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Thursday 27 December 2012

A padded cell for one please.

Does anyone else seem to get ill/injured on good/planned days?

Over the years I have been getting more and more unfortunate with this.


To date, (and these are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head) I've had food poisoning when I was supposed to go on holiday, had an asthma attack at New Year, broke my front tooth on Boxing day, got hives (Yes, hives) before my first ever stage "part" at school, twisted my ankle on holiday, stood on a plug when getting ready for a work night out, had the flu for Jake's birthday, had the flu again for New year, had laryngitis on the first day of college, tore my hamstring (the first time) the day Jake started Uni, tore my hamstring (the second time) on my Gran's birthday and now have flared up the same hamstring injury again last night on CHRISTMAS DAY!!


ARRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!
WHY?!

Sorry.

I just had to let that complete and utter frustration out.

Does this happen to anyone else? 

Seriously. I need to know if this is just me.

I'm already quite a clumsy fool in general but this is just the unfortunate sort of life I lead. Half of the time I don't think people believe me either. I should also mention that the above are just the things that happen on planned event days, these don't include the many many other accidents/injuries/illnesses I suffer annually. It seems to be getting worse each year. 


I will either fall over, burn myself, cut my finger, stub my toe, drop stuff on my feet at least once a week. I will also catch whatever virus is going around. 


I don't even know what to say.


It's not even as if I can say "I should just stay at home out of harms way" because at home is where 90% of this stuff happens. That includes all 3 of the hamstring injuries.


What do I actually do?


Send help. 

And paracetamol. 

Wednesday 19 December 2012

My new attitude.

Recently I've been having trouble with my tolerance for others.
I apologise in advance for how very self-indulgent this is.


I used to be quite a sociable gal and moderately tolerant. This has become increasingly short over recent years, since becoming independent and having to deal with people on my own, since starting to work with the public and even more so since becoming involved in performing arts as a "career." I did predict this, but not to quite this extent. 


Sigh. Okay...

I may be wrong, but in my opinion, overall I'm a "nice" person. I mean well at least. I'm usually polite and respectful. I like to let people speak and wait for appropriate times to reply. I like to give people a chance to express their opinion and in return hope they'll let me express mine. I was brought up to value this sort of behaviour. I really do value manners. I also value honesty. Very much. Even if your honesty isn't what the person wants to hear (there are some obvious exceptions to this, like hurtful and unnecessary honesty) I think in most cases it's better than a lie. I am by no means perfect, I have had my moments like everyone else, and have been known to not know when to keep my mouth shut, but I do try to be these things as much as I can. I do quite well considering how often I'm put under circumstances where I'd rather not.

However, in the past few weeks, I've started to doubt my methods.
As I said, I was brought up to have manners and respect for others, but also only to tolerate a certain amount of aggravation before speaking up. When I was younger I used to find that really difficult. I was quite a shy wee girl and didn't like to get into arguments. I'd always back down because I was afraid of the conflict. This has changed gradually over the years, and if its really necessary I will speak up if there's a problem
, but only after quite a bit of pushing, and only if I feel confident that the person in question wont punch me. I've gotten far better at it than ever, but still, there's work to be done.

In the past 4 years or so, I've started to become my own person, and not a silly teenager anymore. I've begun to learn who I am (and all that nonsense) and really think about what I want and who I want to be. 
Personally, I am inspired by people who speak their mind, people who aren't afraid to stand their ground even if no one stands on their side. People who wont take shit and will challenge something if they think its wrong. I am inspired by people who genuinely don't care what other people think of them because they are happy with who they are. People who have enough self-respect not to let people talk down to them.
I have become so aware lately that I'm not quite one of those people. Yet!


If you know me, you'll know I am by no means a wallflower, quite the opposite. I also have a line, and once you cross it you'll lose my respect forever. 

However, there have been too many occasions where inside I have been saying "Don't speak to me like that." or "What is your fucking problem?" but have said nothing. Or where I have sat in silence and listened to a conversation that I find disrespectful or in some cases fucking horrible and said nothing because well, it's easier not to have to live with tension isn't it? At the time I've thought that I was being the smarter one, not getting involved, but now it's starting to affect me. I'm starting to feel that I'm sacrificing myself in some ways by pretending.
I think the issue sometimes is that I'm really bad at falling out with people. I find it really awkward and unnatural to keep up the whole "I'm angry at you" thing. Sometimes I actually forget and am accidentally nice to them. (Unless of course it's something really bad.)
Then there's the fact that to some extent I do care what people think of me. I definitely don't need to be liked by everyone, but I do like to feel understood, and obviously it's nicer to be liked. I'd hate for someone to dislike me without giving me a chance but if they got to know me and just didn't fancy what I have to offer, then I suppose that's fine.

I'm rambling....
I guess what I'm trying to say is that what sometimes stops me from speaking up until a certain point is that I don't want to look like a right cow. (Or like one of those "opinionated" people who just disagree with everyone for the sake of it. Eurgh. Those people.)

I have decided today that a new attitude is in order.
From today I would like myself to say "Don't speak to me like that" or "You are out of order" or "I'm not happy with that" (see how fucking polite I am!) instead of saying nothing. I would like to take myself away and not associate myself with those that spark these feelings.
I have tended not to be so tolerant of the bad attitudes of customers at work of late. I realised I just don't care about the job enough to allow it. The first time I said "There's no need to be rude" it actually worked. She stopped being rude. Who'd have thought it?
Today I got myself away from a situation that I knew would lead to feeling this way. Then later, I (sort of) gave the same attitude back to someone who gave it to me (and has been giving it to me for several years now) for the first time (trust me they deserve it). 


These are baby steps, but to me these are positive steps towards the new attitude and being the sort of person I wish to be.

I have no idea how this will go. Honestly. It will probably take quite a lot of work for me to keep this new attitude up.


Promise I'll try and be funny next time. 


Also, I'd like people's opinions on this issue or any issue. Just bloody talk to me! 


:)


Wednesday 5 December 2012

Festivus: the holiday for the rest of us.

Hello there, you wonderful human. I can tell you're wonderful because some part of your brain cares for my opinions.
KIDDING.

So, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Shops are playing irritatingly joyful music and the ground is slippy as fuck.
I'm sorry. I used to love Christmas, but this year I'm just...I don't know...not quite feeling it so far.

I'm about to sound really boring and possibly pretentious but here goes.
In recent years, I've started to realise that celebrating Christmas makes me a bit of a hypocrite. I am by no means a christian or even religious at all. Why would I celebrate the birth of a child that I'm unsure even existed?
Then there's the fact that I sort of grudge the wastefulness and not entirely deserving indulgence of it all. Dont get me wrong, I enjoy buying gifts for people I love, but it's the pressure of feeling like we all have to because Jesus says so.

I've celebrated all my life because my family do but now that I'm an "adult" and make my own life decisions (well, I try) and all that, should I really bother? Technically I shouldn't.
However, I have several problems with this idea: I love eating, drinking and being merry (so much!), I love an excuse to watch The Muppets Christmas Carol/The Grinch and to spend time with my nearest and dearest.

I voiced these opinions to J* who told me to celebrate Atheist-mas instead, or as it's (sort of) officially known: "Festivus."
I looked up "Festivus" to discover that it is a "secular holiday celebrated as a way to commemorate the holiday season without participating in its pressures and commercialism" which to me sounded just perfect and exactly the excuse I needed. It is meant to be celebrated on the 23rd of December but...yeah that's not happening.

Christmas is obviously fun and lovely, and I enjoy it, but it seems like the best parts of it actually have nothing to do with why it exists in the first place.

I guess there are lots of people out there that only really celebrate Christmas because the people around them do and many of them probably haven't thought about it as much I have. Maybe I just need to care less and drink more?

So...what am I going to do at Christmas you ask?
Well, darn it, I'm going to wear a festive jumper, eat 'til I burst and drink 'til I need several naps just like the rest of you because, let's be honest, I can't actually think of anything better.





*I'm starting to think I should just call him Jake, as that's his name and no one cares enough to stalk my blog and then kidnap him. There you go.