Firstly, the picture in the post below is actually animated. Click on it, and it'll take you to another page where the picture will move and words will appear.
Now, onto other things ...
Today's blog topics:
(This list is for me, because I've got a feeling this is gonna be a long one, and I don't wanna forget anything)
1. Some people just seem to be shit-magnets, don't they?
2. Let's talk about the musical stylings of the Snappz.
3. Work. And unemployment.
4. Health. And English x-ray techs who make me miss the cricket.
5. Open letter to Joey Johns.
Ok, let's get into it ...
1. Yesterday, Christine and I both had the day off work. We had a pretty cool day, relaxing, catching up with Ang, yada yada yada. Yesterday afternoon it warmed up, and we decided it was ice-cream weather. So we headed to the MarketPlace, where we ran into a girl that we actually went to school with. Her name is S.
S is a beautiful person, she really is. She's about the same age as my sister - almost 27. She had her gorgeous 11 week old son with her.
S (and her mum) have not had things easy. S has one older sister. When S and her sister were little, their dad died suddenly. When I was 12, S's older sister heard a noise from the backyard one night and went to investigate. She was bashed, and spent a week in Melbourne on life-support before S and her mum made the heart-breaking decision to turn off the machines.
So at 16, after losing her dad, she also loses her sister. She has only her mum left.
A few years ago, I saw S. Things were going ok for her. Her and her boyfriend, J, had had their first child - a boy. She was happy. Her mum loved being a grandma.
Sadly, less than a year later, they lost their little boy. They sat by and watched as he died from a very rare form of cancer. There was nothing that the doctors could do for him.
However, when I last saw S - a couple of months ago while I was at work - things seemed to be looking up for her. She was pregnant - her and J were expecting their third child. Their second is a little under two years old. J, who had been very sick for a while, was out of hospital and doing well.
Yesterday, S told us that her mum has been diagnosed with cancer. Things don't look good.
Some people seem to have more than their fair share of shit to deal with in life.
Here's a girl in her 20's. She's lost her dad, and her sister. She watched her son die. She's been by her partners side as he dealt with some pretty serious health issues. And now she's watching her mum go through chemo, which will only buy her mum an extra couple of months.
How is that fair?
And what amazes me is that S is such a beautiful, positive person. I don't know how the hell she does it, but she picks herself up, dusts herself off each time, and keeps moving.
*****
2. Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been ... What musical stylings?!
I brought ... And I don't know why, or what the hell I was thinking ... But I know own a flute ...
Let me tell you what happened. A couple of weeks ago, I was on ebay. I haven't been on ebay in maybe 10-11 months. I was looking around, not planning on buying anything ... And yet, somehow I found a flute, at a great price, and I bid ... And I won.
Now, I have played the flute. A couple of years ago ... Ok, about 5 years ago ... Wow, has it been 8 years since I've played a flute?!
It arrived yesterday. I also purchased a how to play the flute book, which arrived at the end of last week. It was fantastically helpful for those few days before the flute arrived ... *lol* So last night, I put the flute together, and played around a bit. I was tooting away last night, and looked at the clock, only to realise it was 11:45 p.m. Yup, bet the bloke next door is THRILLED that I now own a flute!
Anyway. I've figured out how to play B, C, G, and I'm working on D. A hates me. I cannot get A. Today, I managed to get out an A note, and then I went to turn a page of my book and ... I lost it.
Oops.
I was playing before, and so unimpressed by my wonderful musical talents was my rabbit, who when I looked over at him, was fast asleep. Great. Thanks for being such an attentive audience, Buckley!
Anyway. We'll see how it goes. Maybe one day I'll actually be able to play music on it. At the moment I'm just playing individual notes, occasionally putting them together. It's a lot of fun :-)
*****
3. Work. Well.
It's not going great.
Not so much personally. I'm actually enjoying it at the moment - I'm talking to my boss about stuff more - like when I'm not feeling great, etc. I'm not taking it personally when she has a go at me about something stupid. I know I haven't done anything wrong and she's just stressed. It doesn't matter to me anymore.
But on Monday my boss told me that she wants to sell the business, or just close it down if she can't sell it. It's not likely that she will be able to sell it because it's not making any money. We're very, very quiet, and my boss is losing more and more money. And it doesn't look like things are going to get any better, so I guess it's makes sense that she wants to get out.
Heather and I have already talked about my job - which will no longer exist if there's no kiosk. She's willing to put me in the cafe or in their other business (which is in the middle of Bendigo), which is amazing of her and I do appreciate it. I was thinking of maybe looking for something else though, and maybe staying at the cafe part-time. The reality is, my back is fucked. I can barely work a full day, and I only get through an 8 hour shift by taking 2 very strong painkillers. I'm working on doing something about my back (more about that next) but I think that by changing jobs to something a little less physically demanding - where I'm not on my feet 8 hours a day, and not lifting/bending all day - would help a lot. However, I love the environment of the cafe/kiosk, and I have fun out there. I love going to work because I know I'm going to have a laugh with the girls, and I'm going to have some fun during the day. We make a great team, and I would miss that.
At the moment though, it's just a waiting game. Waiting to see if the business sells/gets closed down, waiting to see what happens with my back, waiting to see what happens with the cafe, waiting, waiting, waiting ...
*****
4. Yesterday, I got a lot done. Some housework. Went to visit Ang. Got to hang out with my gorgeous godson for a while. Picked up my flute from the Post Office. Paid some bills.
Finally got around to having my x-ray.
Last week, when I went to the doctor, she gave me a referral for an x-ray. She wants to find out exactly what's going on with my back. Since then, I haven't had a chance to get it done.
But yesterday, Chrissie and I headed up to Medical Imaging at the BHCG to get it done. Thankfully, you can just walk in to get x-rays done here. You don't have to make an appointment, which is great. Usually there's a wait, but it's not normally too long.
Yesterday, they had the cricket on in the waiting room! Score!
Sadly, Australia wasn't playing, which was a bummer, but there is no such thing as bad cricket, so I settled myself in for the wait, and glued my eyes to the screen.
Christine, who has no interest in cricket, started reading Beauty And The Beast, out loud, until I moved three seats down and she begged me to come back.
I got to see maybe twenty minutes of cricket before the x-ray tech/nurse chick (who had the most hilarious English accent ever!), called my name.
The x-ray took a little longer than I thought.
Three times the tech told me she was done. Three times I got up and got dressed, only to be told that she just had to take another couple. Three times I got undressed and back into the little gown.
Apparently, I have a "deceivingly long spine". Huh. Didn't know that, thanks for letting me know.
And of course, the problem is actually at the bottom of my back/lower back, so she kind of needed those x-rays!
Anyway, I go to the doctor on Friday for my results, so hopefully the x-ray will show something that easy enough to fix.
I have actually started to organise physio, because that should help - I have made an appointment with a guy in Echuca who's meant to be a miracle worker. He's so good, I can't get an appointment until the 26th! I'm working on something before then, there's apparently a clinic in Bendigo that's also great, but I need a referral from my doctor to go there, so I'll get one on Friday. I'm still in pain daily, tired all the time, with a constant headache, but I'm trying to fix things, and I have hope that something has to work soon, right?! :-)
*****
5.
Dear Joey.
Hey.
I know we've never met, but I feel like I can call you Joey. Hope that's cool.
Firstly, I want to say Congrats. Read your book, and It. Was. Awesome.
I didn't think that it would be as good as it was. With all the press surrounding it, and everything that came out when the book was released, I'm not sure what I thought it would be, but I wasn't expecting something that honest, and open.
So, Kudos to you.
Anyway. I wanted to say thanks. Thanks ever-so-much for the embarrassing moment I had earlier that I'm blaming on you.
Tonight, I went for a walk. I had my ipod with me, and I'd just started listening to the Meshel, Ash and Kip - with Luttsy - Podcast. You would know of Meshel, Ash and Kip with Luttsy, wouldn't you Joey? Considering you talked to them on air this morning? Remember that?
Remember the fucking hilarious story you told?
And the one liner about your mum having a hand in your grand final win? (Which, by the way, is totally making me crack up again right now!)
So, I'm walking along, just about pissing myself laughing. Which should be embarrassing, but I do that on a daily basis, so whatever.
I start laughing so hard, I lose track of where I am.
And I don't hear the guy on a bike, right behind me on the footpath, ringing his bell to warn me he's RIGHT BEHIND ME!
In a tangle of arms, legs and wheels, I get taken down.
So, thanks Joey. Really appreciate it!
Yours sincerely,
The World's Biggest Idiot.
No comments:
Post a Comment