Songs In Blue

It’s no secret that I am the WORST at keeping in touch with people.  Yes, living in another country makes it difficult but that should motivate me to try harder instead of letting my relationships with people back home fail.  There are a few friends that I have lost over the years that (and this sounds kinda bad) I’m not very sad over.  I still talk to them the odd time, but it’s a little forced.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, people change and grow apart – suddenly you have nothing in common and it’s not really worth the effort.

But there are a few of my friends who deserve to have me put in the effort of maintaining our relationship – one in particular.

Last night, I missed a package being delivered to my house.  I wasn’t expecting anything and had no idea who it would be from.  I ended up getting it redirected to my work and when I got into the office this morning, this was waiting for me (unopened, of course):

An awesome birthday present from an even more awesome friend!  Marissa.  As soon as I read her name on the package, I felt guilty.  She’s sent me packages twice now, and I’ve done nothing in return.  She’s emailed me and I’ve either taken forever to respond or forgot about it completely.  I have no idea what’s going on in her life or where she even is right now.  I have been a terrible friend to someone who hasn’t forgotten about me and goes out of her way to put a smile on my face.

(I particularily loved the random pieces of bubble wrap she put in there, just cause she knows how much I enjoying popping it)

I don’t ever want to lose Marissa as a friend, especially if it’s because I got lazy and didn’t put any effort in.  She’s totally worth so much more than that!

Sorry for the tardiness, round two of my answers are below (thanks for the questions Jon)…

What was your greatest accomplishment between the age of 5 and 15?

Good question – I don’t think I have ever really stopped to think about it before now.  I didn’t really achieve anything groundbreaking by the age of 15 so it’s quite hard to think of one thing…when I was 15 I’m sure I would have listed some sporting achievement as my greatest accomplishment but my perspective is a little different now. 

Since I have to pick out one thing, I think it was turning my life at school around from being horrible to teachers and failing everything to actually starting to do pretty well by the time I was 15.

I had quite a few “issues” at school early on and I wasn’t exactly a model student for my teachers.  I basically spent the first half of my education in some form of detention.  I got really good at writing out lines (teachers made us write out a “code of conduct” repeatedly) and picking up rubbish (student labour was cheaper than hiring cleaners apparently) but I wasn’t good at much else at school up until I was around 13.  Luckily, there were a few awesome teachers who saw through all the immaturity and believed in me enough to keep trying. 

And eventually they got through; I grew up, set some goals, realised I actually had to work hard if I wanted to get anywhere, and went from a straight F student on his way to dropping out of high school to the joint top of my year by the time I turned 15. 

Without growing up and turning things around at school there would be no way I would be where I am now so I’m pretty thankful for it now.  Although, if I had cured cancer by the time I was 15 that would be a much more interesting story.  Oh well, there’s always the 15-30 age bracket for me to achieve something more interesting…

What is the best non-alcoholic drink that you have ever had in your life?

Hmmm…there are a lot of options.  My favourite is probably just the fruit smoothies I used to make all the time when I was a bartender.  I can’t even remember what went in them as it changed every time (depending on what fruit and syrups were floating around behind the bar at that stage).  They were amazing anyway.  As far as generic off-the-shelf drinks, either Coke Zero or Vanilla Coke would be my favourite.

What do you think the church is good for in todays society?

Disclaimer: I haven’t been to church since MC Hammer was cool so this is definitely not my area of expertise.  I apologise in advance for not having a more impressive and comprehensive answer. 

In my opinion, the main thing that church is good for in today’s society is teaching good morals and values.  People are encouraged to live up to these morals and values and they probably live their lives a lot more altruistically than they would have if they had never been to church. 

If the church encourages more people to help those in need and live better, more unselfish lives then I think that is a pretty good contribution.

Some of you got to witness the joy that is my Mother on my last post.  There once was a time where we did not get along.  AT ALL.  I know this happens with most teenage girls and their Mothers’ but our relationship was particularly bad.
 
She thought I was too much like my father, and while that may have been the case (I’ve always been a Daddy’s girl) I think the reality was that her and I were EXACTLY the same – stubborn, loud, fierce, independent, opinionated, and unwavering.
The constant power struggle worsened with my parents’ divorce, during which I was given a lot of responsibility and had to grow up fast.  One phrase echoed through my teenage years, “I’m the parent. You’re the child.”
 
My Mom also scared the livin’ bejeezus out of me.  I realize now that this was a very good thing because it stopped me from doing anything bad.  I knew she would catch me and had no desire to find out the consequences. 
The ONE TIME I decided to be all badass was when I was 17.  I got one of my older friends to buy me ciders (like I said, badass) and I proceeded to drink half…of one. 
That’s it. 
I hid the rest (don’t know why I didn’t just throw them out) for about a month in my room then brought them along to a house I was looking after so my abovementioned friend could drink them.
Before he had the chance, I came home from work to find Mom sitting on the couch, ciders in hand.  Pretty sure my heart stopped at that moment.
 
Our relationship started to get better after I graduated, and now she’s one of my favourite people in the world.  We talk every week at length (something I never thought would be possible).  She listens and gives good advice.  She’s hilarious, proven by her comments on my last post and her emails.  This one is still my favourite:

Above all that, she’s crazy (in a good way).  And I love her.

- My manager at work came up to me and said my name had been brought up in the Team Leaders’ meeting.  I believe the term used to describe me was “Super Woman.”  Awesome!  Hopefully this means I’ll be hearing the words ‘promotion’ and ‘raise’ soon too!

- My mom is sending me a package for my birthday.  I put a few requests in so I can’t wait until it arrives!

- I broke my own record at the gym – 600 calories burned on the cardio machines.  When I first started I could barely do 200!

- My muffin top is pretty much gone!  I’ve lost 9 lbs in the last month which is about a third of my total goal. Go me!

- Matt makes me happy on a daily basis but he’s been particularly perfect over the last few weeks.  He’s motivated me to write (by threatening to take away chocolate) and helps me get my ass to the gym even when I have every excuse not to go.  He’s awesome.