Through the Years We All Will Be Together, If the Fates Allow

I've taken an unplanned hiatus from blogging recently . I've had things to write about, but not the drive to write them down. When I was unemployed and by myself all day long most days of the week, any little event seemed worth chronicling, but now that I have a job that I have to get up and go to I am too damn tired to write most nights once I'm home and I feel like the little things aren't as interesting to blog about (Do you really want to hear about my week on the phones like how one lady called me an idiot, another guy yelled at me and told my manager I should be fired, even though I followed privacy laws/company policy to a T, how I nearly acquired a Nigerian boyfriend, and how one lady turned on and off the water works and asked why I had brought up her baby that had died years ago from SIDS (which for the record, I obviously hadn't)? Hey, now that I've given the brief overview of my week on the phones, it actually does seem kind of entertaining!).

I guess the other thing that has kept me from blogging recently is that part of my tag line is about living Down Under and "having the time of my life." Recently living here has felt like more of a chore than an adventure. I'm not putting my degree to use, we live in a shack, I drive an hour to work one way while MOTH Dude takes the train two hours in the other direction everyday, and I'm missing my family like crazy.

Call me stupid, crazy, delusional, whatever, but I never thought I'd have to miss out on having the holidays with my family. Thanksgiving was depressing enough, going to work as if it was just any other day, and to think of Christmas without my family is like a knife in the heart (Oh man, sorry for sounding like some emo 15 year old, but that's what it feels like!). Add to that Nae's murky departure date for South Africa and I'm just a little ball of emotion thinking about my family right now.

The thing is, I've felt really guilty for not blogging, even though at this point I'm pretty well convinced I have about two readers-not even my Mom is following along these days! Most days, if I make it awake past dinner time, I do think about writing an entry but I haven't had anything positive to say. I think I just need to get through the holidays and I'll be better. Until I am, I'm giving myself the permission to take the pressure off. I don't have to blog if I don't have anything nice to say and maybe without the guilt, I'll suddenly feel like writing a whole lot again.

Fingers crossed I snap out of this funk sometime soon because, if not for MOTH Dude, the bumper sticker I keep seeing "If You Don't Love It (Australia), Leave It" is starting to make a lot of sense to me.

I Am Alright...Can You Get Me Off Your Mind?

Nothing of importance to say. Wish I had seen Alkaline Trio with my sister tonight back home in Santa Cruz. MOTH Dude gets to see them next month, but I'm missing out!

Here they are with Tegan Quinn of Tegan and Sara (you may remember last year I did a post about them, saying they are the only 2 girls I'd switch teams for, though she's looking a bit ratty/mullety in this video so don't judge her hotness on this alone).

Great song and cool dynamic having Tegan and Dan from Alkaline Trio sing it together.



Enjoy! Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm headed out camping, fingers crossed I don't come back looking like one big bug bite-the Aussie mosquitoes seem to love my sweet, sweet American blood. I'll try and take some pictures and do a post about the trip when we're back and I've also got some pictures to post from the Beer Festival we went to last weekend held at an old prison!

Tonight We're All Still Young at Heart

Image from barringtonriversideretreate.com.au

Saturday morning I woke up with a headache so bad it made my eyes water! I had to suck it up though as we had a 2 and a half hour drive ahead of us to it out to Gloucester, where the Runner and the Smooth Talker were getting married. I was able to find some headache medicine right before we left and that seemed to knock the headache out pretty well.

It was a pretty drive and MOTH and I had fun in the car and talked about how it felt like road tripping in America. We were the first to arrive at the cabins we were all going to be staying at for the night and had our pick of the 4 so we chose the one with the best view of the river below. Not long after, our bunk mates The Farmer and Tinkerbell (who hates this pseudonym and whom I still need to think up another one for) arrived and after them came LC, Bob Marley, the Hairdresser, the Soccer Player, Croc, and the Teacher. All the boys hung out on the porch drinking beer and making a trip down to feel the water while us girls took over the main bedroom of our cabin and the Hairdresser very nicely did all of our hair for us. We then got dressed and started to head out for the ceremony. I started to feel a bit headachey again before we left, but figured it was just because I was a little overheated.

The ceremony was at a beautiful hill overlooking the whole valley and town of Gloucester. The Runner teared up as she walked down the aisle and I teared up with her. It was a short and simple ceremony, but by the time it was over, I was starting to feel really sick to my stomach so I told MOTH Dude I needed to go sit in the car in some air conditioning for awhile. Being a good guy, he left the after ceremony drinks, pictures, and canapes to check on me a few times. After a while, the air conditioning just wasn't doing it for me so I stumbled out of our car and very classily got down on my knees in my pretty dress and heels and puked behind a tree. I felt better for a few minutes so I went down and joined our friends again. But then I started to not feel so great again and MOTH offered to take me in to town to try and find some medicine so I wouldn't be sick all night. We made it in to town just as the last grocery store was closing. I explained to them how I had just been sick and could I please run in for some quick medicine. They don't have much variety in grocery stores here like they do in the U.S. but we grabbed whatever we thought might help me. I took some Alka Seltzer that was supposed to be for headaches and upset stomachs. About that time, our friends arrived in town to go to the pub to wait for the reception to start. MOTH got me a gingerale and I sat outside with the girls trying to get some air. I felt bad for MOTH having to keep missing out on the fun so he went inside to play pool with the other boys. Twice I ran out to in front of the pub to try and catch a bit of breeze to make me nausea go away. Finally, (TMI coming up so beware if you're squeamish) I couldn't hold it any longer and I did 3 big heaves in to a planter outside of the pub. I'm sure I just looked like a hot mess and a bad drunk to anyone who saw, but I couldn't help it, nor could I face puking in the pub's bathroom. MOTH came out just as I finished and I started crying. I felt so awful and just wanted to go back to the cabin to lie down. He convinced me to wash my face and grab some fries aka chips to eat and that seemed to do the trick.

It was then time for the reception. It was a fun night with everyone else doing lots of drinking (I was driving, plus nothing sounded worse than drinking on top of having already been sick) and dancing and taking scandalous and funny pictures together.

There was a tiny bit of drama at the end of the night when we went to say good bye to the bride. I told her that I know I'm flakey so it may have seemed that that was what I was doing the weekend before when I missed her bachelorette party, but that I had been sick with other stomach issues. I told her about being sick that night. She didn't seem to believe me and had some issues about our cabins, as well. It was sad to see her upset on her wedding night and upset at me/the other girls(?) specifically because we hadn't actually done anything wrong and it was a shame that people were telling her crappy things about us. I guess you can't be in a group our size without a bit of drama between everyone every once in a while, though. Hopefully she came away believing what we had said, but I'm not sure. I hope to speak to her when she gets back from her honeymoon to reiterate that we didn't say anything negative about her, her bachelorette party, or her choice of accommodation for us-there was just a lot of confusion and third party misinformation.

After the reception, we all headed back to hang out at the cabin and decompress from the night. At the stroke of midnight, we roused the Farmer from his room and sang Happy Birthday to him. The rest of us made it in to bed between 1 and 1:30.

In the morning, we got up waaaaaaay too early (7:30!!) and sat out on the porch again and watched the river. We then made breakfast, packed up, and all headed down to the river where MOTH and the Soccer Player took an unintentional, that turned in to intentional, dip in the river.

I don't think anyone wanted to go and we discussed getting a big house together somewhere at the beach to share sometime soon. We then got in to our separate cars and headed home. Other than being sick and the bit of drama that unfolded, it was a fantastic weekend away!