I'm so alive, I'm so enlightened, I can barely survive a night in my mind....

Player 2 defeated!

Started playing AOE II again. Such an awesome game. Now to clean my room...

Happy Oz Day!

'Twas a good one. Beached it with Katherine, Beth, Justin, Pat, Shane and Mark. It was awesome. The water was brilliant, and so was the glorious sun! Except now I'm the one with the sunburned face and Katherine is the one with the perfectly tanned back.... >.<

On the way back Katherine said, 'Erin, what day is tomorrow? What are we doing?' Then we both grinned because she'd said 'we'. Just goes to show how much time we've spent together; we've lately been planing most of our days around what the other person is doing. I love the holidays.

Anyway.
Tomorrow is Wednesday. I have to clean my room, and tack up the new pictures I printed off at Officeworks. Then maybe if I'm feeling bored I'll drop in at Katherine's to watch some movies. But I have to promise myself I'll only go AFTER I've done some writing.

Then it's Thursday! I've been looking forward to Thursday for a long time. It means I get to see Keira and Kristen. Yay!

School is rolling around much too fast. Some of my friends' mothers are talking of hemming school pants and skirts - 

NADAL JUST ACED MURRAY, STOPPING HIM FROM GETTING THE POINT HE NEEDED TO MAKE IT 6-5 IN THE SECOND SET!!! OH THE SUSPENSE!!!

- sorry, just got a little distracted there. I'm watching the tennis out of the corner of my eye as I type. And going for Murray.

Where was I?

Oh yes. School. I don't go to school, so I shouldn't be worrying about it starting, but then a lot of my friends aren't so available ... and then TAFE starts for me. Hmmm. Don't know what to think about it yet. I suppose I'm nervous.

This year is going to be very different from the last ... but in a good way, I think.

Bye for now.

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very;" your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

I'm writing again! Happiness!

I wrote with Lawrence today. Hoping to introduce Christian tomorrow, and get on with him meeting Elaine. Then we might actually have some proper story. So I'd better get to bed. Going to the beach tomorrow. I will take my notebook.

If I could dig a tunnel I would, oh I'd network under your neighborhood, and we'd meet there through night.

I worry too much. That's what I tell myself, and then I think, 'but what if I do have a reason to worry, and I'm just telling myself I shouldn't worry because generally I do worry too much?' And that's the sort of thought that gets me all confused, and then I wonder if I should be annoyed at myself, or the thing that made me worry, that I'm still not sure I understand.

This is just silly.

And it makes no sense.

And really, I ought not to let such a little thing bother me. I'm not really bothered about it anymore, but I needed something to log about.

Or am I?

Why do I dwell on such a little thing...? The person that caused me to worry about this tiny little detail probably meant nothing of it at all. So now I'm going to go to sleep. And when I wake up I'll have forgotten all about this. Which is why I ought to blog again before I go to sleep so that way, when I wake up in the morning and turn on my blog, this won't be the first thing I see.

I ♥ My Friends

So a lot has happened since my last blog. Let me explain.

Riding the train to LiT in the summer heat.

Eating Minties.

Getting pumped for Jesus with 200 other teenagers.

Texting.

Trying to sleep in a bunk bed when it's 30 degrees outside.

Watching Ed and John smash a gingerbread house with their head.

Praying.

Reading Matthew 5-7.

Wishing I could go swimming.

Playing Battleship with Patrick. 

Eating camp chicken schnitzel and dearly missing Jackie's schnitzel.

Listening to talks on the Beautitudes.

Loving God.

Loving my friends.

Hating camp organization.

Starting on Wuthering Heights.

Singing with Becky and Mark.

Writing "If I tell you I love you, can I keep you?" on Katherine's back with a Sharpie.

Hanging out til late, late late....

Talking til even later with Kristen, and feeling so much better.

Trying to commit to prayer. 

Getting everyone to sign my shirt.

Eating meatball sandwiches.

Leaving on the bus.

 Getting home.

Taking a long, hot shower.

Watching The Big Bang Theory with Katherine, Beth and Justin.

Sleeping in the living room with the girls and wanting to throttle my cat.

Waking up and making French Toast.

Getting my ear pierced with Katherine and squeezing Beth's hand.

Taking panadol for the pain >.<

Ana coming over.

Lazer tagging in the city.

Wandering in Newtown.

Driving to Katherine's for a 'secret mission' and giving her Wagon Wheels and Big Bang. 

Watching Slumdog Millionare - Ana had not seen it before!

Going to church.

Waking Ana the next morning to say goodbye.

Heading to Sydney Uni for Latin class.

Learning how to read Roman gravestones.

Writing a couple pages of my new idea during lunch. 

Snapping pictures at lunch and thinking the uni buildings look like Hogwarts.

Catching the packed 423 to Katherine's and walking down the road in the blazing sun.

Snapping a million photos down near Cook's River.

Spraying Katherine with the bubbler.

Walking back, hot, wet and itchy.

Eating stir fry.

Watching Zoolander and IT Crowd.

Planning on leaving at 9pm, but staying til 11.

Falling asleep from Katherine stroking my hair.

Getting home and crashing.

Seeing Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D!

Going to Newcastle.

Sitting out in the heat for hours.

Planning an epic trip n the evening to the beach.

Being sorely disappointed when a cold change came and it rained.

Not going to the beach and watching the tennis and Up instead.

Playing Settlers of Catan.

Sleeping in.

Going to Drew's to watch Van Helsing and Jaws.

Playing Playstation 3.

Walking home.

Sitting down to write this blog while watching the tennis.

And that brings us to the present moment. Sorry if that bored you, but I needed to write this stuff down. I've had a pretty good holiday so far - two weeks left of it. Mum's cooking bacon. I'm seeing Kristen tomorrow. Good times still to come!

The enemy has built a grain hut in my land!!!

You know how in old school Age of Empires, when you began a new game the land would all be in blackness except for the bit where your man stood? And when he walked the blackness would disappear to reveal the green land (or water) underneath and you'd start to get bits and pieces of the map.
Also, when an enemy crossed your territory, the places they had walked that you hadn't would come up in shadow, so you could see the land but not place any constructions there until you had crossed the land yourself.

Well, this is sort of how the map of the world in my head works.The bright bits are the places I've been many times and know really well; the blackness is where I've never been and the shadows are places I might've been to but can't remember exactly what the location looks like. Hence the shadowy-ness.

And now I just feel like playing Age of Empires.

Things I learned today:

 In no particular order of any kind....

1. Don't go shopping with all three Haralambou girls at once. Clearly, I do not have a sister. Next time I know to go with one or two at a time, but not three in one go. Who knew picking mascara could take half an hour???? 'It's brown-black, I want black-black' 'Well pick a different one' 'But I like this one!' 'You just said you didn't want it!' 'I want this brand but not brown-black!' 'They look the same on your eyelashes!' 'Are you sure?' 'It's the same for me!' 'But what if it looks different on me?' And Katherine calls me a pain to shop with! Luckily Patrick was there to keep me sane....Hahaha : )

2. Don't wear havaianas when you're going to be walking all day. Katherine and I each have a blister in the same place on the same foot. >.<

3. Figure out which bus stop you can get back from first, so you don't have to wander around in the hot sun looking for a stop with the 423 when you want to go home.

4. IT Crowd is on of the best shows ever. But actually I already knew that. Nevertheless, it had to be put on the list.

5. If you climb a tree and act like a meerkat, there is bound to be at least one random that thinks 'that's nice'.

6. And something else I already knew ... but am saying anyway because it's so important - I love my Bethie, Katherine and Emmy. You guys are wonderful. Thanks for a fun day! And I have the coolest brother. He's pretty rad. Oh, and you're all right too Patty....

I will add a photo or two to go with this post when Beth uploads the pictures I took of them being silly in Target. Hehehe.

LiT IS IN 4 DAYS!!!!

I'm really excited. As you can tell.

Tomorrow, I'm going clothes shopping with my three lovely Haralambou girls.

On Thursday, I'm hanging with my beautiful Kristy and seeing The Lovely Bones.

On Friday, the Coles are coming down from Newcastle and we will do fun things.

And then ...

... it's Saturday.

And we go to LiT!!! YAY!!!!

Stop embarassing yourself Miley... Geez....

HOW DARE SHE WEAR A DRESS LIKE THAT IN FRONT OF THE QUEEN?! Show some respect. NOT something else *cough*

God save the Queen.

GET TO THE DARN EASTER EGG!!!

Just been fiddling around with the DVD special features of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with Justin, trying to find the deleted scenes. Found the easter egg after a gruelling hour of googling and button mashing. All we got for it was about six minutes of random deleted clips. WHERE IS THE OTHER TWO AND A HALF HOURS CUT FROM THE FILM????

Gently, gently....

I'm trying to coax a wild animal out of its hole. It's difficult not to spook it ... it gets frightened easily. But so far it's going well. I'm going to take it around town and let it see the sunlight.

It's not really french. Apparently it's from the medieval times in Europe in general.

I'm loving French toast at the moment. It's like. My favorite food.

If love is the answer, can you rephrase the question?

How funny/cute is this little story? Found it on the internet somewhere. It makes me smile.

(I'm serving at a candy bar in the foyer of a theatre. Big concert going on inside. A customer comes to the counter, he's about my age.)

Me: “Hi, how can I help you?”

Customer: “Yeah, I’d like some water.”

Me: “Okay, let me grab some from the fridge.”

Customer: “Thank you!”

(The customer pays and leaves, only to come back a few minutes later to buy some more water. He continues to do this nine more times.)

Me: “Must be really thirsty tonight, huh?”

Customer: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Me: “You’ve just bought quite a bit of water. There is a drinking fountain over there, you know.”

Customer: *stares at me dead in the eyes*

Me: “Is it hot outside or something?”

Customer: “Wanna see how long I can spin around on this stool?”

Me: “Uh…”

Customer: “Will you time me?”

Me: “Well, I guess so.”

Customer: “Okay, go!”

(The boy then proceeds to fall off the chair and go flailing onto the floor.)

Me: “Oh, my god! Are you all right?”

Customer: “You’re cute.”

Me: “Um, that’s flattering. Are you okay?”

Customer: “I wanna be your boyfriend.”

 Either he drunk too much and was drinking lots of water because of it, or he just dead set thought he was in love with her. I think it's the latter :) I'm totally using the idea in my story....

♥ One joy shatters a hundred griefs.... ♥

I walked home in the pouring rain with my lovely Katherine and Justin today. After a hot morning's work at the manse the rain was just glorious. We must've been a sight, traipsing down the sidewalk, drenched to the bone and grinning ear-to-ear at Justin's hair, which, with a mixture of water and sweat, stuck straight up in the air when he ran his fingers through it. Everyone else was huddling under soggy umbrellas or pelting down the street to get indoors. We didn't mind the rain. Liked it, actually. Had hot showers in quick succession the moment we got in the door.

Never mind the heartache that I felt the other day. The joy I felt this afternoon, being with two people very close to my heart ... it outshines any loss. Here's to a new year. I'm looking forward to the many little joys 2010 is sure to bring me.

Happy Twenty Ten!

Here we are on Shaun and Marissa's wicked staircase. I'm pretty sure we had the coolest NYE party in Sydney.