Oversharing and track-pants-wearing.

My brain isn't really in a blogging place these days. Work is busy (today I've been trying to work with dimensions in inches, and saying the word "fricking" in my head a lot), the morning sun is reducing my sleep, THE WEDDINGS loom always on my horizon with threats of things I should do, and I know my hormones are starting to work against me. Everything is off balance. I'm waiting to return to my normal state of complaisance, when happy bizarre blogging will resume.

Into this vulnerable state have come two weird dreams two nights in a row. They were weird in the way dreams always are weird—strange familiar unreal places and people and trouble and searching and birds. But both dreams also had the same intense emotional high, a feeling of comfort and security. So now my real world emotions feel flat in comparison, and I wish I could have that safe loved hyper-feeling again. It's hard enough doing this single woman in the city thing without dream sabotage. So I: a) prayed about it and b) wore track-pants to work.

Jillian: the push-up challenge.

I was quiet excited a few weeks ago to be able to go from knee push ups to real push ups, until I showed my brother. He said "it's not a real push up if you lie down in between each one. Stay off the ground the whole time and only touch it with your nose." This was crushing news, and I almost lost heart. No matter how hard I try, and sometimes I try harder than others, I can't keep my lower body off the ground when I bend my arms.

So now here I am 2 days from challenge deadline, and I haven't done 2 push ups in a row without my knees dropping to the ground in between for a rest.

However, recognition is still due. A and I have built up to the entire 7 circuits! We have different areas of strength. I cope better with the crunches, she does better with the planks.

So tomorrow is maybe my last chance to do a push up...

Finished!

I had an amazingly productive weekend with my flatmate away and the place to myself on Saturday.

I finished this painting. I'm calling it finished, but I actually have to touch up the purple.

I finished my 2 capes! Not bad, I think, each cape cost under $10, there was not much work involved, and if we bridesmaids are cold and need matching warmth, capes will be handy and awesome. I'd rather spend $10 on a cape I'll wear once than more money on some formal jacket I'll wear once.

I packed my wedding stuff into my suitcase so that nothing is forgotten. Other than the shoes, which I am still wearing around the office. But I think it's soring up my sprained ankle, so I'm going to rest them now.
I mopped the floors.
I finished building my 4 Ikea stools.

I didn't finish, but made nice progress, on my 1980s dress. I think it's looking weird. That's the way it sometimes goes with sewing.

I finished reading Death in the Clouds. I was wrong, it wasn't the doctor with the flute. It was the dentist :(
I also finished an entire packet of pineapple hunks. They were delicious.

Dentist day.

Had my teeth cleaned today, pre weddings. I've let the evidence of black tea and dark chocolate build up for a while. With the white wire from the orthodontist, it's now as good as they're going to get. I have abstained from tea and chocolate today, in respect of my new almost-whiteness.

My dentist is at Rosebery. Whenever I go there, I think how much I like Rosebery. There is a nice row of little shops, including the place I always buy pear and raspberry bread as a dentist reward. The north side of Gardeners Rd has wide streets, like a country town. The houses are federation, and it's a fairly old greek neighbourhood so there is a lot of white rendering and fruit trees. Plus good public transport. If money was no object, Rosebery would be right up there. Mmm... pear and raspberry bread.

Oh joy!

I have bought a rolling pin! It is old (50 yrs), cute (red handles) and functional (it's the spinny sort, not the fixed handle sort). I love it quite a lot. It was $20, the most expensive of all the rolling pins in the junk shop, but by far the best, in fact the best rolling pin I have ever seen in my life ever.

I also brought home from my parents their fondue set and a 2nd hand george foreman grill. I really don't have room for these, but they are free and useful. I hope I use them.

Also in Morpeth I bought some old Little Golden Books, 3 for $5. I bought them for the pictures, to use for making cards, decoupage, etc, but I know it will have to be a very impressive craft for me to  cut up these books. The paper is all soft and old and the colours are really saturated. I think I want to frame them, in fact. So cute.

My parents are very proud of their garden at the moment. They aren't gardeners, as a rule, but now their kids have gone they a) don't have kids to do the gardening and b) don't have kids to distract them. Carol and I helped Mum choose and plant 3 grevilleas, and I picked a big posy of sweet peas. The sweet peas were glorious. I love the smell. And I baked bread, and it turned out well.

Songs in my head.

I think I'll start posting fragments of songs which are going through my head a lot. Here are 5 I'm shuffling through at the moment.

Whoa oh oh, oh oh oh.
All the single ladies, all the single ladies.
(because of the Sara Bareilles cover)

Things are not
perfect
in our yard.

Oh if no-one ever marries me,
and I don't see why they should,
Nurse says I'm not pretty
and you know I'm seldom good, seldom good.

Well did you ever? What a swell party this is.

We were raised
in the nettles,
and they showed us
how they grow.

Nice photos from weekend.

R U OK day sky writing. I love all sky writing.

These are the flower displays at DJs in the city. Note the people taking photos, like I am.

What are these fluffy ones?

Dessert made by Jess Jo.

Me and others doing (I think) "gorgeous geisha" pose. Jess Jo is taking the photo so isn't in the pic. What an awesome blue colour palette we make, total accident.

Bracesupdate.

Looking at my teeth on Sunday morning, frowning:

I think that gap has actually gotten BIGGER.

Oh, no wonder, there's nothing but a rubber band attached to it.

Hmm, isn't there supposed to be a spring? Is there a spring? Anywhere? There's the screw, I don't see a spring.

No, the spring has gone. I wonder when that happened.

I've probably eaten it.

I am Bridesmaidzilla.

I think I need a bridesmaidmaid.

Review: Twenty-something.

I was keen to watch it. It was good. One of those things written and acted by the same little team. It reminds me of Spaced, which Simon Pegg and team wrote and acted in. Very similar subject matter, too (Spaced is not about space, take it from me). A lot of Melbourne hipster style (polka dot dresses, bike with basket). It was VERY perceptive, savagely so. I don't think I'm like them at all, but I could totally see the reality. The Jess character is scary but true: she thinks she only just left school and doesn't realise she's wasted so much time, she speaks her mind, she thinks hard work is unfair. She is a walking talking sense of entitlement. The Josh character is her follower, happy to drift in her wake. Although I mostly enjoyed the show quietly in my own head, I laughed out loud once, when Jess said "They're serving dip from a hollowed-out cob loaf, this party is going nowhere." because I love those cob dips, they do set a certain tone at a social event.