Songs In Blue

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.

That’s my bed.  I’m not posting this picture for any other reason but to set the scene for what is so far, the most terrifying moment of my life.

It all started at about 1am, Sunday morning.  I had only been home for a couple hours and was sitting on my bed, typing off a quick email to Matt before I called it a night.

Most of you know I also share a room with my little bro (Chad), due to lack of space in my mom’s house and my stay here only being temporary.  His bed is to the left, and a few feet up from mine, since I’m kinda tucked into a corner.  Anyway, our room was extremely warm and humid thanks to the weather we’ve been having lately, so Chad asked me to open the window (see above photo).

This prompted the following conversation:

Me: “I don’t really like sleeping with my window open.”
Chad: “Why not?”
“I don’t know…I always get scared that somethings going to rip through the screen and get into the room, and I’ll be the first victim.”
“Uhh, ok….”

Chad usually falls asleep listening to his Mp3 player, so once our chat was over, he put his head phones back on.

Not 2 minutes later, I hear the loudest growl/snarl/roar RIGHT OUTSIDE MY NOW OPEN WINDOW.
I froze.  Chad heard it too, and ripped off his headphones just in time to hear me say in a frantic whisper,
“THIS is why I don’t sleep with my window open.”
As soon as he realized I wasn’t the one who made the noise (thanks dude, I’m not THAT loud), he instantly knew what was out there,
“Oh my God, that’s a freaking bear.”

So I’m lying frozen under the OPEN WINDOW, Chad’s in his bed absolutely FRANTIC, and we can both still hear the thing grunting and sniffing around right outside.
I have 2 choices.  I can either stay frozen, let the bear get in, and proceed to be MAULED…OR I can close the window.
In what felt like forever, I reached my hand up to the window and SLAMMED it closed as loud and hard as I could, hoping in would scare the bear away.  Then we both leapt out of our beds and ran out into the living room, only to stop suddenly when we realized every. single. window. in our house was wide open.
So we rush around closing them all (of course, Chad left the ones closest to where the bear had been for me), then ran upstairs to get mom.

At that point, I let myself start freaking out.  I had so much adrenaline going through me and my legs were shaking so bad, I thought I would fall over…but I was also laughing!  Even though I was scared out of my mind, it was probably the most fun I ever had too.  Chad dealt with his rush in the same manner as he usually does, by talking…A LOT!

Once we got back to our room, Chad asked me how I worked up the nerve to close the window, cause he didn’t think he would be able to do it.  I reassured him that it wasn’t that easy, and I nearly wet myself in the process, but it was a hell of a lot better than the alternative.

As your older sister, I could use this post to tell embarrassing stories like the time you used Tupperware as drums and screamed “TOODLES MOMMAY!” over and over at the top of your lungs while Chad and I hid in the bathroom until we thought it was safe to come out, but I’m not going to do that.

Instead, I’m going to tell a story…about you (no kidding).

As soon as I found out Mom was having another baby (she sure can pop them out, 4 kids under 6…Go Mom!), I knew it would be a girl.  No matter how much people tried to warn me that it might be another brother, I had convinced myself that I was getting a sister.
I wanted you SO BAD!

I was nearly six the night you were born, but I can remember every detail. I was sleeping in a pitch black room when Angella came in and woke me up.
“Dayna, you have a baby sister.”

I only smiled and fell back to sleep, content, because I had thought about you so much, knowing you had arrived was expected (and let’s face it, I am SO out of it when I get woken up that I don’t really understand what’s going on).

The next day we all went to the hospital to meet you (wearing the latest fashion, of course.)

Dear.Lord.Why?

Little did I know, Chad had wanted you really bad too.  So bad, in fact, that he held you too tight and would scream and cry if we tried to take you away from him (could both of you please remember this moment when you’re in the throws of an adolescent screaming match? kthx).

When I pried you from Chad’s hands and held you, I thought to myself, “She’s MINE!”
Not to make my lil bros jealous, I love them just as much too…but at that age, I was getting sick of dressing them up as women (no matter how much they seemed to enjoy it):

I needed the real deal, which I found in you:

please don't kill me for posting this

Now, You are 15.  FIFTEEN! You’ve turned into a bit of a mini-me, so much so that certain people *cough*Marissa*cough* are using you as my replacement when I leave.  I guess it was inevitable seeing as we’ve shared a room, clothes, hairstyle (you copycat), *ahem* attitude, and oh yeah, the same gene pool. 

 But you are definitely your own person, and an AWESOME one at that:

Happy Birthday, Courtney!  I love you, and remember that I’m making you a yummy/pretty cake to make up for any embarrassment.

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.