Too Hard Basket.

Have the blues today. Not as bad as yesterday though, where I encountered a dose of Holly Golightly's Mean Reds, but still not good. Can't seem to drag myself out of it yet. I'm supposed to attend a birthday tonight, which I would normally be able to handle, but I can't right now.

I have an excuse to hibernate the weekend away though... Nicky gave me a copy of One Tree Hill season 4 to borrow. Am much excited about that.

Another good thing to look forward to.. we're all seeing Ben Lee play at the Perry Sandhills on March 10th. Last time I went to the Sandhills was to see The Whitlams... love love.

Irony

Had some great news today.. turns out that our culture trip clashes with other PD that we as teachers are all required to go to... so we changed the date, and all got to book in to see Wicked!!! Yay! How funny that I only posted about that yesterday?? I am a bit sad that I won't get to see it with my little sis, but the best bit is being able to see it for free. Now that is a great perk of the job.

Mum and dad are dropping around tonight.. and bringing souvalaki. *happy dance*

Say Cheese.

It's lucky that I actually put a bit of effort into what I was going to wear to work today, as I opened my emails this morning and found out it was school photo day... bleh. Feeling VERY tired, so I'm sure the lovely flattering flash is going to show up all my bags and wrinkles under my eyes. Hair is a bit feral too- it's second day curls.

I'm wearing jeans, pointy pink shoes, a cream Dotti top with big sleeves, big silver dangly hoops and silver bracelets. Passable.

A Tale about Oz...

Ooh la la! How excitement! Wicked, coming to Melbourne in 2008. A definite on my must-see list :)

Scrambling for Time.

Very quick post today- turns out that my casual, first 3 on, last off day has changed to a 4 on (grr @ extras), library duty at recess and lunchtime day. Bleh.. not fun at all. I'm typing furiously as my years 7's are occupied with painting the colour wheel.

I'm starting to get used to the whole curly hair thing. Funny thing is, I've had more compliments than when I had straight hair.

Today, my year 7's called me 'cheerious'. Cheerful, but serious. Haha!

Cocktail of the Week

Midori Splice

Ingredients

1 cup Midori melon liqueur

1 cup malibu coconut rum

4 (6 ounce) cans pineapple juice

Cream

Directions

1. Combine together in a cocktail shaker.

2. Serve in a tall glass, over ice, with pineapple wedge (and a tropical paper parasol!).

3. Float cream over the top. Garnish with Pineapple

   

Shake your Groove Thing.

Spent an amazing weekend with my beautiful little sister in Melbourne... 'twas difficult to come back to the daily grind. She suprised me with an amazing early birthday prezzie- tickets to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on the Saturday night I was there. And.. it was fabulous in every sense of the word. An overload of colour, music and sound.


I also love just being able to spend time with her.. even when we're sitting on the couch saying nothing, but petting her little guinea pigs. Watching DVD's. Commenting on Dlisted and Perez.

Pan, if you're reading this, big fluffy love to you :)

Addict

I think I have a problem.

I LOVE TV. I mean it. I did a survey with my media class today, about their TV viewing habits. I discovered that I'm the sort of person that needs TV on whenever I'm at home. From 6:30am 'til when I go to bed. And, I'll watch anything, even keeping the TV when there is nothing, and I mean nothing, to watch.

I'm at my happiest when I have a cold, rainy empty weekend, a great TV series on DVD and pizza. Now I really need One Tree Hill, season 4 and 5!!!!!

So much for the teaching career.

I'm a bit aggravated today.

Due to the ridiculous timetable/elective system we have going, even though I have six classes, I'm still hugely underloaded. In order to combat this, the SMAC committee has decided to load me up with-
2 Yard Duties

4 Time Outs

A Library duty

So, I now only have 2 out of 5 lunchtimes to myself. Ugh.

Domestic Bliss

Oh, and another thing while I'm in waffling mood. Apart from the whole cleaning thing that I partook in last weekend, I have suddenly become fixated without all things baking and homemaking. What is this??!! Is there some sort of secret spell that turns you completely domestic once you get married? For example, instead of looking up Sportsgirl on ebay, I looked up THIS:
A Tupperware cake icing set. I mean, really.

I'm blaming it not only on this secret domestic spell, but new mate Sarah at work, who also shares my happiness at chatting about cupcakes, Tupperware and Casa Domani dining sets. And, no, she's not a 40 year old English teacher, but a PE TEACHER WHO IS 25.

Yeah, I know, I'm trying to justify it.

Tim Burton Classic

Yes, I have already registered for tickets. July/ August 2008 at Melbourne's The Arts Centre.

Countdowns

Ooh.. I'm a little bit excited because.... in 4 more sleeps I'll be going to Melbourne for the weekend to see my little sis!

Today is definitely the best I've felt in a long time, for a Monday, that is. I've decided that the trick to feeling good is to ALWAYS make sure I have something to look forward to on the weekend. Not exactly rocket science, huh? But Melbourne is this weekend, Jen's birthday the next... and I'm sure something will come up between now and the weekend after.

I did a MASSIVE clean up last weekend.. even cleaning the fridge out. Bizarre. I normally hate doing things like that, but I felt a strange satisfaction in doing it. Oh yeah, and I really have to take some photos soon to show the new additions to our house. I heart them :)

Cocktail of the Week

Flirtini

2 oz. Ocean Spray cranberry cocktail
1 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. raspberry liqueur
1 oz. champagne (or sparkling wine or club soda
fresh cranberries/raspberries

Combine the cranberry juice, vodka, and liqueur in an ice filled cocktail shaker. Shake gently and strain into a large martini glass. Top with champagne and garnish with fresh cranberries and raspberries.

Thoughts.

I'm in a little bit of a thought mood tonight... the following weekends are going to be pretty full on, so I'm just taking it easy now.

Two of my very good girlfriends are going through the hardest times of their life at the moment. I want to take some of their pain for them, I hate to see them struggle, but they are both strong women who will be able to ride it out. It's so hard though... but I also need to look out for myself. Last year, I failed to do so. I made myself sick with the stress and effort of trying to hold someone above the water, therefore neglecting my family and husband. I won't be doing that again. I will be there, but won't be reaching out continuously.

I'm very proud of myself for making that decision, as it goes against my personality makeup. I used to think that in order for people to like me, I needed to make myself indisposable to them. Be there 150%, at the expense of myself.

Not any more.

Protest

Yesterday was an important day not only for me, but for the thousands of other teachers who are grossly underpaid and undervalued. I dressed in red, held my sign up high, and marched over the bridge.

It amazes me that for a state who has the highest level of literacy and numeracy, also has the dubious honor of having the lowest paid teachers in the nation.

It makes me think twice about crossing the bridge into Vic for work each morning. If I worked in the state that I currently live in, I would be receiving an extra 10,000 anually. For the same job.

Get it together Mr Brumby.

Small Changes

Things were looking up today. Feeling a bit more positive and energetic about work. I'm thinking that it may have been a reaction from feeling so lost after the wedding and honeymoon were over. Well, I'm hoping that's all it was.

What I have my eye on lately...

Thrills and Chills

Last night we had our scary movie night, and it was HILARIOUS. Keezy is terrified of them!!!

We warmed up with...
Then got into full blown terror with..
And, so Keesy could go home without jumping at everything that moved, we finished with...

Good times. Second scary night to come in the near future!

New Tunes

Yesterday I bought...

Kanye West- Graduation

and

Timberland- Shock Value

Much needed after the week I've endured.

Sigh.

I apologise in advance for the tone of this post... just finding it really difficult to find the positives at work at the moment. Things feel harder this year. It worries me that I feel this way, as I'm only two weeks into the year. I'm hoping that I'm merely out of practice due to the holidays, and things will be improving very soon.

Virtual Shopping

Ahhh... if only.

Daylight Savings

Spent another evening chilling and drinking on Keezy's houseboat last night. Why can't every night be like that? It's going to be sad when Summer ends.. I love the extended sunlight and warm nights.

Frustration

Why is it, when you're willing to spend money, you can't find anything you like?

ARGH!!!!!

Interior Stuff

Just a little post before I run off... I'm a tad bit excited as Deon and I have decided to stay a little longer in the house we're in, so we've decided to do it up the way we've always wanted to. I've held off 'til now, as I hadn't wanted to get attached to the place, but now LOOK OUT!!!

Interior stores, here we come. Pics of our new purchases will be on here in the near future.