas Day included a Not Quite As Good As The Real Thing, But Still Pretty Fun: Opening Presents Via Skype Tradition. Books! And more books!

***

Last year, at the Bay Sports Festival, I got the most ridiculous sunburn: a rectangle on my back with a zigzaggy top. So this year, I was careful about my back, which of course means I have a ring of sunburn around my belly-button, a line across the middle of my thigh, and a squiggle in the middle of my chest. It was a lovely day for playing frisbee (if you are the rest of the frisbee community) or lazing around at the beach watching frisbee (if you are me, and have a No Exercise In December Tradition to uphold).



***

And one more photo, because I missed posting about the SAFDAs and this awesome dress - which you can't really see - when they actually happened, and also I like this picture.



Merry Christmas, Everyone.

Christmas Pageant!

When we were young, we would fly down to Adelaide for Christmas, and since we would always have missed the Pageant (which is held in November, way too early for school holidays to be on), Grandma would have taped it for us (on videotape!). Watching the video of the Christmas Pageant was one of our Adelaide Christmas traditions.

Then I moved to Adelaide, but between my liking for sleep-ins and the fact that I was working in retail, I never made it to the Pageant.

UNTIL NOW! The moment I've been waiting 25 years for finally arrived, and It. Was. Awesome.

Step One: Pancake breakfast! For extra fun, require that the pancakes be Christmas-themed!




Step Two (not shown on tv, for maximum suprise fun on the day): Draw on the road with chalk! Age is not a factor on Pageant Day!




Step Three: Find a good place from which to watch the Pageant. As you are walking the route and searching for the perfect spot, pretend you are in the Pageant.



Step Four: Enjoy the Pageant.



4.1 Realise that your dream of riding Nimble in the Pageant will probably never come true, despite your excellently thought-out plan of having the little girl currently riding him fall off just in front of where you are standing, and then being the one picked to replace her for the rest of the Pageant.
4.2 Realise that the clowns probably won't be coming all the way back there to high-five you; make do with police officers instead.
4.3 Enjoy making people smile by your energetic waving, and sincerely love the ones who are enjoying it as much as you are, especially the kid in the toy truck who was going crazy with the dancing and the waving and the thumbs up.



Step Five: Wave to Santa. Have Santa turn to wave to the other side of the street as he goes past you.



Have Santa turn back to you at the last possible second, and wave to you AND BLOW A KISS DIRECTLY TO YOU OMG that was so awesome. Pass out from the excitement of it all.

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 29

Oh, look at that. We jumped straight from Day 16 to Day 29. It's like I don't even understand the concept of posting every single day.

Day 16, you may remember, was the one where I whined about the hardship that is going away for awesomely fun frisbee tournaments. So... about that.

OF COURSE Mixed Nats was heaps of fun. OF COURSE my team was great. OF COURSE I did some not great things, and some average things, and some amazing things. OF COURSE it was worth the trip.

I got all the major stats: a run-though D, an assist, a couple of goals. Oh and a turnover! I skyed a boy, occasionally got the timing of my cuts right, and I stopped my player touching the disc for a really long point.

OH AND! I realised my life-long dream of eating dessert first, when the buffet was temporarily out of mains. I was starving, and there were four kinds of cake to be eaten. Was else was I going to do?

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 16

I think I will be making a mistake going to Mixed Nats this year.

Not a terrible, horrible, going to ruin my life kind of mistake.

Just the fact that of two sets of circumstances, one would have been better, and I chose not that one.

Then I just kept going along and going along, and now we're less than a week out and it's really pretty much too late not to go. All there is to do is go and run around and have as much fun as possible and don't take it too seriously and make the best of an okay situation.

(Which is unfortunate, because if I decide to skip Nationals next year, because constantly going to frisbee tournaments costs money, I will be doing it backwards, going to Mixed Nats and skipping Nats instead of skipping Mixed Nats and going to Nationals. Silly girl.)

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 13

I have some BIG NEWS. I have decided what I want to be when I grow up. Not only that, but I am taking steps to make it happen.

I have been accepted to uni! I will be studying a Master of Library and Information Services.

AND

I got a job! A casual job at a library, which will give me some library work experience to go with my new studies.

And you know what that means? (The second part of that, at least.) Battlestar Galactica Season Four! Oh yeah.*

*I told myself I couldn't get the fourth season til I got a "real job." This is not quite that, but since I have decided to study, a real/full-time job wasn't really a viable option anymore. That and I certainly wasn't waiting eighteen more months to watch it. STARBUCK!

NaBloPoMo: October 2010, Day 11

1. I think making a team is a big deal, and that being asked/selected to represent a club/state/country is a big deal. The uniform you wear is important.

2. I know I said that playing on so many different teams is cool, but I was young and naive then. It's not really all that cool. A little more structure and club loyalty would be very welcome right about now.

3. There's kind of a contract involved when you sign up to play for a team. You're promising to come to trainings and get fit, and they're promising to hold trainings and SUPPLY YOU WITH A UNIFORM.

I think all three of these points combine to explain why I am beyond disappointed that I will not be getting my own uniform, with my own name and number on the back. (The fact that the number I will wear was my first choice of number (which I couldn't have had) maybe makes it worse.) This is going to ruin a year-old tradition.