Songs In Blue

I’ve had a whirlwind beginning to the new year with a whole bunch of new, exciting, and nerve wracking experiences happening almost everyday.
My main concern has been Dad and whattheheck I was gong to do if ALS was confirmed. Thank God it wasn’t!  One thing I know is that I am in no way ready to lose a parent (not that I’ll ever be).  There’s still a lot of things I want to do while they’re still alive, like have my Dad walk me down the aisle, give them (more) grandchildren, travel with them, and make up for my teenage years. Ha!

The older I get, the more I feel like I need them to be on the other line when I call.  I’m so grateful for the wisdom they give me and the openness we now share.  It really is awesome to have a functioning relationship with both my Mom and Dad after everything we’ve been through.

I know now that they’re my parents for a reason and I wouldn’t trade them for ANYTHING!

Ahh, the much needed update post.  One day I’ll make myself get into a routine of posting, although I wasn’t doing too bad until 3 weeks ago.  Don’t have much of an excuse except that there’s been a lot on my mind that I couldn’t really put into words.  But let’s recap, shall we?

My mom offered to pay for Matt and I to fly up to Canada then take us to Mexico for her birthday NEXT WEEK.  She had good intentions (obviously, it’s her 50th and she wants me there for it) but I just ended up really stressed out about the whole thing.  It was a lot of information to take in over the course of 3 days! 
 I ultimately said no because, a) we’ve had a trip to the South Island (leaving on my mom’s birthday) planned for 6 months and we’d have to cancel everything, and b) it was too last minute and the flight prices were INSANE.  There’s no way I could let my mom (who’s on a solo income as a school bus driver) spend that kind of money.  I would just feel so guilty about it. 
Trust me, it was a really hard decision to make!   It’s my family and I don’t see them often (or at all, with the whole ‘living on the other side of the world’ thing) and I want to make them happy.  I hate disappointing people.  But yeah, after lost sleep and tears (Matt got to witness the Ugly Cry a few times, awesome.) I’m ok with everything.  A trip to Canada might still be in my near future but I’ll talk about that as soon as I get some more info.

Three weeks ago, I went to my first Tweetup. Which I guess, officially makes me a nerd  but  I’m ok with that.  It was quite fun and great to meet new people which was something I felt I needed to do. 
Anyway, a few of the girls there decided we should have a Ladies Night.  So  Wednesday  night about 10 of us met at a bar for a few drinks then headed to a comedy gig!  A lot of conversation, laughter, and maybe a little too much wine was had by all – it was exactly what I needed (minus the hangover/going to work  in the  morning (Hi Mom and Dad!)).
One of the highlights for me was FINALLY meeting Alex who’s blog I’ve been reading for about 2 years now.  She’s originally from the UK (and has a lovely accent) but moved here almost a year ago with her Kiwi boyfriend.  ALL the girls are absolutely amazing and I can’t wait until we get together again!  Next time, I’ll bring my camera.

As I said earlier, Matt and I are going to the South Island for 2 weeks!  We’ve got a pretty awesome trip planned – full of walks, kayaking, and lying on the beach (if the weather gets better)!  One of the places we’re staying has free internet so I’ll make sure to post a few pictures.  I thought I’d see if anyone was interested in Guest Posting while I’m away? I have 6 dates up for grabs so leave a comment or email me if you’re interested!

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.

I usually call home every week or 2 to check in with the fam.  It would be a little less frequent if people (Mom) were more helpful with their replies to my emails.
Case in point, Mom’s response when I asked for her curry rice recipe:

At least she’s always good for a laugh.

Anyway, talking to my sister on the phone is like pulling teeth.
I’ll ask her what’s new, she’ll say “nothing”.
I’ll ask her how school’s going, she’ll say “good”.
Then I’ll ask if there’s anything she wants to talk about, she says “no”, so I ask to talk to mom.

Everyone else I talk to back home goes on and on about how much she misses me! In my mind, if you miss someone, you talk to them every chance you get.

But Courtney has always been an ‘actions speak louder than words’ kind of person and proved it again today.

This morning I got another oh-so-informative email from Mom saying that Courtney had done a portrait of me (it’s like 2 feet high!) for Art and it was featured in the school foyer.  Of course, I had to see it so Courtney emailed a picture.
She’s so sweet, I may or may not have cried.

I miss you too, Courtney.**
**Although, I won’t show it in the form of artwork since 5-year olds are more artisically inclined than I am and whatever I managed to create would probably just be insulting.

One of the perks of living in a different time zone is being able to have 2 days of birthday fun!  Here in NZ, my birthday was yesterday, but back home in Canada it’s the 29th today which meant I woke up to a full inbox of birthday wishes.

Although that was pretty great, I’m not sure what tops waking up to your boyfriend giving you diamond earrings…I KNOW!  He’s all kinds of awesome!
Look how pretty:

They go perfectly with the 7 other earrings I have in my ears at any given time (heh), see?

I want another piercing now…

After that lovely gift, Marissa called me!  I told her that I wasn’t up to much since it was Monday and that’s a hard day for birthday planning.  She responded with, “Well, what about having your birthday right after Jesus’! How do you live up to that?” Ahh, isn’t she grand?

Then I got to talk to my mom, Courtney, and Chad.  It was a little short because I was meeting Matt for lunch, but still good.  Skype makes staying in contact so easy and so free! (There’s my plug, now…where’s my money )

When Matt came home, he cooked me an amazing dinner and my flatmates gave me a sweet Maori handbook and classic Kiwi movie.

After dinner, (and with the help of birthday brownies) I prepared for my interview and Matt did some work.  Turns out the company I’m interviewing with is a client of his, so he gave me a crash course in PIE tax and Prescribed Investor Rate and showed me some formulas he had learnt in excel….cause we’re cool like that.
Then it was bed at 9:30 (again, cool).

That perfect day plus today’s overwhelming birthday love has made this pretty much the best birthday ever.

It’s Thursday ALREADY? Ok, not too sure where my week went…I guess time flies when you’re off saving the world (i.e. being completely submerged in my new book or cross-stitching while watching TV).

Last weekend, my not-so-little brother came to visit.  He’s 2 years younger than me, but most people think he’s a couple years older.

We went Go-Karting in the city with dad. And yes, I was appropriately dressed.

We were a little late in getting back to the ferry.  We could’ve made it, but didn’t because they stop selling tickets 5 minutes before the ferry is scheduled to leave.  I complained a bit since the ferry was still loading, but the *ahem* lady, was pretty adament in not letting us on.  I managed a, “So you’re telling me, that instead of running to catch this ferry, you’re going to make us wait 2 HOURS for the next boat? Fine, I’ll have 3 tickets for the next sailing.”
“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to come back in 5 minutes when we start selling them again.”

I. was. pissed.

But being the good little Canadian girl I am, I didn’t push it any further.  I was really happy when, 3 minutes later, another girl was denied a ticket and FLIPPED OUT.  She brought the fake tears and everything. It was quite entertaining to watch.
Anyway, we resorted to doing this for the next 2 hours:

(I’m the one lying down. The other chick is my mini-me…and HEY! She’s wearing my sweater!)

Last night was Courtney’s year-end concert for band.  She was dropped off early to practice and Dad and I wandered the local London Drugs.  Where I found this:

It’s the World’s Biggest Hangover…in a box! Although I’d replace the beer with something that DOESN’T taste like cat pee, kthx.

Moving on…

Mom, Courtney and I took a couple photos.  Can you tell we’re related?

I didn’t get any postable (word? is now!) photos of Courtney playing, but there’s a video over here.  She’s the one who, umm, looks EXACTLY LIKE ME! Seriously, it’s a little scary. 
The concert was AWESOME!  I never hear her practice, so I had no idea what it would be like.  I was a pretty proud older sister.  :)

Courtney plays the clarinet usually, but last night she also helped out on percussion. She played the suspended symbol and the (wait for it) VIBRASLAP *HELLO creeper-search hits!*

I tried to find a picture of it, which quickly turned into the most scarring google search OF MY LIFE. If you decide to do the same, make sure you add ‘musical instrument’ to the term, otherwise, feel free to join me while I rock back and forth in the corner.

So, you’ve heard my version, and I promise this won’t be the only topic on my blog for the next 2 months.  But it would be a crime to humour to not put this up.  We had ask our parents to write support letters for my application for a work visa.  Obviously, I didn’t send this one in.

Hilarity ensues when witnessing my mother’s rarely seen wit:

“To Whom It May Concern:
 
My daughter, Dayna, visited and traveled throughout New Zealand during November and December of 2006.
Dayna and her friend spent their time in your country doing some sightseeing, but their nightlife frequenting bars and hostels proved the highlight of the trip.

It was during this time that she met Matt – I think his last name is Baker. 

I of course only found out about him through a high alert of my daughter being missing whilst traveling in a faraway land, with the New Zealand police needing to be involved.
 
Thankfully in January of 2007, Dayna managed to exit your country without harm and made it safely to Perth, Australia for a six month mission trip.
I believe there was still contact with Baker through emails.

Eventually, Baker attended school in San Diego, California needing some psychology studies and the obsession with each other grew to the point where Dayna threw all caution to the wind and purchased a plane ticket, on her already endebted VISA, to meet him there.
At this point I knew she was losing her mind.
They spent a week together hidden in his dorm and she returned home to her beloved Canada, an emotional wreck.
 
Baker and Dayna concocted a plan for him to enter Canada and spend December 2007 as an illegal resident in her basement suite. 
 
It was during this month, actually on Christmas Day, that I finally (got my hands on) met Baker.  He appeared quite calm and relaxed.  Obviously, the visit was kept very short lest his plans became known to lure Dayna out of her country.
 
But, alas, that time has come, and thus this letter to inform you of the scheduled abduction that will have my oldest child leave her native land, with the intent of not only entering New Zealand for a year, but possibly for a lifetime.  SHE IS GIVING AWAY HER COOKWARE PEOPLE.
 
I know she is not in her right mind to leave Canada and I have the video of her patriotism singing our nation’s anthem robustly as a very young child.
 
I hope this letter will assist you in your decision.
 
 
Thank You,
 
Shona Stirling
AKA Mother of Dayna”

The next night, Danielle and I were going to hang out with JP until Matt was off work at midnight. Danielle was a little wary of how her time with JP would go and didn’t want to end up as the 3rd wheel with Matt and I. So we agreed that, if it came to it, she would go back to the hostel while I hung out with Matt.
He was working late, and JP ended up being a huge JERK and only wanted to sleep with Danielle. So I took her back to the hostel and said I was going to meet Matt in about an hour like we had planned.

Little did I know, Danielle was not in the appropriate state to remember things. And as a word of advice, leave a note. Always leave a note.

Matt and I had another night like the one before, but this time we went to his place to watch a movie. I figured I could be back at the hostel around 9am, before Danielle woke up. So that’s what I did.
Except, Danielle wasn’t there.
Apparently, she had gotten up at 7:30AM, realized I wasn’t back yet, didn’t remember our multiple conversations from the night before where I told her I would be back in time to book our room, and went to the Police station.

So, off I went to the police station to get her, luckily she was on her way back and I ran into her in front of our hostel. She told me that she had called her mom, who called my mom, who called my dad, who took the day off work cause he was so worried.

Awesome

I did some MAJOR damage control and Danielle and I were laughing about the whole thing pretty quickly. She even told me she would’ve been back sooner but she was talking to a hot cop.
She’s awesome like that.

We were only in Wellington for a few days, and Matt and I spent as much time as we could together. I left him a little note with my email and told him to keep in touch, then Danielle and I headed to our next town. I may or may not have shed a few tears as we left.

*****

Matt had wanted to do a bit of travelling and decided to take his last semester of uni at UCSD.  We quickly made plans for him to come up to Canada once he was finished there.  I didn’t think he’d come up for very long, but he told me he had booked his tickets and would be staying with me for a whole(!) MONTH!

Of course, it was only fair that I visit him, so after almost a YEAR of emailing and facebook stalking, I spent a week with Matt in San Diego.

It was a pretty great trip!  The very first night, we went to the cliffs, watched the sunset and ate Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked ice cream…talk about perfect.  The rest of the week was spent drinking Jumba Juice, going to the zoo, watching the WORST MOVIE EVER, and ”hiding in his dorm”.*

Then “returned home to her beloved Canada, an emotional wreck”.*

I haven’t even gotten to the good part of this story…looks like a Part 3 will be needed

*to quote my mother

…being a best friend.

Two cats were abandoned at Danielle’s work the other day, and her mom (Karina) agreed to take them.
Danielle called me yesterday, freaking out, because one of the cats is pretty sick and she couldn’t get up to the coast to take care of it.
I, naturally, offered to help in any way I could and sure enough, I got a call from Karina asking if I could come over.
So I brought my Mom and little sister, Courtney, as the peanut gallery and went over to clean up the cat before it was taken to a haven.
I was not prepared for what I saw:
Karina with a bucket full of water, multiple pairs of big yellow gloves, 4 glasses of wine, and a cat, whose back end was covered in crap.

The things I do for you, Danielle, the things I do.

…being an embarrassing older sister.

I’ve been on this huge grapefruit kick lately. I may do an individual post for how I go about eating them, but based on just my family’s reaction, I’m not sure the world is ready for that kind of craziness.
Anyway, I realized there weren’t any left in the fridge, so after the ‘Cat Emerg of April 9,2008′, Courtney and I dropped mom off at home and went to the grocery store.
I love how grocery stores always have old-school songs playing, and sure enough ‘If I had a Million Dollars’ by the Barenaked Ladies was the song of choice when we arrived.
I really only know the title line, so I sang it, loudly and a bit (ok, REALLY) off-key. Not only was Courtney hiding in the other aisles, but my littlest bro, Chad, just started working there and everyone knows I’m his older sister.

…being a good daughter.

Mom is going for a little Vaca this week, so I get to look after Chad and Courtney. They’re old enough now to look after themselves really, so I’m just there play referree in case their fighting gets out of hand.
They both have things to keep them busy so I’ll probably be chillin’ in an empty house – unless they want a ride somewhere…or food.
Mom deserves this break, so I’m happy to help.

…how to make me happy

This morning, my boss bought us all coffee. My friend,Kimberly, works at the coffee shop and made my day by drawing a little heart and writing “Hi Dayna” on the lid.
Also, I got to have a quick lunch with a girl who lives on the coast, but I met in Australia. We were on the same team to Indonesia and I’ve only seen her a couple times since we’ve been back.
Shlee-Shlee – you are a gong show.

I’ve been attempting to write a new post for a few days now, but for some reason have been unable to form a single coherent thought, let alone, sentence.

This isn’t a rare occurrence, it’s just a little unsettling when it happens more often than usual.  
I have theories (and a list, yay!):

1. Early On-set ‘Mom Brain’
I have no children, known or hidden away in some random country (sooo NOT the reason I went to travelling for roughly 9 months).  So really, I have no first hand experience.  But from what I’ve heard, I seem to have similar symptoms; frazzled, spacey and preoccupied with domestic affairs.

2. Sympathy Pregnancy (similar to sympathy pains)
Let me clarify before the rumours start flying (more so than they already are – Thanks Marissa, for routinely asking if I’m pregnant, LOUDLY and in public)

I AM NOT WITH CHILD!

Being so, would be physically impossible… 
However, I know a number of people who are, so, this could explain my current nightly routine.

Imaginary fetus kicking bladder + going to the washroom 25 times a night = not sleeping enough to allow my brain to refresh.

3. PMS Brain
The most likely out of the three. 
My chocolate stash is looking a little bigger these days (LD has Easter Chocolate on sale…mmmmm, mini eggs), and my boobs feel like they’re about to explode from my chest. 
I have not yet invested in a sports bra, and these monstros(t)ities *hehe* need more than regular support during exercise.  For all those I passed on my jog yesterday, I apologize (or you’re welcome ;P).

My Cure?
Inviting my children friends over for a game of Ultimate Frisbee at the park. Then we’ll bbq whilst watching the Canucks lame attempt at making the playoffs   final game of the season WIN AND MAKE THE PLAYOFFS!  GO ‘NUCKS!
This should curb my need to play host/mom for at least a little while.

*Check out Angella’s new contest….so I have a bigger chance of winning her candy