Chillin' in the Gong...

Spent most of today down in Wollongong taking photos for the Uni Games. It was just one of those days....the train was late and stopped several times along the way, so it took a little over two hours to get there.

I'd memorised the sports schedule on the way down and had my itinerary all set up. Unfortunately two of the sports were finished by the time I arrived at 1.30 (even though they were supposed to go until 5pm) so I was only able to cover Badminton, Water polo, and Ultimate Frisbee. I took about 300 photos but alas, digital cameras aren't really meant for action shots so I got a ton of blurry shots. Ooops.

Ah well, what can you do. I'm just happy that I spent so much time in the presence of flying objects and did not get hit in the head once! Yay! Usually flying objects gravitate towards my head, so I got off lucky.

I did some writing on the way back home on the train and this little old man told me he was sure I was going to be a famous writer one day. Oh, if only ;-)

The Tampon Tale

I meant to blog about this a while ago, but what else is new? ;-)

So, Jorge's parents came to visit him not too long ago and Jorge's mum wanted to know if she could bring me anything. Because I'm a dork, I forgot to say, HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE!!! Instead, I said, "Tampons!"

Jorge was like, "You want my mother to bring you tampons?" And I said, "Yup!"

So he told me to email him the details. Good lord, and what details they were. Basically, though I have happily adjusted to Australia, a country that has plenty of brands to choose from (as opposed to America, which has 1,232,499 brands of everything to choose from), the one thing that I have to import from America is tampons. I like me some plastic applicators. I do feel bad that I'm destroying the environment, but I do feel that I can be a much pleasant person to the world if I have my plastic applicators. (Note: the tampons here either have NO applicators or cardboard only. Australian women therefore impress me. They're tough!)

Anyhoo, I was hoping for a mixed pack of tampons from the U.S. A pack contains 32 tampons. But Jorge's mother, the brave women she is, she decided to bring me 4 box packs. So that's 128 tampons. So of course, because she is carrying 128 tampons, Jorge's mum gets stopped at L.A. to have her bag searched. Apparently the airport worker searching her bag was a friendly southern black woman. She chit-chatted with Jorge's mum about Australia and how she was only going for 11 days. And then she checked her bag and when she saw all the tampons was like, "Sweet Jesus!" How many tampons do you think you're going to need in 11 days!????"

And Jorge's mum was like, "All of them!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So this woman must think Jorge's mother's got some weird medical condition or something.

Needless to say, I thanked his mother many times for enduring the embarrassment at the airport on my behalf.

So, I ofcourse think this is hilarious, but when I told a friend of mine about it she was like, "Do you know what I think the funniest bit is? That you asked your FRIEND'S MOTHER to bring you tampons!"

I was like, "What?!!! It's a sister-hood thing! Why get embarrassed about tampons? It's not like I asked Jorge's DAD to get me some!"

Besides, I feel that Jorge's mum and I have come full circle. The first time we ever met was at our graduation at Boston Uni and the poor dear started her period and asked me for some tampons. This was the day we met. And did this seem weird? Not at all. I'm telling you, it's a bonding thing amongst women. We all understand.

Okay, that's all for now. Queer Eye is starting soon and nothing gets in the way of me and the Fab Five! :-)

Herald.com | 05/09/2004 | Seeing the forest through the eyes of our children

Oh my lord. I had a laughing fit for at least a half hour when I read this....two 4 year olds, talking about religion....my back, face, stomach were in so much pain. I was crying! Love it!

Living Dangerously

Usually I have a great memory for books, authors, CDs, bands....but not today. Even though I spent a half hour laughing my ass off at the bookstore while reading some new book about all sorts of unassuming dangers in life, I can't quite remember the name. Ooops. Anyway, the book highlighted everything from books to TVs to bras, being left-handed, sunscreen, holy water, tables, going on vacation, going to the beauty salon etc being dangerous - telling about injuries and deaths occurring from each "hazard." Basically everything is potentially dangerous and we might as well never leave the house again....oh wait, but THAT's dangerous too! ;-) It was all very tongue-in-cheek - I will have to go back and find out the name. My favourite "danger" though is: Baby Faced Men! DUM DUM DUM! *playing Jaws soundtrack*

When I saw the chapter on Baby Faced Men I was like, "uh-oh! But I LOVE baby faced men!" Anyway, according to the book, men who are baby faced or have slightly feminine features (take, Jude Law, for instance) may have an increased tendency to prove themselves as not being so angelic, wholesome, or tame as maybe people like to assume they are. The book says that they may involve themselves in all sorts of unsavory activities and behaviours to show that they can be bad boys, too.

Bummer.

So does that mean that boys that look like bad boys feel compelled to act like good boys? ;-)

Anyway, I don't know what kind of stats we're talking about here, but it IS interesting to think about. It would be funny to go up to baby faced guys and be like, "So, are you a hoodlum, or what?" ;-)

Been doing a LOT of reading lately, as usual...just finished The Art of Happiness by Dr. Howard Cutler and the Dalai Lama and Codes of Love by Mark Bryan. They really go well with other books I've read recently, particularly Resilience by Anne Deveson, They F*ck You Up by Oliver James and The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende. Non-fiction and fiction all relating to how we've gotten to be who we are and taking responsibility for who we are and what we do now. Yeah, I know, I sound like an Oprah special waiting to happen, but hey. ;-)

Anyway, I don't think I can give up baby faced boys just yet, but I will promise to look out for any criminal or socio-pathic tendencies ;-)