Amazing

Yesterday was officially one of the best days of my life – well, since my arrival in Australia.

For the first time in about 3 years now I got to see not one but several friends from Alabama! I went to the Cockburn Rotary Spring Fair just for the occasion – when I was moving to Cockburn I never knew its ’sister city’ was actually Mobile, Alabama – where I lived for 6 years and the BEST place in the world! The theme of the fair was America and there were American flags everywhere as well as Alabama’s state flag on the main stage. The band from Murphy High School (w00t I almost went there when I lived back home!) came all the way to Perth to play with Hamilton Hill High School (Murphy was way better). They even hard a Mardi Gras parade – Mobile style.

I looked for them for hours without any success (the fair was held at Manning Park in Cockburn, beautiful place). I enjoyed walking around the fair, watching the car show, the toy car rally racing, the sumo wrestling, the laser tag, and so much other stuff! Finally I had some lunch and sat to watch a magic show by the stage. Then we saw each other – Henry was right by the stage, waving at me! I rushed over, excited, gave him a hug, and stared talking about something that I can’t even remember right now. Then we went behind the stage where all these Murphy band people were – I thought that I would only know Henry from here but it turns out I was in for a big (and awesome) surprise: Lucy, Knowles, Erica, and more people were there, too! I also got to meet great new people. We spoke for a while, then I got to listen to them play Jazz on stage (it was great, I can’t believe how good they are, they made up solos on the spot and everything).

Then came more talking, looking through the box of awesome gifts Olga passed on to me through Henry and the giving of my box to Olga. We tried calling her, but were unable to get through (suspected mobile phone credit issues to blame). Some funny quotes of the day included (some of these aren’t exact):

“Welcome to Bootcamp. FLIP THE SWITCH!”
“Did she go to Murphy?” – “No, she went to Baker” – “We’re not dedicating a song to her”
“What’s a STAAAFF room?” – “You know, for teachers, staff” – “Oh, a STAFF room!”
“We thought ‘Brekkie’ was some kind of a brand until we went past McDonald’s and saw the “Brekkie served until 12pm sign.”
“Here – I won this for Olga. Tell her I shot four little people for it.”

I had to leave before being able to see the fireworks that came at the end and another performance by Murphy Band. It was very sad :( I had to try not to cry. I also won a plushie for Olga and almost forgot to give it to Henry to put in the gift box! I had to run back and get all sad all over again.

HHRay picked me up and that was that. I feel like I’m never going to see them again :( I’ve decided as soon as I move out (which I will officially get onto again after my car unless something comes along before I get a car) I’m paying for half of Olga’s trip to Australia.

This is awesome. This woman saved the lion in the video many years ago when he was on the brink of death. When his health improved, she found the lion a new home at a zoo. This is what happened six years after the re homing of the lion, when the woman went to visit her friend:

I’m watching Oprah right now and the show is about A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. This show is so exciting, I now want to read the book as soon as possible. It’s all about living in the present, in the moment, and not allowing the need to be best or better than others or need to win to dominate our lives. I definitely want to pick this book up when I get paid this week.

On the way home from TAFE today I stopped by the flower shop in the train station. I’ve been keeping an eye on it since I started TAFE and decided that it was time to make one of those impulsive feel-good purchases. I bought HHRay a cactus. It’s pretty big – not like to my hips or anything, but not totally measly either. I also got myself a tiny little cactus of a different variety. The little plastic pot of mine fits in my palm. In fact, she’s sitting on my bedpost right now.

When I showed HHRay his gift he called me weird, but seemed genuinely pleased with his cactus. I felt like one of those pets who bring back dead animals for their owners – and even got a kiss out of it :D:D. I named my cactus Ms. Elliot and HHRay dubbed his Mr. Elliot. These cacti will eventually grow to be as huge as the wild ones you see in the desert, except his will grow up and mine will grow out. But according to the owner of the flower shop, they won’t reach that stage until years from now, when we’re all old.

I was flipping through my old old old baby photo album. It came all the way from Ukraine. And as I was looking at pictures of my grandparents’ summerhouse I started to really miss Ukraine. Here’s a short video of me when I was little :).

I didn’t know who sang this song when I first heard it and HHRay refused to tell me (bastard :P), but I found it and am I glad I did!

I’m excited. Zazzle is a web site similar to Cafepress, where people can submit their designs for free and if someone purchases that design on a product, they get commission. Well, I signed up a while back and made a sample joke design, never expecting anyone to buy it. Just now I got an e-mail telling me that a T-Shirt design of mine has been bought! The shirt costs $26.35 and I only get $7.51 out of it, but still, it’s something. I’m like a kid who just sold her first cup of lemonade at one of those home made stands. Check out my awesome design here.

Is this puppy not cute enough to just cuddle forever and ever? ^_^ I wish I was this puppy, so I’d get infinite cuddles.