Hrmm.
This is a test post. I didn't realise that adding pictures was a built in feature of Blogspot. Hah.
So much easier than in LJ where you have to upload with ANOTHER account, then LINK back to all your images! *gasp*!
How very handy to have it all in the one spot.
Oh - this pic is of Shane, Claudia and I (all very very wasted at Megan's 21st). Hah!
Ok so it's been a full month. And a half. My bad!
I decided that a better post today, seeing as this is the last day of my teenage years. God, it sounds scary when you put it like that... So I'm turning 20 tomorrow.
This is a pretty weird stage for me right now. I mean, I'm comfortable in myself. Life in general does seem to be falling into place. Family is doing much better these days- I can actually say "hey Dad, I won't be home for dinner tonight. Me and Tim are gonna go catch a movie" or something like that and get a "*huh?* yeah ok, don't come home too late" kinda response. That, to me, is all I really need right now.
Have you heard Bjork's new album, Medulla? She speaks to me through her music. Wow, it's just so amazing. I never really knew much about Bjork. I just thought she was some weirdo who was trying to be different. Then I went and researched a bit about her history, her music, her life. She truly is an amazing artist.
The other night, Tim and Jane took me out to see a play at the Arts Centre.
"Take Me Out" is a story about Darren Lemming- a smart, sexy baseball player who appears to be blessed by the gods. Revered by his teammates as the iconic American success story, Darren causes shock waves when he casually reveals to the media that he is gay, just as his team is heading into their third championship season. The ensuing mayhem results in comic chaos as Darren's team struggles to come to terms with his revelation, & innocent rituals like taking a shower become fraught with tension.
Never have I seen so much penis on stage before. The locker room showers were quite a central theme in the play. In a sports setting like baseball, where the guys all shower together after their games, I guess a teammate coming out would naturally stir a bit of awkwardness into things. The nudity was completely natural and, I think, necessary as a way of describing the team's shift in attitudes.
Anyway, I really did enjoy the play. Especially the roles by Simon Burke and Paul Bishop. It was funny at times, philosophical at others, but mostly just entertaining. The production itself was very slick- lighting, props and transitions were all very smooth.
Ahhhhh.. So tomorrow's the day.. I have mixed feelings about being 20. It's kind of a nothing age, not an adult, not a teen, just inbetween. We'll see how it all goes.
Hopefully I get some money from the parents. Mine just seems to fall through my fingers as soon as I get it. Damn Chapel street to hell!!!
Listening to: Deborah Cox (Junior Vasquez mix) - Who Do You Love?
Ok. Last post was a little spasticated. Went overboad, yes. Things actually DID work out though! I mean, a friend of mine ended up leaving the uni and heading back to Adelaide (god knows why) and the lovely fella' gave me his parking permit! It was weird, the very next day after the whole "international student rage" incident, a got an sms from this friend of mine going "are you still looking for a parking permit?" It really was uncanny.
I love house.
Only recently have I actually realised how much of my eclectic collection of music can be classified as house. It's such a broad genre it really is ridiculous. I mean, you have so many subsets of house. Progressive house, deep house, acid house.. the list really does go on and on! My personal fav at the moment is the evolution of disco (as you might've already guessed from my current track). Big, black divas letting it roar out of control. With a wickedly good bassline. Might I suggest Deborah Cox, Kim English, Elle Patrice, Inaya Day and Kristine W. Ok, so Kristine isn't black. But she should be! :P
I love divas! And I know what you're thinking. err.. no..
Some people are SO infuriating.. I was looking to purchase a parking permit from the uni's online marketplace today when I came across a very recent post. It was only posted as "for sale" 5min ago, so I thought my chances of getting it would be pretty reasonable. When I called the guy, he was so surprised at how fast he received a reply. His advertisement was for $70, which although I thought was a little expensive, I agreed to. Wednesday 10am, outside the main information desk. Perfect!
Ten minutes later, he sends an SMS to me. "Someone offer me $75, so will sell to them unless u offer the same, pls sms me if u still want it." On the one hand, it's only $5. On the other hand, he's being a greedy little fukker, going back on his deal.
So I decide to call him about it, rather than opting for the cheaper/spineless SMS option. He picks up and I'm like,
"Hey, what's happening man? I thought we already had a deal!"
"Oh, some other guy offered 75, so you know...... ......."
"Look, I don't really mind $5, but I don't like what you're doing here. If you want to hold an auction and sell to the highest bidder, do that. But don't make offers and retract them later."
"Sorry, I think I'm gonna just sell to the other guy. I can't help you."
"What? You gotta be kidding me here.. I'll give you 75, but don't expect me to keep bargaining.."
*click*
"Hello? Hello?! Fukker."
ARGH. Little spineless wench! So I SMS him one final time saying, "I can't believe you. Utterly appalling! For $5 you'd go back on your own word? I hope that 5 bucks goes a long way for ya mate.."
Little shit.
The other night I went to the "Darkside of 604" with Miki and co. for her (belated) birthday celebration. It's kinda cheesy, but the gimmick is that you dine in the dark. When you enter the restaurant, you initially start things off with full lighting in the aptly named "Lightside of 604." This is wear you see the menu and winelist etc, selecting your meal before actually crossing over to the "darkside" (god, that sounds horrible). As a waiter rambled off the rules and regulations, not unlike an air hostess before take-off, he handed out enormous bibs that made me feel a little uneasy. Were they really expecting us to make a complete mess of ourselves? There is a total ban on mobile phones, cigarette lighters, watches with luminous dials, basically anything that is capable of emitting any light whatsoever.
We were lead congo-line style through a heavy black door, then through a series of curtains until we were plunged into complete, utter, choking darkness. We were lead as a group to our table, then individually seated by the voice on our shoulders. It made me think of my conscience sitting on my shoulder telling me, "Just a little bit more to your left!" It's funny how everyone sat down and waited for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Like we thought that eventually we'd be able to make things out in the dark. That didn't happen. Instead, I began to notice that the person behind me was wearing a wonderful cologne, a combination of cinnamon and oak with perhaps a touch of sandlewood. The waiters and staff are all decked out with night vision goggles that remind me of FPS snipers for some reasons. Dim, glowing green and red dots scurried about the restaurant doing god knows what. It was unsettling seeing how fast they rushed about when I considered how I carefully patted my hand around trying to find my salad fork.
Teressa spilled Clifford's drink onto Richard's lap. That's all I can say, really.
The food was quite decent, although I couldn't really justify spending $30 on a chicken breast. I guess I was paying for the experience. I certainly was not paying for the electricity bills. I rasied my hand to be excused to the toilet and a waiter rushed over and took my hand. I was led, along with Tim.W and Tim.D, to the bathroom outside. While my eyes adjusted to the blindingly bright lights, I noticed that my bib was filthy. It looked as though I had dragged the entire thing through my Poached Chicken Breast with Mushroom and Goat's cheese Soufflé. Absolutely awful.
The experience is supposed to increase awareness of how blind people cope with such simple tasks as eating and drinking. I get the point. Being blind must suck. Duh.
After we wrapped up the bill at Darkside, we opted for dessert on Lygon st. Lygon street is famous in Melbourne as the Italian precinct of town. They make damn good gelati. So, in the sub-zero Melbournian winter night temperatues, we headed to Lygon for some ice-cream. Whatever, I can eat gelati at anytime of day or night.
I had a good night. I spent lots of money and I felt good about it. Now I just need a job.
Having finished my exams last week, I've found myself with a lot more time on my hands. Not that I've been able to enjoy it as of yet, my parents have found a stack of chores which conveniently need doing now that I'm free.
Today I spent the good part of 3hrs washing cars. All four of them. Argh! It's freezing in Melbourne at the moment, and although the sun was shining my hands were burning with the bitter chill of the wind.
The last two weekends I've had 21st parties to attend. It makes me feel old, having not quite hit 21 myself. My friends around me are getting older.. it's hard to imagine myself as approaching 21 years in any way. Last weekend was Tim's childhood friend Daniel's birthday. We travelled to the outer edge of Ringwood to this party to be greeted at the door by Daniel himself. Now, Daniel does know about me and Tim. In fact, I've met him briefly before. I was neither thrilled nor reluctant to go, I kinda just tagged along. It was a good excuse to meet up with Tim's family again as I hadn't done that in a long time.. Going through his house I saw so many pictures with him and Tim as little kids, playing with Daniel's little sister and generally looking very cute *heart skips a beat for cute chibi Timmi images oOoOoO*..
I remember meeting Daniel's father. "Oh, you must be Tim's friend," he said. To which I uncomfortably shuffled my feet and replied, "er.. yeeeah." I felt like such a dick afterwards. Did he really want me to correct him? Or does he find using the words "boyfriend" or "partner" too difficult and uncomfortable?
As the night wore on and the speeches began to flow, I received a brief summary of Daniel's life thus far. It was quite interesting for me. I don't know if it's because of cultural differences or what, but his life just seemed so foreign to me. His parents were so... so.. supportive of what he was doing. Everything in his life appeared so orderly and clear-cut. There was no ambiguity as to what was expected of him, or so it felt. Their family had an almost Brady Bunch-like feel to them. Now, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Not at all. I just remember thinking how surreal it all was, what a stereotypically balanced family they were. They seemed so functional. I know it's horrible to make such blatant generalisations after the one meeting, but I couldn't help myself.
It was so nice to see Tim's mum and dad again. I know that no family is perfect, but they are such warm, genuine people. They always make me feel at ease and I feel perfectly fine chatting to Kath over a coffee. We all sat around a barrel fire outside on the back porch. It was nice to feel like a part of that group.. at the same time, I couldn't shake this niggling irony of how I am a comfortably accepted member of Tim's family, yet my own family hardly acknowledges Tim's existence. It was a strangely saddening sensation.
Last night's party was Steve's 21st. He's an awesome guy from I know from Uni. I remember early on in the evening, when everyone was finding out how other guests knew Steve, me and Tim were approached. I told them that I went to Uni with Steve. This was received well, then they turned to Tim expecting him to begin explaining how he knew Steve. Sensing a repeat of the awkwardness I felt last weekend I slipped in, "and this is my boyfriend, Tim." That felt good. Overall, the party was pretty enjoyable. I met 2 of his cousins who were delightfully fun to chat with.. thankfully, they kept me and Tim on our toes the whole evening. And I swear to God, one of the cousins was totally hitting on Tim for the first 2 hours of the night!!! I was like, "bitch, have you no shame?"
During the usual 21st speeches, Steve's dad was talking about Steve's childhood and early teen years. He talked about how excited he was when Steve had his first girlfriend, to which one of the uncles piped in "you mean, how relieved you were." No one said anything, I think a few people even chuckled. Me and Tim shifted in our seats. I knew that Tim was more agitated by the jibe than I was. And that just agitated me more. I glared across at the oh-so-funny uncle and hoped he would see me gripping Tim's hand tightly. Steve asked me when he should have the party so that I could definately be available for it. Steve's invitation was addressed to "Mark and Tim." Steve was excited when I told him that Tim could make it. We were fucking invited because we meant something to Steve. Not just because he's my nephew who I hardly even know. It's funny how gay jokes are so completely acceptable in social situations. Do you have to be gay, or related to someone who is, to be offended? Coincidentally, I was also the only dark coloured person at the party. Yet if that uncle had tried to pull a race joke, I think a lot more people would've shifted in their seats.
I guess it's begun. The neverending torrent of 21st parties. Keys. Big cakes. Boring speeches. Family from Adelaide. Gay jokes. Better get used to it.
Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep.
