good old quiet fridays...

Well, my body's telling me "Sorry Joy, but I've had it."
I've officially made it to this week's sick list. Candles are lit... I'm wearing two jumpers, and have three blankets covering my exhausted legs... and my man made me chicken & corn soup and lemon flavoured green tea for dinner today.
(So in anwer to your question Amardeep... yes I'm in love, and yes it's disguting, and yes I'm completely comfortable with it. Hah!)
Marijana (from work) got me to re-tell the "meeting the boyfriend" story during Steve's farewell & afternoon tea today. It's an odd story to tell... seeing as I find it hard to accept most of the time. What were you thinking God? Were you really weaving this plot line throughout my entire existence? Did you really know that I'd develop an enormous crush on the geek who I used to want to set up my older sister with? (I can publish that because he knows this and I tease him about it all the time). When I think about it, I laugh... at how much I denied liking the poor guy... and how much we had to hide from each other during our trip to Europe... and then how it all unfolded in the months after..

ANYWAY. Oh God, shut me up. Puke puke puke.

So... Friday night. Sick. Yuck. Hoping for a restful weekend...

It's been a killer week - short attention span and even shorter temper. In desperate desire for a looong holiday. Maybe I'll get a massage tomorrow. Pfft - yeah right.

I can only hope ay?

what day? its what??

May has been obliterated from my radar. For the past two weeks, I feel like I've been on the go non-stop, and right now I'm typing this lying down on my bed: I am absolutely knackered.
The good thing is I'm knackered but not completely down about it. I've enjoyed the last fifteen days of mayhem. The work has been enjoyable... and fruitful. And despite the permanent dark circles that now frame my naturally droopy eyes, I am.. grateful.

The bad thing is that neighbour's dog still won't shup up.

I'm trying to think of what I could write about, but the real question is, where do I even begin?
How's work? Same old, same old. Missing Sr B... and wishing I had some female company on the team. Also wishing I didn't have to re-explain myself every five minutes, but I suppose open, verbal communication was never my forte. I'm much more akin to writing things down or making things up. I've also been trained to figure things out on my own before I go nagging someone for help. Not that anyone nags... but when my mind is busy racing from one task to the next, anyone asking for anything feels like a nag.
On the bright side, I feel quite accomplished. I did a few days of filming the other week; scored some really inspiring (funny, entertaining and... unpolished) interviews from the real "modern-day-pilgrim". Also scored some really cool feedback about the video I produced from the footage filmed. Got to experience one of the biggest privileges and perks since I started working at WYD08 - and that's standing in a room full of CEOs and still being allowed to be completely genuine about every minute of my 15minute presentation (which was only accomplished thanks to the graceful and beautiful Selina Hasham).

How's the rest of your life? What is the rest of my life? I mean seriously... there isn't much going on apart from my work (which is my service, my passion, my spare time, and my hobby all rolled into one). Well, there's the boyfriend of course - can't ommit that pretty significant area of my existence. God, you sure did a good job on this guy. I should probably say thanks to his parents too... they raised a boy who is learning to be a man. And what a loving, faithful, dedicated man he is. Cliches aside, this guy's got the goods. He knows when to call, he knows when to bring over new episodes of Heroes, he knows when to surprise me with chocolate fudge brownies, how to sit through an Opera at the Concert Hall without making me feel guilty for asking him to come with me, how to make me laugh, how to prove that snuggling on the couch is the cure for any bad day, how to be there when I need support (technical, emotional, spiritual or otherwise), how to teach me what "being considerate" is... the list is growing... eternally. And I love it. Love him too, now that I think about it.

Hmm... family ain't bad either. I miss Rina, who's moved into a new place. Curious to know what life must be like for her atm. Excited for Annabelle and Chu. Falling in love with Caitlyn over and over again, and enjoying the love of her, Jean and Mark. Grateful for my Dad who supplies me with sandwiches for breakfast on my way to work. Wondering if my Mum will ever engage in a conversation with me that doesn't involve my feeling guilty for something. Enjoying Roanne's thoughts and conversations in the bathroom. I love'em all... but hardly see them.

Randomly... I've been into candles lately. Well... I developed my love for candles a while ago, and the use of them peaked last year - especially during my long bath session at CYS house. These days I find myself lighting one or two just before I go to sleep... I spend a few moments just staring into the flame. I still think about last year's "candle revelation" - how such a small object can still be a vehicle for such awesome power.

A candle must yield in order to contain a flame. It's gotta be willing to get burned.

In many ways I've wondered how willing I am to surrender. Can I do what Abraham did and sacrifice my Isaac? Can I be as humble and obedient as Noah to the point of ridicule? Can I accept grace as David did in the midst of his mistakes? Can I live as Mary lived, existing solely for the glory of Christ, to the point of Calvary and beyond?

Who knows. Only time can tell.

And this thing called "time"... oh my, how it rushes by.

waiting waiting waiting...

Computers... God love 'em. My boyfriend sure does, but I'm not sure I'm inclined to give them the same level of affection. Perhaps it's me, and not the computer, but I'm telling you my laptop always decides to slow down the day before a 9am deadline.

And that's what I've got, ladies and gentlemen; a 9am deadline.

To equip me for this wonderful all-nighter that I am destined to pull (yet again), beside me lies a jar of Nutella, a box full of Lindt chocolates (God bless Edwin), a bag of almonds, and a bottle of Coke. (and today's $289 splurge on a WACOM graphics tablet... yeah!)

And no, I'm not procrastinating. I'm trying to get a DVD burnt for Mark (whose birthday happens to be today).. and the RAM on this HP is slowly fizzing away, purring into its usual status: a crawl.

On a much more positive note, I think I'm slowly easing out of this rut. I'm a bit apprehensive about writing that, since I'm prone to jinxing myself... but enough of that pagan rubbish. No jinxes here: God's infinite mercy and grace is at work.

Eeecckkkkshhhh... I'm beginning to cringe at my own Christian jargon. I don't mean to say that as if my words are empty... but I wish there were better ways of expressing just what it is that God is doing in my life. I guess the problem is it's still all a mystery to me... which is probably the reason why I can't effectively write about it. Give me a month or two... I'll look back in retrospect and know why I had to get dragged through what feels like a year worth of *!^(!*#. Can't preach about it til you've experienced it I suppose.

On the work note... time is ticking away... and I don't feel any closer to having finished this video. Why is that?

Hmmm... what to type, what to type?

Well... I had a pretty awesome weekend. Had a tear or two on Saturday night... (exhaustion gets me so emotional - I hate it), but all in all, it was great.

:: Watched Guy Sebastian at the Opera House on Friday night with Eddoes... he bought me the tickets as a surprise after I'd said I was way too broke to afford tickets to the show. And I luuuurved it!! Not only did I sit there letting the Philharmonic Orchestra seduce my eardrums, Guy Sebastians voice made me melt in my seat! Poor Eddoes... had to sit there listening to me sigh with admiration as my favourite Aussie Idol blew me away with gospel songs, all his top album hits, and his unbelievably romantic tributes to Nat King Cole... my hope is I'll meet him in a few months and ask him to sing at my wedding... (hold on.. what wedding?)

:: Saturday morning... drove to Sizzler in Carramar with Ivy, Cheche and Nina, and the rest of Edwin's family. Stuffed my face with steak, salt & pepper calamari and mashed potato... :)

:: Saturday afternoon was a fun and fulfilling WYD Presentation with the CWL - all of which were supportive and absolutely beautiful. God bless them... they won't know just how thankful I am for making me feel like my job was worth doing - even if it meant missing dessert at my boyfriend's birthday lunch, just to get to the venue on time.

:: Saturday night - Roanne & Nina ventured to Hordern Pav to watch Dave Matthew Band, while Eddoes & I scored free ice-cream and coke at the Entertainment Quarter before we watched Spiderman 3. Awesome movie, nice company... and much like the night before, I fell into deep sleep on the drive home.

:: Sunday - a sweet and thoroughly entertaining celebration of Jonna & Redell's engagement. Those two are so sickeningly in love it's gorgeous! And the advice that all the people wrote on their boards was pretty good... (might apply it all now, even though I'm no where near getting married). Catching up with the usual YFC/SFC crowd was good fun - it always is with Ian, Nez, Sav, Edz, Tree, Mary, Aimelle, EJ, Harry, Ryan, Jane... hmmm... there's a hellavalot of people I've forgotten to list - but I'm sure you won't get offended.

:: Sunday night - a sad but uplifting moment.. seeing hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of people from our Parish Community stick around after Mass to farewell the best priest of all time: Fr Warren Edwards. No joke.. this is the man that introduced me to a full and profound appreciation for our Church, God's clergy, and everything I've learned about youth ministry in the last 4 years. He is unbelievably passionate, down-to-earth, holy, real and one of the most sefless men of God I've met. I could go on and on and on about what type of love he deserves... but not here: he deserves to hear/see it.

I'll just say it was great to see SPY again - it always is. They make me laugh, give me hugs, witness God's love in his young people... *sigh* if I could've stay 20 and been a parish youth worker all my life, I probably would've - it's by far that best job I think I'll ever have...

And that concluded what was a pretty eventful and awesome weekend...

Oh.. and the DVD's done! Woohoo!