wickeddoll’s Neighborhood

Thought I might as well do my brainstorming here seeing as this is looking like the scenario for this weekend.

 

1. 

   Let It Rain
   Go swimming at the indoor Aquatic Centre -  my daughter invited to a party there on Saturday along with my friend's eldest daughter.  My friend and I have decided to take the little ones along as well and stay there and have our own swim and indoor picnic while the party is on.  Will hopefully help with the stuck indoors stir craziness that all the kids bound to be experiencing.
2. Baking - my husband accidentally opened a tin of sweetened condensed milk the other night so planning to do something with that and also plan to make a lemon tart for my work morning tea next week.  The kids can help with that.
3. Go to the library - unfortunately our library has really limited opening hours on the weekend.  Maybe the council thinks that everyone in our local government area can't read or something!
4. Go to the movies - we have some 'movie money' to spend so planning to go and see Kung Fu Panda on Sunday morning.
5. Put on raincoats and go for a walk - would be even better if the kids had gumboots but alas I stopped buying these when the drought started biting as they would often only wear them a handful of times before growing out of them.
6. Get my son to decorate and start implementing his housework chart - his teacher sent this home last night and I think it is a great initiative.  My son is Mr Lazy normally.
7. Painting.
8. Sorting out books, CDs and DVDs and working out which ones to get rid of.
9. Planning our trip away the following week - my husband now has to work so it will be just me and the kids.  I still haven't worked out where to go.  Not too far afield though.
10. Watching tv - the kids favourite 'must watch' shows on the weekend are Australia's Funniest Home Videos on Saturday night and Gladiators on Sunday night.  They also usually pester to watch whatever Saturday night kids movie is showing and, more recently, Battle of the Choirs.
11. Reading - unfortunately my son too young to read independently and my daughter not really inclined to so I will read to them. 
12. Writing - my daughter's best friend H is in Japan at the moment and she has promised to write to her while she is away.
13. Board games, eg, chess (or 'chest' as my son calls it), scrabble, Enchanted Forest etc.

 

 

 

I want an EEEpc! I've never wanted a lappy before but I really really want this one. I blame my boyfriend for influencing my decision on wanting gadgets that I will never ever use. Well I would use it for the price I would pay for it! I really only want one if I decided to go back overseas again. Just so I could use the internet connection in the hotels and play games of course when I'm not out and about! The bonus is the eeepc comes in some spanky colours by spanky I mean PINK!

I'll probably never get one on the basis of I don't need one but doesn't mean I can't admire from a far :(

Check out this short film by director Alison McLean from 1989.  I first saw this at the cinema before a feature film I can't even recall now.  I was so impressed at the time. 

 

 

Melanie Lynskey who plays Rose is actually a New Zealander and started her acting career with one of the main roles (alongside Kate Winslet) in the wonderfully chilling New Zealand film Heavenly Creatures. 

 

What is also amazing is that she manages to disguise her New Zealand accent so well.  I travelled overseas with a girl from New Plymouth (where Lynskey also from) and she had the strongest Kiwi accent I have ever heard.  Her boyfriend (who was from somewhere on New Zealand's North Island) said he practically had to act as an interpreter for her when they were travelling in countries where people spoke English as a second language as noone could understand anything she said.  I'm sure there are some Australians who have similar "accent trouble" overseas. 

Back to Heavenly Creatures, I highly recommend watching it if you have never seen it.  There really is a lot more to New Zealand cinema than Lord of the Rings.  

ink & watercolour, 8x10 inches (SOLD)

Ever since the semester ended, I've been adjusting to a lot of new changes. I really don't know how I want to sum up the past few months, but I think the best way to tackle the task is by creating a list and then expanding a little on each point. (This is what happens when I have to make lists for both work and school; it starts pouring into my personal life, too! Haha.)

Shawn and Kathleen graduated. I'm not a fan of going to big graduation ceremonies, but as it turns out, I had to go to two within the same month. Shawn had to deal with my bad mood that day (I feel like I kind of ruined part of the experience for him... Bah!), but it ended up going really well. He's completely finished with college and education for the rest of his life. I'm so proud of him, and I couldn't be more jealous. ^///^

Since Shawn graduated, he's been working full time for Kohl's Corporate. Whenever any of my family members, or one of our friends, asks how he likes his job, he always tells them that he doesn't really like what he does there. Even though he says that, I know he really likes it. He's been picking up a ton of responsibilities: going to meetings, being "on call" for days at a time, attending events held by his team, etc. Whether Shawn wants to admit it or not, he likes being needed for something. He really should feel that way, too, especially after all the work he's put into the past few years in school.

Kathleen graduated high school and has been getting ready for college. She's going to the same university that Beth and I are at, which I'm totally psyched about. <3 As happy as I am for her, I have to be honest about the whole situation-- it's been a tough few weeks for her and the rest of our family. We've all been going through some major adjustments and there have been a lot of hurt feelings. I'm not sure where I stand on all of the issues anymore, but I do know that I'm trying to focus on making Kathleen as comfortable as possible with her new living situation with Beth. It's interesting how so many changes in just Kathleen's life have impacted the entire family. Something like this has never really happened in this way before.

My internship is going well.

As I've mentioned before (I think), I've had the luxury of killing two birds with one stone by taking on an internship while continuing to work with Six Apart. As it turns out, the extra responsibilities have made me feel more important-- like I'm doing something that matters. I have never felt so proud of myself before. Not only am I supporting myself (for the most part), but I'm making all my decisions by myself. Which leads me to...

I'm moving in with Shawn in a few weeks. Even though Shawn and I have lived in our current apartment together, with Beth, we finally found a place for just the two of us. We looked around for a few weeks, did some research, and then found the perfect place for us to live for the next year. I started getting a little stressed out when we were looking, because I hated the fact that I felt "homeless" but everything worked out in the end. The biggest challenge for us now is buying all of our furniture and still having enough money for rent. Like Shawn keeps telling me, we "have to take it slow." I guess I'm just excited about the idea of having an entirely new place to live with all new furniture. It's like I'm putting together a new family or something! ^__^ Slow steps are good.

I had to tell Dad that Shawn and I were moving in together. I had to do it. I mean, after all the years that Dad and I haven't been able to communicate, I had to tell him that Shawn and I were taking this step in our lives. Honestly, I wasn't worried about talking to Dad, but everyone else started to freak out about it. Mom even told me, at one point, that she didn't want to be in the house when I was talking to him. *sigh* Every other person I talked to gasped and made me promise to tell him/her how it went.

The thing is, everyone knows how difficult my relationship with Dad has been throughout my life. His Filipino culture is extremely different from my own, and hearing that two people are moving in together before marriage can tear people apart. There are little secrets to situations like this though: you have to know people. You have to know how they function, how they feel about certain issues, how they react to specific situations, how their thought processes break down information. I did my research and I made a plan.

Last weekend, I went home to talk with Dad. I walked up to him and asked him if we could talk alone. Within the next two hours, we stood there in my parents' bedroom talking about everything. I told him about Shawn and me, and from there we started talking about family and beliefs. Huge breakthroughs were made, and I told him that I wanted to fix everything that had gone so wrong in the past. I know that Dad and I don't have what Mom and I share, but I'm only 23 years old. I can be an adult here and try to fix something like a relationship.

A few times during our talk, Dad broke down. A while back, Mom told me that no one but her had ever seen him cry, and even then, it had happened only twice during their marriage. When he started crying, he told me he felt he was a bad father. And then he kept repeating the same story about how he had left to go on a vacation at a time when things in our family were finally good-- and then how guilty he felt about leaving for those few weeks. Even though I had little recollection about this happening (since I was so little), I felt everything he felt. I know how one guilty memory can tear me to shreds so I did the only thing I could do at the time. I listened.

Not everything between Dad and me is resolved now, but at least we have some of the issues out in the open. I told him that we need to talk more, instead of letting Mom be the messenger between us, and he agreed.

It's been an interesting few weeks. As always, I've been dealing with a lot of the stress by buying myself presents. *guilty look* I know I should be saving money for my new apartment, but having new dolls and accessories makes me feel so much better. They take my mind off of the stress. I'm trying not to repeat what happened last summer! So far, I've only had to take my stress medication for one week and I was able to stop after that. It's a good sign. ^__^

In a way, I feel like I've kind of graduated, too. Usually summer is a slow time for me, but so far, it's proven to be just as hectic as the school year!

How long do you take in the shower?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

A long shower is about 20 minutes. I used to brush my teeth in the shower but stopped because I felt that extra three minutes was a lot of wasted water. Not surprisingly I don't brush my teeth as often.

I've been reading a lot of news this morning, via the web.

One article I read was about a recent expanding of daytime checkpoints throughout our county targeting unlicensed drivers & DUIs. It has quickly turned into a racial/immigration debate though because most of the unlicensed drivers in our county are undocumented immigrants. If you're caught without a license your car is automatically impounded and towed that day for a period of 30 days. However, they are notifying (but not directly requesting assistance from) immigration & other state agencies of the checkpoints and now they are often checking for valid citizenship too. People are being deported and the argument of issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants is being brought up again. It would bring revenue into the state and provide the safe driving that everyone is clamoring for. However, the last line of the article really got me, "...There's a point of view, and it's a valid point of view, that to discourage illegal immigration, we should make the lives of illegal immigrants more difficult."

It got me because while I do not like living in an area plundered by illegal immigrants that make money here and send it back to wherever they're from without giving back to a system that's supporting them - I also strongly feel that our immigration system needs a serious overhaul. Its just not equiped to deal with the demand that we as a country have. There ARE people trying to do it by the way we want them to but they see no resolution in sight and yet they see millions of people succeeding by not following the law. It's all very unfair. I can't wait until something begins to happen - I fear it wont be in my lifetime though.