day 18. plans/dreams/goals you have

i used to have a lot more plans than i have now. right now my plans go as far as a week away... at most. which is good and bad, because i'm not so good at saving money anymore.
i plan to prepare for the snow to arrive by making my legs and core strong.

i dream of improving my riding skills this winter, and riding 4 days a week. i dream of finding a sweet little place to live with mitch and nicole for winter. i dream of getting cheap secondhand boots so i don't have to spend $200 + on new ones.

my goal for october is not to drink. excepting my birthday and halloween.

day 17. someone you would want to switch lives with for a day and why.

i actually quite like my life. i have a job i like, i have great housemates and lots of friends i like. i have a nice place to live, and in 2 months i will be going snowboarding, which i love.

the only thing i'd like is some occasional sex. but not enough to switch lives with someone.

i guess if there was someone out there who was paid to snowboard because she was so awesome, owned a car, had some cute guy who wasn't her boyfriend but who was easy...

i guess i'd probably be her for a day... one amazing powder day.

day 16. another picture of yourself.

mum took this when we were on the peak to peak, when she came to visit me this summer.

i love my mum.

day 15. put your ipod on shuffle: first ten songs that play.

1. aladdin sane- bowie
2. to bring you my love- paul kelly
3. jump n shout- basement jaxx
4. in my veins- andrew belle
5. all i ask- crowded house
6. dear someone- gillian welch
7. so what- pink
8. girl- the beatles
9. time to pretend- MGMT
10. no lies, just love- bright eyes

day 14. a picture of you and your family.

my whistler family :D

day 13. a letter to someone who has hurt you recently

tricky, but here goes:

(it may be a little angry, probably more angry than hurt)

to whom it may concern:
a person shouldn't fly across the world for another person who thinks they are going to have a special and important week together if that person has actually been seeing someone else for the past 2 months.

because it hurts to hope, especially when you believe you are hoping with good reason, and to have the hope crushed.

mostly i don't care, but then now and then i get quite angry.

day 12. how you found out about blogger and why you made one

ellie had a blog for years. i read it fairly often, then didnt have the internet and didnt read it for ages, then got the internet and read it most days. which i hope ellie knows.

one time i commented to ellie that maybe i should have a blog, and she said to me 'yes but nothing exciting ever happens to you'. so i decided not to get one. it wasn't that awesome to be told by my best friend that my life was boring, but i was old and married, and she was right.

then i moved away and everything changed, shall we say, got more interesting, and one night i discovered indea my stepsister had a blog, and her friend gaby also had one, and i liked them. so i decided it was time.

it was meant to be about awesome things i scored from the thrift store i work at, interspersed with introspective bullshit, but it's sort of side-tracked into enjoyable sludge.

i like blogging. it's comfy.

day 11. another picture of you and your friends

yup i know it's 2 photos but i couldn't choose. i was looking at photos from my melbourne farewell. back when i thought i was only leaving for 6 months.
way back then.

a very small rant about my job, and people, and community service

so i've had a few interactions with "customers" in the past week or so that have left me a little grumpy. probably annoyingly self-righteous too.

i work for community services, at their thrift store. the thrift store is responsible for over 80% of the funding for over 30 programs running in our area. these are programs such as youth outreach, food bank, the greenhouse project, kidsport, support networks for senior citizens, whistler survival guide... those are the big ones. we support more than 15 families in the area, helping them with rent, food, education, clothing... www.mywcss.org

our store runs on donations made by the community. we sort and price everything and it goes for sale. sure, i get paid, but there are a lot of volunteers putting in hours too, cleaning, sorting and organizing. 2 times a year myself and my manager drive to vancouver to compare the prices of other thrift stores with our store. some of the salvation army stores charge up to $400 for a bed. we charge $40 for the same set-up. likewise for books, clothes, linen.

so when a customer asks me to the furniture section for a price, then reacts by saying to their friend, "see, i told you this place screws you", when i have just asked for $30 for a $200 table, when the money is not going into my pocket but into the hands of people who need it, well, that's when i have to bite my tongue. which of course i do, because i am good at my job.

i guess what i mean is, people, not to be all touchy-feely, but love each other. help each other out.

please.

day 10. songs you listen to when you're: happy, sad, mad, hyped, bored.

happy: 'the underdog' by spoon. 'bonkers' and 'dance wiv me' by dizzee rascal. '1901' by phoenix.

sad: '3 rounds and a sound' by blind pilot. 'cosmic love' by florence and the machine. 'sideways' by citizen cope. 'winter song' by sara bareilles and ingrid michaelson

mad: never stay mad very long. probably something from "happy" or "hyped" in an attempt to distract myself.

hyped: '15 step' by radiohead. any of urthboy's back catalogue. ditto bliss n eso. such good riding music. riding is when i'm hyped. stoked in fact.

bored: pop music, currently beyonce, and that song 'dynamite' by taio cruz.
and so many more. so freekin many more.

day 09. something you're proud of in the past few days

i have not succumbed to the urge to do anything naughty.
i have stayed in.

sounds small, but damn it's hard to be good sometimes.

day 08. short term goals for this month.

the month is half done for fucks sake

• start getting winter leg muscles
• purge self of clothes (summer is over man, so over)
• watch season 2 and 3 of gossip girl
• save $500 more for ski pass
• find more music from local natives- new favourite band
• put together september playlist before september is over
• learn 2 new songs on guitar
• drink less. or at least, spend less drinking.

perhaps also dye hair. not sure.
this is local natives:

day 07. a picture of someone/something that has had a big impact on you.

i think really for me, the biggest impacting factors in my life have been books and music.

so many great amazing examples, but i've been thinking carefully to track it back:

the first books i read that made me cry. i got so depressed in the 3rd one when robyn killed herself to save the others that i cried all weekend.

the realisation that someone can create something fictional that draws you in, makes you attached to the characters to the point where losing them is like losing real friends... that definitely had a big impact on me. they're hardly award-winning prose, but i loved them. they're also the first books i was told i wasn't allowed to read because i wasn't old enough yet. obviously i thought 'screw that' and read them anyway.

it made me want to write, to create characters that other people get attached to. i don't know how i would go killing people off, but it's something i really want to try, writing to capture my audience... that's why i want to write teen fiction. i want to move people the way i was moved by these books.

and OK computer is my musical 'big impact'.

i think i was 16. i bought this album in tamworth while mum and i were on a shopping trip.

i bought it because a boy i liked told me radiohead were his favourite band, and i wanted to know more about him by listening to music he liked. it was rainy and we drove back to kentucky and i put it on in the car and it blew my freekin mind.

listening to radiohead opened me up to all sorts of different music, because radiohead taught me that sometimes you have to persist with music, to let it grow on you, so you can hear all the parts, the hidden bits...

and that's the story behind that.

day 06. a favourite super hero and why.

i had a think about it and i guess it has to be batman. several reasons.

• he's just an ordinary guy with no superpowers, but lots of amazing gadgets, and the will to put himself out there, protect gotham from evil...
• he has a deep batman-style voice
• he's a romantic
• he has a good sense of humour, even if it only appears now and then
• they've had great picks for batmans in the movies... excepting michael keaton, but i'm sure he was hot in the 80s/90s, he's just not my type.

i also feel his costume is one of the best ones. i love superman but can never get my head around the concept that he just puts on his glasses and becomes clark kent. i like batman's mask, his cape and his symbol most of all.

however, while finding a batman pic on google, i found this, and i think she is probably my new favourite superhero:

day 05. a picture of somewhere you've been to.

the top of flute, with mitchy and shani, 2 crazy kiwi gals. we hiked up and we rode down in the powdery goodness.

i chose this one because i've been thinking a lot about upcoming winter season and all the things i want to do...

day 04. a habit you wish you didnt have.

i over-think everything.

the pro with this quality is that i write really good essays.

the cons include:
boys i'm interested in hitting the friend zone
not being able to fall asleep
not noticing things right in front of me, or enjoying experiences because i'm about 24 hours ahead of myself

i've been working on it, that's why i moved to canada, that's why i drink and party more than i ever did at home, that's why i love snowboarding, that's why i went bungee jumping.

to escape my over-active brain.

it's a habit i really wish i didn't have.

day 03. a picture of you and your friends.

i love bec and nat. they are good quality pals. they're whistler buddies that i will actually make an effort to see when i get back to australia. they met here, and love each other lots. which gives me hope, but that is not the point really.

the point is that they're leaving in about a week, and i love them both, and yesterday i went bungee jumping with them which was freekin awesome... so they're pretty special now.

love.

day o2. the meaning behind your name.

Helen:

most websites say it means 'light' ... not sure about that, but helen was the one that the whole troy war thingo was about. so i like that. i'm down with the ancient greece.

i like my name. i did go through a brief phase when i was about 6 when i wished my name was tiffany. but i was wearing a lot of pink at the time, y'know?

i don't know any other helen's particularly well. so i pretend i'm the only real helen.

and that's all.

day 01. a recent picture of yourself and 15 interesting facts about yourself.

1. i love hiphop music: bliss n eso, urthboy, eminem, pez. would like to hear more female artists.
2. i rescue books from the recycling where i work all the time. someone has to love them.
3. i hate the sound of tape coming out of a dispenser.
4. sometimes, after skyping with one of my beloveds back in aus, i lay in bed and think about impluse-buying a ticket home.
5. when i was 11 mum bought me and my brothers a gameboy to share, and i was the first one of us to clock Super Mario
6. i am more irresponsible with money than anyone knows, but i always have enough money to eat, so i manage to justify everything.
7. i secretly think that by 25, a person should at least have a vague idea of what they want from their life, but i'm 25 in october and i haven't a clue.
8. when either of my brothers mentions music they like, i download it immediately. because i always end up loving it. because i have brothers with great taste.
9. i've only ever been sick 4 times from drinking too much.
10. now i live in canada i swear a lot more
11. i bite my fingernails and probably will for the rest of my life, because i don't care that much about it. also, my mum still bites hers and since she's the only one i don't want to disappoint, there's no motivation there.
12. i never ever go anywhere without my ipod. i make a playlist every month.
13. i cannot walk in highheels.
14. i like drinking and playing cards.
15. i never used to believe in anything, but now i believe in karma.

a new project stolen from gaby who stole it from laura... but i don't know who laura stole it from

i want to do this, for something different for a month:

day 01. a recent picture of yourself and 15 interesting facts about yourself.
day o2. the meaning behind your name.
day 03. a picture of you and your friends.
day 04. a habit you wish you didnt have.
day 05. a picture of somewhere you've been to.
day 06. a favourite super hero and why.
day 07. a picture of someone/something that has had a big impact on you.
day 08. short term goals for this month.
day 09. something your proud of in the past few days
day 10. songs you listen to when your: happy, sad, mad, hyped, bored.
day 11. another picture of you and your friends.
day 12. how you found out about blogger and why you made one.
day 13. a letter to someone who has hurt you recently.
day 14. a picture of you and your family.
day 15. put your ipod on shuffle: first ten songs that play.
day 16. another picture of yourself.
day 17. someone you would want to switch lives with for a day and why.
day 18. plans/dreams/goals you have.
day 19. nicknames you have, why you have them.
day 20. someone you see yourself being with/marrying in the future.
day 21. a picture of something that makes you happy.
day 22. what makes you differnt from everyone else
day 23. something you crave for alot.
day 24. a letter to you parents.
day 25. what i would find in your bag
day 26. what you think about your friends.
day 27. why are you doing this thirty day challenge.
day 28. a picture of you last year, and now. how have you changed since.
day 29. in this past month, what have you learned.
day 30. who are you?