Happy Anniversary to Me!

Okay, so technically yesterday was my anniversary, but I'm always behind. ;) Yesterday, the 10th of January, was my 4 year anniversary of the first time I ever arrived in Australia. Yes, indeed, I first stepped on to Australian ground on January 10th, 1998. Four years ago! Can't believe it. Crazy, huh? Funnily enough, Kristen and I went to Broadway to get a few things (she and I are still sick as dogs and I actually had to take the day off from work today because I didn't sleep at all last night due to my horrible coughing fits) and we were crossing the street I looked behind us to see a big group of young-20-looking-somethings. I thought I heard Yankee accents. I immediately turned around and said to the "leader," - "Hey, are you guys on the B.U. program?" She looked surprised but said that they were. She was the one of the Resident's Assistants. I explained by saying I was on the B.U. program in '98. I just wanted to take the kids aside and tell them all the REAL places to go. The best restaurants, places for live music, places to travel etc. I remember that when I was doing the program in 1998, the previous students gave us crappy advice on where to go. They told us to go to Scruffy Murphy's for pete's sake! Bad, bad, bad. I'm going to call Kerry and Kevin, who run the program, and ask them if I can come speak to the little students and tell them the real places to go!

Quarter Acre is playing at Club 77 tonight and the Bacardi Festival is happening at Darling Harbour, but considering how I'm feeling I just want to stay in and go to bed with my box of kleenex and cough drops. Funnily enough I ran into Andrew from Quarter Acre tonight at Broadway. It's a small small world after all!

On a positive note, I treated myself to CDs that were on sale today. They were like 50% off. I got Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes which is my favourite CD of hers. I've only ever had it on cassette tape, so since it was like $12, I had to get it. I finally got The Strokes Is This It? (for half price!) so I can give my friend her CD back now. And finally, no purchase would be complete without a bit of 80s nostalgia. I actually bought Heart's Greatest Hits featuring gems like "What About Love," "If Looks Could Kill," "Never," "These Dreams," "Alone," "There's the Girl," "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You" etc. These songs came out when I was like 8 and 9 years-old and they were actually a big influence on my attempts at arty love songwriting when I was 8-11 years old. If only I could have sung like the Wilson sisters. It was funny because I was just talking about them last night. We were discussing the Singles soundtrack and I was saying how I loved the Lovemonger's of the Led Zep song, "Battle of Evermore" and I said, "Hey, you know who the Lovemongers are? Those are the sisters from Heart!" And lo and behold, I find their greatest hits today. Too funny.

Off to cough!

The Inconvenient Convenience Store

So it finally happened. The guy who runs the convenience store near work finally asked me out today. I knew it was going to happen. He's been flirting with me for months and always tries to give me something free with every purchase, like a pack of gum or a chocolate or something. I always try to say no or give it back, but he just slips it into the bag. It's funny because he tries to be nonchalant about it, but everyone in line behind me can totally see him throwing in an extra bit of something. They look at me like, "Why does she get special treatment? Hmmmphhh!" Anyhoo, he always asks me what time I get out of work that night and I always say, "Oh, really late!" I didn't want to go in the store today, but I needed a phone card and there were no other options. So today he asked me out for coffee. I was about to say I had plans with my non-existent boyfriend, but just after I said, "Sorry, I have plans...." someone interrupted and I just yelled, "See ya!" and ski-daddled. He's the type of guy that would argue with me and try to convince me to go for coffee despite of a pesky boyfriend. I feel bad, next time I'll finish my sentence and somehow imply that my non-existent boyfriend is big and musce-ly and insanely jealous ;)

I'm a hacker, baby

I thought everyone would be glad to know that I am now officially a hacker. Not a computer hacker, but a coughing hacker. My co-workers must hate me. I spent 90% of the day coughing a lot. I'm changing my middle name to phlegm. Coughing fits are oh so attractive! My boss ordered me to leave at 4pm, probably because he was sick of hearing me cough, but I didn't leave until 5.30, which is probably the earliest I have ever left...ever. I have to say...being a hacker is totally overrated! ;)

The Drugs Don't Work

Have I become immune to over-the-counter cold & flu medicine? I went out and got the herbal stuff and the "kill-my-symptoms" stuff. Echinacea, vitamin c, zink, you name it. Nothing. Cough, cold, and flu medicine. Nothing. Cough syrup. Nothing. Don't worry - haven't been using them all at the same time, but I've tried 'em all and none of them have even made any difference. And more importantly, why do I continue to buy such crappy medicine that doesn't do anything. I've spent a good $50 in tissues, cough drops, cough syrup, echinacea, zinc, vitamin c, cold & flu pills. Silly really. Now, if I could just stay at home, I wouldn't care. But I have to go to work, so I need to not be coughing up a lung while on the phone with clients or blowing my nose in their ear. I look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Very attractive. It feels weird to have the flu in this weather. It's hot.
Oh well, I'll stop whinging now, it's not a big deal, I just hate being sick when it's so nice out!

I have a medicine cabinet in my purse...and the darn drugs just don't work...

A tale of vegemite...

I forgot to write this up on Friday, but I went to the new little cafe near our office to get some vegemite toast for me and some food for my co-workers. The guy looked at me strangely and asked "Who is this vegemite toast for?" I said it was for me and he shook his head and said, "But aren't you British?" I was surprised. My American accent may have toned down slightly since I've been living here, but I certainly shouldn't be mistaken for being British. (Actually, a woman who worked at this other sandwich shop thought I was British too, but she wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.)

I told the guy that I was in fact American and he looked at me for a while and said, "But Americans don't eat this stuff!" And I said, "Yeah, I know, but it's taken me me two years to like it!" He was amazed. So there you go.. ;)

Aren't three dots annoying?

Tonight Kristen and I watched some show called "Miami Undercover" which should really be called "Biggest Collection of Losers We Could Find Try To Score and Fail Miserably...with British Accents." Yes, I know, we sunk to a new low by watching the dumb show, but we're both sick and we needed a nice little reminder that we're overall pretty damn cool and sensible people, despite our hacking fits. May we never meet such a pack of losers in real life.

So I've got the flu, which is a bit annoying, but whatever. At least I'm not a dork being featured on "Miami Undercover."

I was feeling a bit nostalgic tonight and looked at some of the video of this party at had at my place in Boston in 1999 with my friends from mybytes.com. That was one of the most hilarious nights I've ever had and we went around the room and told each other (and the camera) what we wanted to be doing within the next ten years. Should be interesting to see what happens. We told a lot of secrets that night - I've got so many funny reactions on tape -- I was laughing just as hard watching it nearly 3 years later! I should write a top ten list of the top ten funniest lines said that night. So, big hellos to Brian, Charlie, Jill, Dave, Andrew, Lauren, Nicole, Abbey, Melissa, Bonnie, and Jay. :)

Happy Birthday to Shayna! The big 25! Woo-hoo! Hope it's great, my dear!

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I had an amazing day today - my writers' group met today and we had a fabulous time. Got a lot of writing done today and I was very inspired by the other people's stories. I also saw The Man Who Wasn't There this evening, which was pretty damn cool. More later!

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