Rude Boy Don't Cry

So today I was excited because I didn't have to wait for MOTH Dude to get home from church to go and do our weekly grocery shopping, I could just hop in his Mom's car and head down when I wanted and I didn't have to rush looking for work clothes since I was by myself. It was nice to have that freedom of just hopping in a car and going where and when I liked. I have really missed that independence. That independence will continue indefinitely now because yesterday MOTH Dude and I ended up buying the car we had gone with his parents to look at. (Well, I guess we haven't technically since we haven't got the car yet or given the guy the money, but we said we'd take it and it's ours when the guy is ready for us to take it, which will hopefully be sometime over the next few days.)

Anyway, as exciting as that was/is, that's not what this post is about. So yeah, I go down to our local mall to look for work clothes and do grocery shopping. I am all stoked because I end up finding tons of tops that I want for work and only go over budget by $10-$15 dollars. I got a bit overheated trying so many clothes on in the dressing room so I was a bit flustered as I was wondering around Target looking for dress socks for MOTH Dude when I ran in to Croc and the Teacher, but we had a good chat and made plans to get a drink later. Then I get my grocery shopping done and I spent about $50 less than we normally do so I was feeling good about that. I picked up some lunch to bring back for us and I head out to the parking lot to load up my groceries and zip home to bake cupcakes for Sunday Family Dinner. I get to the car and pull my cart close in so it's not in the road and someone is pulling in to the empty spot next to mine and it's a minivan and the woman is having a bit of trouble getting in to her spot. Then I hear her husband, in the passenger seat, say something like "It's because of how this idiot next to us has parked." I say "Sorry" just on reflex and think, "Geeeeez, that guy is RUDE" and then I think "Hang on, I double checked when I pulled in to this spot that I was between the lines so I wouldn't inconvenience anyone and I was able to get out of my car with a car next to me easily, what is this guy's problem?" So I double check, and sure enough, I'm in between my two lines. I am favoring his side between my two lines, but I'm still not even on the line at all. So I wait for him to get out of the car as I load my groceries, but he doesn't. I finish up and walk up to my door and look in his window and say "Excuse me, Hi, was it me that you just called an idiot?" And he said something like "Yeah, I guess so" or "Yeah, it'd seem so" and I say, "Well, just so you know, I'm parked between my two lines, I'm not over." And that seemed to get him flustered and he just goes "Yeah, well.....grumble grumble grumble" His wife must have been so embarrassed for herself to be married to a douche like that in that moment because she didn't say anything to defend him and it was the wife who was driving and parking the car. Anyway, I would've loved to have written "douche" on the back of his minivan in the dust on the window or thrown my Sprite on the car, but I figured just calling him out on his unfounded rudeness probably made him feel like a jackass anyway so I left with the upper hand. Plus, I had to feel sorry for the guy: he was dressed in sweatpants with the scrunchy bottoms and a fake Ed Hardy looking shirt at 2pm at the mall, which is probably punishment enough in and of itself!

I'll Be Home for Christmas...

Except I won't be.

It also doesn't look like it is worth it for my family to come out here after Christmas to visit me either. I assumed there would be no way in Hell I'd be able to take a month off around Christmas being the low man on the totem pole at my new job, but I never imagined that from a week or so before Christmas all the way to the beginning of February would be off limits! But they are. I also found out that although I may only be scheduled for 20 hours a week, I won't ever be able to bang those out over, say, three 7 hour shifts; I'll be expected to work five 4 hour shifts. So if my family came out, I wouldn't be able to take a week or two off, like I was planning, to hang out and maybe go to Tasmania or drive the Great Ocean Road with them and I also wouldn't be able to get my work done early in the week on the other weeks they are here and then have Thursday and Friday to play tour guide.

I was so upset when I found this out on Tuesday. I've never not had a Christmas with my family to begin with, but I had prepared myself for that, and thought I'd just have a later Christmas celebration with them*, and then to find out that that wasn't really even an option, I wanted to cry. Then a few people in my training group start talking about how they were told we weren't allowed to take any time off over the next 12 months of our contract, I really did start to cry when I called MOTH on my lunch break to fill him in! I talked to the trainer later that afternoon and the good news is is that we are allowed to take vacation after we have been at the company for 6 months so yesterday I got her to block out most of May for me and that is when I will be going home. I can't believe I will have to wait a year (from when I flew out here) to see my family again, but I guess it's better than not being able to see them for a year and 3 months!

So yeah, not a good start to the week really, but I'm trying to deal with it and a lot can happen between now and December so we'll see what happens. On a positive, I already got paid on Wednesday and will be using part of that money to buy some more work clothes this weekend since I've realized 1) I don't have a ton of clothes to begin with and 2) Hardly any of the stuff I do have is "work wear". Tomorrow or Sunday MOTH and I are hopefully going to go have a look at a family friend's mother's car and hopefully it will be the one for me. All I know so far is that it's a late 90s Subaru, it's an automatic, and the price is right. MOTH and I have said for years now that we want a Subaru Outback when we can afford one so it'll be sweet to start working our way up through the Subaru models now!

*MOTH's immediate family doesn't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons so it's not a situation where you can say "Suck it up D, lots of people have to rotate Christmas between each spouse's family," there just won't be a Christmas celebration at all, at least not with his parents or brother, though I'm hoping he'll still want to celebrate with me.

Ikea: Selling Furniture for College Kids and Divorced Men

Yesterday was a really fun day. I had the best gnocchi for lunch and the restaurant we ate at was nice because they had an outside patio area overlooking the Paramatta River. It was so gross there at times, though, because apparently you are still allowed to smoke in outside dining areas in Australia. So I enjoyed my gnocchi and some nasty second hand smoke for lunch. Yuck!

Boyfriend's Mom seemed to enjoy her surprise birthday trip down to Ikea and she, Boyfriend and Boyfriend's Dad walked through every display set up in the store playing with stuff. She ended up buying some baking dishes and Boyfriend and I came home with two new pillows for the couch ($10 for the pillow and case a piece), a teeny tiny vase for my bedside table that I can pick freesia to put in for $1.50, a pack of tea light candles Boyfriend liked that smelled like apples and cinnamon and some cute, plain tea light holders (4/$2.50). Man, I love a bargain! We also had to stop in the food shop on the way out and we bought these yummy oat chocolate cookies and split the box with Boyfriend's parents, two bottles of the blueberry syrup, lingonberry jam and white sauce to go with our meatballs we bought last time (Bun told me you have to do them this way as this is the traditional and best way to have them), and blueberry soup (which kind of looks like runny blueberry yogurt). Oh, and blueberry jam. If it had the word blueberry on it, Boyfriend bought it; he went kind of nuts in the food store area!

kea ended up taking all day and we didn't get home til about 6 and we wanted something to do for the night so I messaged LC and Croc to see if there were any plans on and LC called me back and we made plans for dinner. We went to the Soccer Club the next street over from our house and had Chinese for dinner. (Sidenote: I've never seen so many "clubs" before in my life since I've lived here and they are not clubs like "let's go out to the club and dance" type places but think like mini casinos in a sense and they have them for football teams, the local soccer team, there are workers clubs, bowling clubs, golf clubs, returned servicemen clubs, etc, etc...And each seems to be successful and bring in tons of money...I live in a fairly small area and within a 5 mile radius I probably have about 5 of these different types of clubs near me!) It was crowded and smokey at the Soccer Club and LC didn't want to keep baby Lo out in it for too long so we decided after Boyfriend and I stopped at home to pick him up some beer to head over to there house to hang out for awhile. We all just talked and watched tv and it was a fun and mellow night. Boyfriend and Bob Marley planned their debaucherous bachelor party weekend coming up in two weeks time and LC and I gave them dirty looks and told them "Fine, we'll get drunk and spend your money on dresses for the wedding that day then!" I got to drive us home and you'd think I was a kid with a learner's permit because driving doesn't feel like a chore when you don't do it all the time and I was excited to drive the 10 minutes home!

Today I'm home alone as Boyfriend is at church and then going to lunch at a church person's house. It's also Father's Day here (our Mother's Days are on the same days, but for some reason Father's Days are at different times) so we are having dinner at Nan and Pop's with everyone later tonight. We got Boyfriend's Dad tons of organic seeds for his garden because he planted a big, amazing veggie garden last year and we're hoping he'll do it again this year and we even got him some artichoke seeds in the hopes that he would grow us some because artichokes are fairly hard to come by and fairly small and really expensive to buy when they are available here! I'm off to bake a bunch of cupcakes for dinner tonight and do laundry that has been piling up for the last week and a half. Happy Aussie Father's Day to my Dad, I love you! (I'm not sure my Dad even knows I have a blog and if he does, he's probably never checked it out, but minor details, just in case someday he stops by, I'm thinking about you Big Guy!) Hope you guys are having a great weekend where ever you are and if you are in the States that you are enjoying your nice long weekend.

Wastin' Away Again in Margaritaville

Saturday afternoon Boyfriend and I got ready and headed down to meet Stylez and Turk for a fun night of Mexican and booze, or as we call it: a Mexibooze night, and karaoke. We were running late and so was Stylez so once we got there we started our walk to find a cab into Glebe and to the restaurant- The Flying Fajita Sistas. Once there, we met up with another friend whom Stylez, Turk, and Boyfriend had all worked with waaaaay back in the day and his girlfriend. Stylez and I immediately ordered margaritas and the boys ordered Dos Equis (XX) in honor of my Dad because that is what he always gets when he has Mexican food. The drinks came and they were fantastic. I feel like I probably gulped mine down but it was the best margarita I have had in a long time. We ordered an appetizer for the table and I really liked the cheese dip (top right yellow), smokey salsa (top left red), and the bean dip (bottom right white and brown) which was just like beans you'd get as a side dish at a CA Mexican place. Of course the lighting was awful in both places we went so I've had to borrow other people's pictures

that I found online.

After that we ordered our dinners and Boyfriend and I shared a fajita platter for two. He chose snapper and I chose shrimp for my meat. We also decided to order a litre of white sangria for the table. The snapper and the shrimp were so delicious, like "WHOA" they were so good! The tortillas were just "Meh" that came with it, Guzmen y Gomez has better ones, and I wasn't a fan of the black beans or rice that came as part of the meal. I really wished they would have served more of the "bean dip" instead. The waitresses were really, really dumb and would come to ask if we needed water or anything and then when we asked for more booze were told someone else would have to come and get our drinks (this wasn't a bus person or a person under 18 so I dunno why she couldn't have) and they didn't know basic stuff like they threw in a bunch of tortillas in to two warmers instead of 4 for the 4 of us who got fajitas but didn't tell us that and handed them to the people with two single orders rather than one for me and Boyfriend and one for them to split and then couldn't tell us how many tortillas we were each supposed to get with our meal when we were then trying to divy the tortillas out. I thought the sangria was just "Meh", as well. I had wanted to try sangria and now I have, but I wish I would've gotten another margarita instead. If you go on a warm night, I'd suggest asking to sit out back; they've got the cutest little patio area to sit out in. Tuesday is Taco Tuesday and they do $3 tacos and I'm pretty sure $3 shots of tequila. All in all I can't wait to go back for margaritas, the snapper, the shrimp, and the bean dip. Check them out at http://www.flyingfajitasistas.com.au/ or they are located at 66 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe.

After dinner, we hopped in to another cab that took us in to the heart of the city to the karaoke place- Echo Point. It's run by Japanese people and has lots of Japanese snacks and drinks to buy from the front desk. It isn't like normal karaoke because you order private rooms to sing in, rather than do it in a room full of strangers. We had about 10 people hanging out in ours. There is just a tv, a karaoke machine, coffee table, a black light, and some comfy seats built into the walls in the room and you punch in the songs you want to do and go for it. I had fun watching everyone sing. I did not take a turn on the mic. Some of the girls sang love songs, the boys sang a bunch of random stuff from Prince to Metallica to the Prodigy, and Stylez, Turk and Boyfriend normally sang as a threesome and chose cool punk/alternative songs like GreenDay, Weezer, and Blink. I even got Boyfriend and Stylez to sing me a duet of "I'm the One Who Wants to Be with You" by Mr. Big! It was $16-$17 for each of us for a 3 hour session, I think. It's a fun way to spend a night every once in awhile. If you are a karaoke fanatic then you should take a group of friends to Echo Point. They've got all their songs listed on their website (I think they've got over 1,000 to choose from) (http://www.echopoint.com.au/), too, so you can have your set list picked out for the night before you arrive like Boyfriend's one friend did!

I don't normally keep track of Boyfriend's drinking because I'm not his parole officer (before you ask, no, he doesn't really have a parole officer) and I figure he can handle himself and he knows his limit, but I maybe should've been a little vigilant on Saturday night because he was drinking sake, which he's only had a couple of times before and always during a meal. He ended up getting drunker than I realized on that and beer and when we headed back to Turk and Stylez's place and went to bed, he immediately had to get up and be sick. All in all he was probably up about 6 times puking through out the night, but at least he was really neat about it and didn't get it all over their super cute house!

In the morning he was still feeling crappy, but felt a little better because Turk and Stylez hadn't heard him being sick or been kept up by it like I thought they might have because it seemed to echo all across the downstairs of their house, where their spare bathroom and guest bedroom is. We decided to go to a local place for breakfast and they thought maybe it was best to just bring us breakfast back or to at least drive over, but I thought the walk in the fresh air might do Boyfriend some good. Right before we left, he had to make a quick dash to the bathroom to be sick again and then he said he felt lots better. The walk through their neighborhood was really nice. No one was out, it was a quiet Sunday morning and the view if you turned and looked was of the Sydney skyline, CentrePoint Tower, and the tops of the Harbour Bridge. We sat inside because all the outside seats were taken and Boyfriend made it through breakfast feeling just ok. We walked back to Turk and Stylez's place, chatted a bit longer, then hit the road.

Boyfriend's Dad's birthday is this week, so is Nae's, and Bob just moved in to his new place so we figured while we were close, we might as well hit up Ikea...the only one in NSW, I think. I was in heaven once we got inside! Boyfriend seemed to pick up a bit, too, and we had fun looking at all the neatly designed furniture and bedding and stuff they had. Boyfriend especially liked all the kitchen designs they had displayed. We came away with some office and home stuff for Boyfriend, a funny little present for Nae, lots of new kitchen stuff for Bob, struck out on stuff for his Dad, and got me a vase for $4 and a couch cover that I had wanted when I bought my couch 3 years ago since the couch is white and was the cheapest one they had, but didn't think I could afford it then (in the last year my couch has suddenly looked thrashed so it was awesome that we could buy a black cover for it that would better hide stains). We also had to have a look at all the good Swedish food they had at the food shop past the registers and bought some yummy cookies, blueberry concentrate drink, a non-alcoholic pear cider, a Daime chocolate bar that Stylez recommended, and some salted black licorice (yuck!) that Turk recommended, as well as the meatballs, at the last minute, because everyone else in line had at least one bag of them and Turk had said they were delicious, too.

We got back on the road and Boyfriend was not feeling so great. He asked if he got us out of the City could I manage the drive on the freeway home? I have never driven more than about 10 miles maybe and never on the freeway so I was a bit nervous, but said if he just rested and didn't fall asleep on me, I'd do it. Once I got going, it was as easy as driving on the regular side of the road, and soon, I was passing slow pokes. The drive took about an hour and we got home just as it was getting dark. We basically had time to unload the car, go to the bathroom, and then we were back on the road to Nan and Pop's for Sunday dinner...this week a bbq for Boyfriend's Dad's birthday. Lots of the cousins were there and they brought their babies with them and it was good to catch up with the girls and have a cuddle and a play with the babies. The one little girl is about 1 and a half years old and is so smart- she remembered my name after the first time I played with her and still remembers me months later and always calls out "Little D, Little D" to get my attention and get me to come play with her. For some reason she was afraid of Boyfriend last night and would run away or hide her face in my shoulder anytime he came near! Don't they say that kids and dogs can sense when someone is evil? Haha, just kidding Babe!

It turned out to be one of those weekends that are so jam packed you don't feel as if you've had a real weekend, but I love those and had a great time! Today I put my tutoring ad in two of the local papers and one will run on Wednesday and Friday in the one paper and the other will be delivered in to people's mailboxes in the area later in the month. I'm so excited and can't wait to see how many calls I get! Fingers crossed for me guys because I really could use the income.

Oh yeah, and check out Stylez's stuff at reJENerate (link up the top) she's got a blog, a website, and stuff on Etsy. I saw some of her bags lying around at her house and their are some cute ones right now. She also has been doing custom bridal and bridal party clutches that are cool and fun and match without being too matchy, if you know what I mean. She will have an order from me if I ever take a stroll down the aisle!

New Workout Plan

Last week I went and put in more resumes at different spots at the local shops. On Thursday the Runner came to pick me up and take me to the big mall so we could grab some coffee and I could pass out more resumes. The Runner probably thought I was so fussy because there were so many places I didn't want to work at. I just can't see myself selling jewelry and stuff like that. Her parents own their own business and when her mom called her she asked if there was any filing or anything I could do and surprisingly her mom said I could come in for a day for a trial run at filing stuff for them. I was so stoked and was/am so grateful to the Runner for asking for me. We spent awhile at the shops and then we had to go back to her house because her parents were having new flooring delivered. It was supposed to be like a 20 minute stop over, but two and a half hours later we were still waiting. The Runner's parent's place is pretty cool-lots of property, feels like a real family home, and they own lots of animals-a dog, cats, and some cows! The Runner had a running date with the Smooth Talker's sister and she came over with her dogs right before the flooring guy got there. Smooth Talker's sister (I'll have to figure out a name for her, I really like her!, this was my first time meeting her but I've heard nice things about her over the years) said that I should go running with them. I laughed and jokingly said "oh well, you know, I would, but I'm wearing jeans and stuff so they aren't really good to run in" The Runner says "no worries, I'll find you something to wear" I said "Bitch, Im not going to fit in to any of your stuff" and she said "Oh yeah you will" So I ended up looking like 5 pounds of sugar stuffed in to a 3 pound bag, but she was right, I fit in to her old stuff kind of. The Runner and Smooth Talker's Sister ran most of the trail, I ran the downhill bits and power walked the rest. I felt like the people on their first day being at the Biggest Loser Fat Camp! Haha! But I didn't give up and I didn't stop once and the trail that we ran on was so pretty. I felt like I was dying while it was happening but I loved it, too. It was so cool to be out in the country just walking and running with the dogs and not having to have them on leashes. It's probably corny but I think stuff like that is the life. I'd love to have a dog or dogs that could just hike along with me and not have to worry about them running away or whatever.

Saturday we had a Tequila Party at the Smooth Talker's house. It was so fun! I made margaritas, but only drank one since I was driving us home. It was the Smooth Talker, the Smooth Talker's Sister, the Runner, the Miner, LC, Bob Marley, Me, and Boyfriend. We played Pictionary and I typically HATE board games but this was fun and we had exactly the right amount of people to play. Me and Boyfriend were so close to winning, but in the end the Miner and Smooth Talker's Sister beat us.

Boyfriend had a VERY VERY big night! He doesn't go that big ever so it was good for him to just let loose. It was fun just talking to Smooth Talker about his job and his place up in the country and stuff like that and to talk and joke with and get to know his sister better. She just seems like a cool down to earth and mellow chick so I hope I get to hang out and work out with her again. Boyfriend ended the night creating a potent mix of tequila, countreau, vodka, and kool-aid aka cordial. The Runner had been making the last batch of margaritas for them and when she left the blender for a minute, Boyfriend pulled in even more of all the alcohol. Even being a bit drunk, the Runner said the mix Boyfriend ended up creating was pretty toxic. I think that is what put him over the edge. Although he did have to chug a few times during a rowdy game of Uno, too, so who knows....like I said it was a very big night for him!

I drove home- it was only about a 15 minute drive but it was the longest I have done yet. We saw a fox, well I saw a fox since Boyfriend doesn't remember it, at the end of the Smooth Talker's road. I had to drive through round-abouts and those freak me out. Luckily it was like 1am and no one was on the road so I could just cruise through them. When we got home Boyfriend started getting sick. He was sick til about 430am and I got so worried that I called my Mom to ask if this was normal and what I could do to help him. He was pretty much on the verge of having to go to the hospital, that's how hardcore it was.

Today I went in to the office with the Runner and got shown the ropes by her mom. I have to answer phones, take money, write receipts, file stuff, open mail and send mail out-receptionist type stuff. I enjoyed it. I like learning new things, I was nervous, but it was good once I got the hang of it. Her parents probably don't really need the help but have offered me a day of work a week. I soooooo appreciate it because the money I make there will at least cover my groceries for two weeks and bus fare and stuff. Isn't it awesome to have good friends who look out for you? :)

Oh, we heard over the weekend that our one friend, Croc Dundee, got beaten up by random people while he was out camping at the same spot he had had his Buck's weekend while there for someone else's Buck's party. I will try and write more after I see him this next weekend, but the details so far are that his nose was broken, his brother got a bottle of Jim Beam smashed over his head, and the Soccer Player's car got smashed up and these were by guys who had earlier in the day asked Croc and the boys back up to their campsite to have a beer, but Croc says before they even got out of the car these guys were throwing bottles at the car! Gross, right?