Dressing Room Dilemmas

I swear since I've been home I've felt so many times like I was twelve. Honestly I haven't spent so much time at home since I was 18 which was..yikes 10 years ago. So now at 28 I find myself hanging out at my mom's for a couple months before starting work and BAM! twelve again. On Saturday I went shopping with my grandma and my mom and they kept picking out clothes for me to go and try on, I've learned that I can gong only a certain amount of outfits and then it's futile to resist. So that's how I end up in the dressing room with several outfits..only a couple picked out by me that I have to put on and then walk out to show my mom and grandma..uhh. It made me think of the time when I was a teenager I can't remember how old I was but I went to buy a bikini and I had to go with my mom since I had no money of my own and after I put every one on I had to come out of the dressing room so she could see...so embarass!! Then flash forward to adulthood and I had to come parading out in some "work outfits" that had been picked out for me..it just never ever ends.

Oh Dr. Phil

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend a taping of Dr. Phil with my grandma and about 40 other seniors. Let me tell you it was quite an adventure. The Dr. Phil show sent a bus to pick up the ladies club and take us all to the studios. First of all let me say that the oldies love to push and shove to get onto the bus, and of course are in a panic that they won't be first into the studio, etc. Even though we were told they'd be letting us in by numbers. My grandma kept going further and further up to the front and then would yell for me, where are you?? Keep Up!! It was exhausting really.
The actual taping was alright the topic of the show was Is it normal? There was a lady on who was basically a hypocondriac and then someone who refuses to celebrate holidays. The general consensus among the ladies was that we should have at least gotten free Dr. Phil mugs and they felt rushed around all day. I'd say the rushing they felt was themselves getting in a tizzy about getting on/off the bus first or making sure they got into the studio ASAP. Also they got super impatient when Dr. Phil and some Marines were filming PSA's for Toys for Tots, it was taking forever and it was cold in the studio..purses were gathered and they were ready to bolt the second it was over. Anyways the taping airs on Nov. 1st, I'm sure you can see me since the lady in front of me kept clapping at inappropriate times and so the camera would pan over to her. Oh the other best bit was that they showed Dr. Phil being drawn for an episode of the Simpsons and in the clip he says something to Homer about losing weight. This one got all the ladies started, something about a Dr. Phil diet bar scandal that all the seniors seemed to know about in great detail. At this point I also got another lecture about broccoli. My grandma said something about how you need to read labels very carefully and that one time she almost ate somethign with too much Vitamin D, and that you can OD on Vitamin D if you're not careful..then she says, you can OD on anything really if you have too much, even broccoli. Then she launched into the broccoli speech again, by the end of this she's gonna have me brainwashed to never eat broccoli again!

Limbo Land

So currently I'm in limbo, not going but not staying either. I should be leaving in the next couple of weeks to start my new job but in the meantime I'm just killin' time. My typical day goes something like this:
8:30am- Wake Up, Check E-mail
9:30-11am- Go to gym (note this is my only outing of the day)
11am-1pm- Come home from gym and shower, eat some lunch
1-3pm-play on the internet, attempt to learn spanish or read
3pm-4pm-Watch Oprah
4-5:30pm-Am usually very bored, waiting for my brother to come home at 5:30pm

The highlight of this week is on Thursday I'm going with my grandma to sit in the audience of Dr. Phil, should be interesting, and if nothing else kills a whole day!

I'm still here!!

So yes I'm still home, and last week I was lucky enough to get the flu--so that kept me out of commisson for a bit. I'm all better now and getting back into my daily routine of tv, gym and spanish lessons. I'm now going for training in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia which is gonna be exciting. Meanwhile I've still got lots of stuff to read and lots to learn, not to mention lots of lying around to do before the real work begins.
Also the whole flu thing has exhausted me because now that I'm well my mom has it and so she's been home and needing some TLC which is fine except that because of this grandma feels the need to stick around half the day and constantly give advice on how to get better or why my mom still feels sick. The best was yesterday when we took my mom to the doctor. On the way there my mom was getting sick into a bag (this flu thing is horrible with all the vomiting!). Anyways so grandma says to me, "What did she eat that she's throwing up?" and I tell her that all my mom's eaten all day is some chicken broth, at which point my grandma says--Broccoli!! Who the hell gave her broccoli, sick people aren't supposed to have broccoli..and you know too much of that can poison you, if you have more than half a cup you are poisoned, that's why I don't like to eat broccoli!!! Of course at this point there is no stopping or correcting her so I just sit there for the 20 min. car ride listening to grandma rant about the evils of broccoli and my mom throwing up in the backseat..and yep that's pretty much what life is like back home!

And thus it begins..

Well as some of you may or not have heard there was a coup in Thailand yesterday so this has changed plans as far as beginning my training for work. My company has decided to change the location of training to ensure the safety of all involved since the situation in Thailand is a bit uncertain at the moment. Of course this delays everything a bit and dammit I'm anxious to get started with my new job!! By the end of the week I should know my new traning destination so I"m excited, I'll get a surprise as to where I'll be headed next and of course will keep you all posted. Meanwhile I'm just chillin' here at my mom's house, working on my spanish, reading lots for work and of course fitting in lots of relaxing/fun activities.

Sorry for the Absence!

No I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, I'm just back home for a visit before starting my new job. It's been hectic trying to visit everyone in my short time back but I'm coping. Also there's a slight chance my leaving date might be revised which frankly would be welcome since I feel like I haven't had much time to sit and relax. I'm in San Francisco for the next few days and then will fly back to my mom's house for about a week before taking off for Thailand (if everything remains on schedule!). Also I must remember not to get used to sleeping in, sure soon I will have to wake up at a normal hour and that my friends is not something I'm looking forward to!

Things I will miss 5

The Beer

Of course I will miss the Aussie Beers that I have grown to love, and I was lucky enough to work for the company that makes one of my all time favorite beers Victoria Bitter!

Things I will miss 4

The Footy

Rugby Union (pictured), Rugby League (and my favorite the state of origin series which I watched in an island bar made of sand last year, hours from shore), and Aussie Rules Football it's always been fun to watch a game even though at first I had no clue what was going on. Everyone is so into sports here that it's a great atmosphere wherever you are watching a game and whatever game you're watching! Some of my best nights out have been watching the various footy games Australia has to offer!

Things I will miss 3

The color of the water and the cliffs, with such unique looking rocks--absolutely beautiful!

Things I'll miss part 2

Lawn Bowls

Yes lawn bowling is a real sport and yes it's mostly old people dressed in all white. However nearly every town in Australia no matter how small has a bowls club. There were 2 within spitting distance of one of my old houses. The advantage of the bowls club? Cheap food and booze of course! Every night of the week the bowls club is invaded by younger people taking advantage of the bargain basement prices, good locations and sometimes dodgy live music and poker machines! My old local lawn bowls club was the last stop on a pub crawl I did last Sat. night and there was also a fancy dress party in full swing in part of the bar, from the outfits I'm guessing it was a pimps and hoes party..the bowls club, not just for old foggies!!

Things I will miss, Part 1

Queenslanders

The Queenslander style house is the most common in the state I live in (you guessed it Queensland!) and are perfect for the warm weather, they are made of timber and have beautiful verandas and are up on stilts with the whole underside of the house just being open and you can often just see all the way through to the backyard. I've lived in 2 different Queenslanders since I've been here and absolutely loved it, if I ever moved back here I'd live in an old queenslander for sure. The picture is of a queenslander that was just down the street from where I used to live, the whole neighborhood is full of beautiful houses like this and most are very close to the river, so have beautiful views.

New Look!

New blog, title and new blog address and new resolve from me to blog more often. The next couple of weeks may be iffy though because of my mini-vacation home to the US, but also realistically I'll just be stuck at my mom's house all day so perhaps extensive blogging/internet surfing will be in order!

Important Announcement!!

Hey everybody, here's an important update for you, I got my employment contract and final placement for my new job! Drumroll please...I will be a Regional Manager in South America based in Sao Paulo, Brazil!! So who knew it's back to Brazil for me for a while. I'm really excited about the position. I'm gonna be super busy the next few weeks though, I'm leaving Australia at the end of August to come back to the US until around Sept. 20th when I will leave for training in Thailand and then in October I will go straight from Thailand to my post in Brazil...so lots of globetrotting in my future. Can't wait to have lots of visitors in Brazil. Meanwhile I'm in a panic about languages, I really need to ramp up my spanish quick (as other countries in my region include Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Columbia) as well as get some basic portuguese down..so I'm really freaking out about that, not to mention this is going to be a crazy busy job but I'm looking forward to the challenge!! Hope to catch up with some of you when I'm back home!!!

Absent

hey all sorry I've been absent for a bit, things have been mighty hectic over here! Currently I"m working full time at Fosters for the next few weeks and then I'll leave to start training for my new job! Yep I managed to get a real job right out of school using my masters!! I'm really excited about it and will be headed to training in SE Asia at the beginning of Septemeber before being relocated to (hopefully) the US! The job involves lots of travel so I don't mind being based in the US, as I'll probably spend at least one week a month overseas!! Anyways just waiting for final details on my training dates and my final location placement..will keep everyone updated on my whereabouts..more stories to come!!

Less is More

Why is it that the less you have to do, the less you seem to get done? Now that school's over and I'm just working part time, I don't seem to ever get anything done, just getting lazy I suppose. Like today it seems like a massive effort to even go grocery shopping, so I may or may not actually go. Also I've been watching quite a few movies lately, I saw a good one the other day called Sione's Wedding, it's a New Zealand film about a group of Samoan mates, really funny and great cast, loved it. Also I saw that Lake House movie with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, while I don't pretend to understand the space-time continum I did think the movie was okay, it's just best not to think about it too much. Also I have to say the guy that played Keanu's brother in the movie, for some reason there was something about him that creeped me out, perhaps it was his constant pained and weird facial expressions. In other news, I've got a job!! I'm starting relatively soon and details to follow shortly but I should be leaving Australia by the end of August to start my training, so in the meantime I'll be making the most of my lazy days.

Party Week!

I've offically finished my degree to this week was branded party week and why not? Monday was a big night, went out after the final was over and ended up staying up all night at a bonfire. Then I took a bit of rest until Thursday when it was a night out at the casino and then Friday topped it off with a graduation dinner and then a big night out with all my friends who just finished school as well. I'm so happy to be done, the next few weeks are now vacation time, I'm offically a woman of leisure, well apart from my part time job but that doesn't take up much of my time..will be coming back home probably at the end of July for a visit before I take off on my next adventure!

Sign of Doom

Yesterday I had an Economics final, I knew it was gonna be hard but thought I was at least semi-prepared, turns out I missed something. I sat down and looked around and noticed that everyone had calculators, interesting I thought, didn't know we needed a calculator but I had one in my bag so what the hell I went and got it. The thing is though if you didn't know you needed a calculator to begin with then getting one is probably not going to help you much, and that hunch turned out to be correct in my case. But at least umm I felt like I fit in with my pencils and erasers and calcualtor and ruler to draw graphs, yep I gave off a damn good performance of acting like I knew what I was doing, just turns out I had no clue so I'm pretty sure my grade for that class has gone down, I did make up answers for all the questions though so at least that'll be entertaining for the lecturer.

Please Remove the obstruction

A friend of mine lives on the 34th floor of this apartment building in Brisbane, earlier today when I was waiting to get the elevator down I could hear a ruckus occuring on a floor above, there was lots of shouting in an asian language of some description and the robot voice of the elevator saying, Please Removed Obstruction from the Door. Meanwhile I"m standing there getting pissed thinking dammit hurry up and get in so the elevator can come down to my floor! Finally it does and what was in the elevator you ask? Well it was 3 Asian people with heaps of luggage and I'm not kidding a massive box of eggrolls, like it was as big as a TV box, which I'm guessing was the obstruction in the door. Also I'm wondering where it was they were going on vacation that they felt it necessary to bring along 500 eggrolls. It was all I could do to contain myself until we got to the ground floor, it was too funny.

Also on a side note, I listened to the new Dixie Chicks album today and I have to say it's great, love the Not ready to make nice song.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

This is a great poem by John Godfrey Saxe that oddly enough I ran across in a law textbook, but it's from a fable told to him in India way back when..the moral to the story is great, and it is of course true, many wars and ignorant comments and gestures are made on assumptions of things we've never seen, a lesson to us all.

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“ ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

Bits from everywhere

Sorry I've been absent lately but lots of school stuff to get done in the last few weeks. I got my paper back that I spent all night on and I got 26/30, which is excellent..I always do work better under pressure, although I have to say that my brain was on auto-pilot most of the time.

Also in other strange news, Dr. Heidi the Austrian PhD student who I shared a hostel with one time is supposedly gonna be my new flatmate. My landlord told me last night she was moving in and I thought, I know that crazy Austrian, and crazy she is indeed so the next weeks should be interesting, I'll of course keep you apprised of the antics of Dr. Heidi.