So many things are finishing, and so many new things beginning, I'm really feeling like I'm reaching 30 a year early (after all, isn't that when all the good stuff is supposed to start?)
I finished the swedish massage course last weekend. It was a ridiculously hot day in Sydney (apparently it peaked at about 45C) and the aircon in the classroom was struggling. Everyone was sweaty, tired, and over it. BUT we did it, I passed, and decided I probably won't go on to do the entire certificate. Doing the odd massage for friends and family is one thing, but after being paired up with a huge, hairy, stinky guy in class, I realised I really couldn't do it in a professional capacity. Plus, the entire certificate costs over $6k. I may as well just hide that money away in a high interest account.
Last night saw the end of my European History unit, which was also the last official unit in my degree. I started the degree in mid-2006 and have not had more than a week off since then. It's been hard working full time and studying full time, but it's over and I'm so much closer to my final goal, teaching. Feeling a bit lost - not sure how I'm going to cope with NOT having the stress!
I still have the exam for American Literature to go, but if I don't pass that unit, I'll just need to pick up another third year literature unit somewhere non-award. It falls outside the degree, so it doesn't matter TOO much if I don't pass it (well, that's what I keep telling myself. I haven't failed anything yet so I don't want to fail, but I also haven't read any of the three novels that the exam is on next Tuesday soooo....) Frustrating that the uni I want to do my DipEd at requires 3 level 3 literature subjects to be an English teacher, whereas the Education Department only require 2. *sigh*
Pole dancing started up again last night after a week off, and I was actually a bit bored in my level 3 class last night. I'm not a huge fan of my Wednesday night teacher, she doesn't push us at ALL, but it's a great class of girls and only a 4 week term, so it won't be too bad. Really looking forward to my Saturday class. It's still a level 3, but with the teacher I love who caters to all our individual skill levels and gives us extra stuff rather than having us bored and gossiping in a corner. I saw her last night and we're going to work on a right leg hang on Saturday (which is apparently much harder than a left leg hang... not sure why it would be much different, but I'm looking forward to finding out!) On the upside, I've pretty much nailed the inverted v now.
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There's been a little bit of stitching, my latest from Subversive Cross Stitch is below. It took about 4 hours, and was done to keep myself from abusing the hell out of my housemate's girlfriend. She managed to lock my cat in his room for an entire day (without any food, water or litter. I wish he'd taken a dump in there) when she left our place on Tuesday morning. I hate her staying over and leaving after we're all at work and not locking the place up properly when she goes, but this had me absolutely livid. We don't shut the doors in the house during the day because of the cats - she KNOWS this, I've HEARD my housemate tell her this a couple of times, I've told her this a few times, but still, she did it, and my little boy was locked in a room for 9 hours. She's lucky it wasn't as hot as the weekend, or I really would have let her have it. So, the stitching kept me away from her and stopped me saying something I'd probably (not really) regret later.
Once American Lit is over I'm going to play with creating some of my own designs. Because I'm lame like that. And I'm going to need some projects now that I'm done studying!
This will be the last crafty posting for a while... Exams have hit and I can't justify the procrastination when I have 3 novels to read for American lit and 3 essays to write on 20th century Europe.
Pic below not for those offended by the c word. I made the cushion for my high school bff (heh, I hate that... bff... I really am old!)
This was a cheapo present for a girl at work who's going on maternity leave. Font, star and swirl all taken from Stitch Graffiti by Heather Holland-Daly.
Yes, I probably should have been doing uni work or something, not stitching :)
My first attempt. Was very tempted to gift this to a work colleague!
Had a shocker at pole last night. Was really tired, struggling with the inverted sequence, and was pretty much over it and ready to go home. But then the teacher had a bright idea... "Hey, do you guys want to try a 4 star move?"
Of course I did. And I kind of did it.
I started in the left leg hang...
into the pike (which was the new move).. 
and was SUPPOSED to get back into a crucifix. 
I suspect I was supposed to grab onto something with my hands... but i didn't, and fell straight onto my head (thankfully wasn't too far from the ground, but it still hurt like hell), and then promptly went tumbling (you know, to protect the back *rolls eyes at self*) and nearly slam into the pole and girl next to me.
I kind of wish someone had taken video of it... it would have won me something on funniest home video's for sure.
So... I had decided to take next year off. Do a massage course, prepare for a full on year doing my Dip Ed.
But, the more I've thought about it (and the more weekends I've spent doing the massage course) the more I've been thinking I'm just wasting another year. THEN when I found out the massage course was going to take longer than expected, I decided to re-look at my uni options.
So I've applied for post grad. I'll do it part time, in the first year of it I'll just have to negotiate a half day off during the week, maybe one full day. If my company won't do that, then it's probably time to find a new job anyway. The second year will be cutting back even more, but I'll worry about that if/when it happens.
So far I've only applied to one uni, may apply to another one as well, but not looking likely. Cut off is Friday, and I've got a massive essay to write in that time, so I think I'll just leave it at the one and see where it takes me. I feel kinda sick!!!!
Yup, using the massage tables as desks. Weird.
This Judy Blume quiz.
This chart comparing all the different vamps. Brilliant for keeping straight who to stake and who to behead!
These awesome Twin Peaks portraits. They're inspiring me to learn to embroider!
The fact that I NAILED the inverted combo Tuesday night. Yup, no modified pansy-ass version for me at grad, I'm going to be doing the whole thing (well, I may skip the inverted v...)
First, move is the dreaded inverted v. I can usually only do it when I'm not too tired.
Next, we manouver our legs so the back of our knee holds us up, with the hip and shoulder anchoring us into place. This is the left leg hang.
Then you have to heave yourself up, and swing your right leg to the front of the pole, then attempt to straighten both legs. Wow, you're in the starfish!
You don't have to hold that for too long, next swing your right leg behind the pole and bend your left leg so it's holding on again. Let go of your right hand and you're nearly done with the leg pain... scorpio is done!
Nearly there! Next bit is kind of scary, because you're falling while only really holding on with your feet, which aren't very secure yet. Whoopsy daisy, into the crucifix. I remember when the crucifix was the hardest move in a routine... now it's the easy one you use to get out of the hard moves!
Last little bit - grab on with both hands and push away from the pole, body roll twice (or do the caterpillar!) before collapsing to the floor. Inverted sequence complete!
Now, not loving the stress of writing an essay on 2 novels I have not yet read. Blergh.
Being one of those people completely unable to read on the bus / train / in the car / anywhere other than sitting somewhere non-moving, I'm a big fan of audiobooks. I have a 2 hour commute every day, so I manage to get through a fair few.
This week I've knocked over a few short ones that have been sitting in my playlist for a while, What Happened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles and A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris.
First up, What Happened to Cass McBride.
Author: Gail Giles
Grade: A
I have no idea why I bought this one - I hadn't read about it on any other blogs, I've never heard of the author, and the cover art doesn't particularly grab me. I guess Audible had a really good write up or something. Anyway, I adored this novel.
Told from 3 points of view, Cass the beautiful, popular queen bee; Kyle Kirby, brother of David who has recently committed suicide; and Ben, the officer investigating the case. From an audio perspective, thank god they've used 3 different narrators - it's easy to keep track of who's point of view you're in (which is important, because the linear structure is all messed up, lots of flashbacks.)
Kyle has kidnapped Cass and buried her alive - this is no spoiler, he admits to this pretty much on page 1. What keeps you listening is the why of it, and whether Ben is able to find Cass before she dies. Giles has also done some very tricky characterisation - there were times when I felt for Kyle and although I personally wouldn't kidnap and bury someone alive, I could see where he was coming from. With Cass, although I knew I should be sympathetic, even in her darkest moment you could see her manipulative personality shining through. The ending has left me wanting more, I need to spend more time searching online for some discussions. It's not a happy read, very bleak, but very thought provoking. The audio was just over 3 hours, so I was able to knock it over in one day (with some sneaky listening at work while I witnessed 160 frikin documents).
Next was the latest release from Charlaine Harris, A Touch of Dead. This one is just a compilation of previously released short stories about Sookie. I enjoyed them, but honestly, one or two of them read like bad fan fic. It was good to finally read (listen) to the story where she first finds out about her cousin's relationship with the Queen and subsequent death, because back when I read whichever book follows that short story, I thought I must have missed an entire novel along the way somewhere. The rest are just extras that don't really add anything too much, there was no Eric in any of them which was a bit of a fail in my eyes, and the one where Sookie and Amelia play investigators for an insurance company? Yea, not my favourite. I give this one a C+.
Finally, I've just started in on People of the Book. Not much to say, because I've only heard about 30 mins of it so far. What did get me straight away was it was read by an Aussie! It's always really strange to hear an Aussie accent on recorded books, and it always takes me a minute or two to actually comprehend it. So, you can read an excerpt here.
Also recently read Gene of Isis by Traci Harding (follow link for excerpt). This was another one I didn't realise was written by an Aussie until I got into it and wondered why they'd made the protagonist Australian (it doesn't happen very often!) A bit DaVinci Code with a dash of Indiana Jones, I stayed up until some ungodly hour reading this, I just couldn't put it down. This one also jumps between a couple of different points of view, that of Mia, a current day Ancient Languages expert; Ashlee, a clairvoyant from the 19th century; and Lillet, a 13th century priestess. This is the first book in a trilogy, but it stands alone just fine. I have the next 2 novels waiting to be read in my summer break. Grade: A.
Also listened to the mammoth The Forest House, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I downloaded this one because I loved Mists of Avalon when I read it for uni last year, and figured this one would probably be my kind of book too. 16 hours later (yup, 16 hours... that's a hell of a long time to listen to a story!!) I liked, and I didn't. I'm not a huge fan of the audio narrator, which made it a little difficult to listen to, but I did enjoy the story well enough.
In between all of that I've been reading about 20th century Europe, and struggling through some novels for American Literature (I'm actually yet to finish one - I'm really not enjoying them!), and doing a swedish massage course, which requires a fair bit of reading and 15 hours of logged massage. *sigh* I really can't wait for the end of semester, I'm taking the summer off to cross stitch, read stuff I want to read, and watch trashy tv!
If you had to be trapped in a TV show for a month, which show would you choose?
This one is really hard for me to answer... I'd love to be in NCIS to flirt and mess with DiNozzo and hang out with Abby, but I think Ziva would be incredibly intimidating. Being in Buffy would be awesome, but chances are I'd end up dead. Any of the Stargates would be fun, but again, the chances of being killed / stuck in a faraway galaxy are way too high for me to spend an entire month there. Ditto with Battlestar.Charmed could be kind of cool, but only if I was a witch too.
I suspect the only show I could happily reside on for an entire month would be Veronica Mars. I'd help Veronica find out what the deal was with that weird college fraternity and how they're involved with the Kane family, and take advantage of all her PI access to stalk ex-boyfriends. It'd be sweet.
