List 16: Things I'm Grateful For This Week

1. Lots and lots of books and reading


2. Inspiration and writing


3. Lazing around the house


4. Online orders arriving! Meaning: Eclipse DVD (I cringe when I watch it but I still love it) and BEAR GRYLLS AUTOBIOGRAPHY (among other things)!!!! So excited :D.


5. Family friends we haven't seen in a while


6. The rain (yes, even though my house may have leaked, I still love the rain)

I just realised it's 26 days until I leave. O. M. F. G.
What are you grateful for this week?

Sepia

Image courtesy of Chris Button here

The overwhelming colour of orange attacked my irises as I walked along the bridge. Orange from the sinking ball of fire, tinting the sky a dirty shade of copper as it refracted off the dust in the air. The yellow-orange from the headlights of cars passing by bathed me in a spotlight of over-exposed sepia as they drove past, their car horns cutting through the music from my headphones at irregular intervals.

The air was warm and violent as the cars raced by, providing my locks with an excuse for its bad hair day. I inhaled, noting the mixture of salt, sea breeze, exhaust and heated steel, a smell I was familiar with. It reminded me of grandpa who used to work as a maintenance man for the bridge. He always used to smell of grease, exhaust from all the cars that went by and the salty harbour that the bridge crossed.

I’d come here often and watch as the sky turned from blue to pink to purple to black. But today the sky was gold. Like grandpa’s work and sun beaten hands and his favourite colour; a burnt ochre that reminded him of the red desert. I would come here often and forget about the cars speeding past, the light fading fast and just take in the smells. I’d come here often because it smelt like grandpa.

List 15: Things I'm Grateful For This Week

1. Friends and cake.


2. Being able to still buy clothing from the children's section. Yeah.


3. My dance family <3.


4. Hot tea to make things just a little bit better.


5. Live acoustic music in a room filled with candles, rugs and friends on a rainy night. Pure love.


6. Discovering and supporting beautiful local music.


7. Surviving the week despite my insane lack of sleep.


8. My dad - Happy Father's Day (in everywhere else but Australia)!

What are you grateful for?

Doing What You Love

Tonight was the Stu Larsen: Ryeford gig. It was organised by Hopeful Productions and I volunteer with them.

I got asked a couple of times tonight if I worked for Hopeful Productions to which I replied with no, I was just volunteering. Later on, I was talking to one half of one of the support acts (see Alex and Ross Conradie) and I, again, got asked if I worked for Hopeful Productions. I said no and mentioned how the things I do for free are the things I love doing and the things I get paid to do are the things I find meh.

Examples: Graphic design work for Skye and volunteering for Hopeful. Previously, all the design work I'd done for Skye had been free of charge and I had absolutely no problem with that (only this year did she pay me for the work I did for PLC, after she'd left WBC). I was totally fine with working on the designs instead of studying for my exams and only getting a boquet of flowers in return (if even). My sister asked me how I liked what I did for Hopeful and honestly, I love it. I really, really enjoy helping them and it doesn't matter that I do it for free. I could not care less about that.

I think part of the reason that I like doing what I mentioned above is because I'm helping them. I realised a long time ago that I just want to help people. I want to intern at To Write Love On Her Arms because I want to help people when they most need someone, I want to be able to give them the support and comfort that I never got. I want to go on mission trips and help those in need. I remember when the Haiti earthquakes happened, all I wanted to do was go over and help. They showed all those images of those poor children who had been abandoned (not just specifically with the Haiti earthquakes but anything - Hurricane Katrina, Japan and New Zealand earthquakes) and all I can think of is how those poor children shouldn't have to be in that position. They're children and they shouldn't have to go through that. I just wanted to help them and hug them. But I digress majorly. My brain isn't functioning properly right now.

Find me a job where I can help others and I will be happy with it. That's what I love doing - helping others. Whether it's just being there when someone needs somebody to listen or helping run an event or going over choreography with someone; I just want to give to the community. It's not even a "give back" to the community, it's just a give. I don't want to do something in return, I just want to do something. Change the world, make it better.

I'm so sorry if this post makes zilch sense (I'm reading it back and it makes hardly any sense to me), I've just been thinking about it since I said it and I had to get it off my chest. I have gotten little to no sleep in the last few days (try 2 and 4am on consecutive nights and it's also currently 2:30am), I guess I'm back to being a partial insomniac again.

Bottom line: I want to help people. I am happy when I help people. I want to make others happy by helping them. I feel useful and worthy when I help people. I feel like I'm making a difference, even if it's just a small one. I want to change the world and make it better place for others.

Please check out Hopeful Productions at http://hopefulproductions.tumblr.com/ and support them.

Thanks and goodnight.

List 14: Things I'm Grateful For This Week

1. The funds to buy what I want even though I don't have a job (how that is possible, I don't know).


2. UFC on free-to-air. You don't know how thankful I am for that, even though they show the fights not in order and The Ultimate Fighter is about a billion seasons behind.


3. Open Till Midnight quoting Robert Frost. My heart fell in love.


4. Doctor Who. OMFGWTFBBQ. That's all I can say.

To be perfectly honest, it's getting harder and harder to put blog posts up and keep this up each week. I'm just getting so lazy and uninspired. And now that uni's over I just want to sit around reading and stretching all day. Yeah, stretch... I miss being flexible.

That and because I'm getting ready to leave, all I can think about is my trip and the posts I'm going to do for my other blog. Okay, rant over. We'll see how this goes.

List 13: Things I'm Grateful For This Week

1. END OF SEMESTER AND NO MORE EXAMS!


2. Getting through the semester (and that horrid unit) in basically one piece.


3. New haircut! It was time for a change and I was due for a haircut anyway. My hair looks quite different to what it used to; people actually had trouble recognising me today (people being my godsister... yeah, my godsister whom I see every week). I love my hairdresser, Max. I'm still trying to get used to my new look; I still get a bit shocked when I look at my reflection :P. At least most people seem to like it... or do they...?


4. Finally getting time to read City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare.


5. DOCTOR WHO. OMGWTFBBQ! I thought The Almost People episode was alright... until the very end! LE GASP! Shock horror! I spent pretty much the last 15 to 20 minutes of the episode crying and in shock with my mouth hanging open. I was actually having trouble breathing. I am a MASSIVE and proud Whovian, if you hadn't already guessed.


6. A FANTASTIC mark on my final monologue assessment. As mentioned in List 10, I was stressing and still trying to memorise my lines 10 minutes before I performed. Despite all that, I got an 8/10 HD mark. I was SO happy when I got Jeremy's email with my mark! I had been having a tough day so when I got that result, it made everything better. I read his email and comments (on my monologue and journal) so many times because I couldn't believe the mark or feedback he had given me.

Tomorrow's a public holiday here in Perth so I hope you have a good day (and week for that matter!), whether you have it off or not. Let me know what you're grateful for!