Just Dance

I had to cancel my gym membership recently, for two reasons. My gym is in the city and now that I'm no longer working in the city, I'd struggle to get there and money is a lot tighter now that I'm back at uni and it was an expense I could no longer afford.

I've been going for long walks around my neighbourhood but I wanted to do something else to mix it up a bit. So I bought this

My Fitness Coach Dance Workout for Wii. It was onlt $29 at JB Hifi so I thought I would give it a go.

I have the house to myself this morning, making it the perfect time to try out some of the dance tracks. I like to dance, but I am terrible at it. I have no rhythm and even less coordination, so I find dancing in public to be very embarrassing. That's what makes games like this great, I just spent the last half an hour in my underwear in the comfort and privacy of my loungeroom salsa dancing to Lada Gaga and having a ball. Who cares if I was going left when I should've been going right or two steps behind, the important thing is that I had a blast and burnt some calories.

This particular game also has some boxing programs and some fun mini games like dodging bulls in the virtual streets of Pamplona.

What I wore today 03/03/12

First, apologies for the shitty iPad photo. I thought it might be a cool idea to document some of the outfits I wear, because I like to consider myself a fashionista and I like to think that a lot of the things I wear are cute and quirky. Anyway this is what I'm wearing today to work at the refuge.

Top: Big W
Shorts: City Chic
Tights: Target (Target are finally making plus size tights in colours other than black!!)
Cardigan: SES
Brooch: Secret Santa from work this Christmas just gone

Small Update

I've lost 7kg since November. I'm getting there slowly but surely. Soon I'll be back to the weight I was when I got home from overseas.

Oh dear...

All the material for my courses went online yesterday which means I have been able to take a look at my assignments, weekly readings, lesson plans etc. I'm starting to worry that I've made a huge mistake. There's so much work to do. And the assignments look so difficult. They require a level of analysis and critical thinking that I'm not sure if I can produce. I'm really starting to think I should've stayed in the safe little world of tafe, with it's easy case studies and competent/non-competent grading.

It is going to be a long and hard three years. I'm determined to get through it, but it's going to take everything I've got and then some.

Shiny New Things

I got some new additions to my army of awesomeness yesterday.

First my car. What can I say? It's the bomb. It's so smooth and zippy. And so spacious inside. We are going to be very happy together for a long time, I just know it.

I also got an iPad yesterday. I know I have a laptop and a phone already, but now that I'm starting uni I wanted something lightweight enough to carry around all day, but powerful and big enough to type notes and read PDFs etc. I've loaded it up with apps like iStudiez for organisation, Pages for note taking and PDFPro for reading and highlighting handouts. I am fucking turbo organised for uni. If organisation decided marks I would already have a hd average. I'm typing this post on the iPad and I'm finding it very easy to use the on screen keyboard. I'm going to wait a few weeks and see how much typing I'm actually doing during my day on campus and perhaps buy a Bluetooth keyboard to go with it.

I bought this a few weeks ago but wanted to give it a plug. If you have an iPad, you need to get yourself a ZooGue case. The cover doubles as a stand which can, thanks to the magic of Velcro, be set to any angle. It also comes in a lovely shade of pink.

No wanky Instagram picture this time but I also bought a new printer. Last year I printed every assignment at work. I probably completed a fair portion of them there as well. But now I am finishing up that job at the end of next week and I figured it would be far easier to bite the bullet and purchase a printer myself to be used whenever I want than having to wait and print everything from the library at uni. I picked up a cheapish HP model which comes with AirPrint to be able to print wirelessly from my iPad and laptop. What an age we live in.

Holy Shit I bought a New Car

Since I applied for uni in Bankstown I've been thinking about getting a new car. I currently drive the 95 Corolla my mum passed down to me in 2006 when she got a new one. My car is good for what I use it for at the moment; trips to the shop, driving the 3kms to work and regular trips to Ikea. But it's old. It gets pretty shit fuel economy and is costing more and more money with every service. Now that I know I'm going to be driving 45kms a day, four days a week I decided I needed to do something.

My Mum and I are Corolla people, I always figured I'd end up with another Corolla. But I sat in at least 10 different Corollas, both new and used, and they just didn't feel right. Then today, I went and sat in a Barina sedan and it was just perfect. Plenty of room, lots of features, a great drive and a better price.

So just like that I am the proud owner of a brand new urban grey Holden Barina. I pick her up on Thursday. Eeek. I'm so excited and nervous about having a brand new car. Shit, son.

The Day After

The wisdom teeth removal went pretty well. I was under twilight sedation which was weird. At the time I felt like I was awake for all of it, just really out of it. But now I don't remember much so I don't know. All I remember is I had headphones on with some kind of best of 2WS playlist happening and Africa by Toto came on. I have a long conversation with myself about how one mountain can be like another mountain.

Today I'm a bit swollen and a bit sore, but nothing major. It hurts to eat food that I actually have to chew, so WeetBix and I are now good friends.

For the benefit of the internet I took a photo as soon as I was done with surgery.

This Week

I had my enrollment day and planning session for my course yesterday. It was good to get back into a lecture theatre and to meet my course co-ordinator. It was weird though. At uni the first time around there were only 23 people doing my course, and last year at TAFE only 20. Here doing social science there's more like 150 and some of our core subjects will have about 1000 people in them. Sheesh. Talk about small fish in a big pond.

I went to school fairly close to the campus so I had been there a couple of times. Returning there yesterday was vaguely familiar. But I was surprised how small it was. Smaller even than Ultimo TAFE and smaller than CSU Mitchell, which I always assumed was a very small campus. At least then I shouldn't get too lost.

Anyway I've pretty much decided that instead of taking elective subjects I will be boring but practical and do a double major in Crime and Criminal Justice and Child and Community. My aim, of course, is to work with young offenders and this should give me the best shot.

Tute registration is next Tuesday, and given how many people will be signing up, I need to resign myself to the fact that I will probably have lengthy gaps between classes. I need to learn to use that time wisely and go to the library rather than to Mum's house or shopping at Bankstown Square. I guess I do have time on my side and can afford to be spending all day on campus. I finish up my day job in the next two weeks and I will only be working at the refuge probably one day a week [omg, I can't remember if I told you that I started doing paid casual relief shifts at the refuge I did my work placement at. In January I went for a permanent part time position there. Whilst I didn't get it, they wanted to look after me so they have promised me guaranteed one shift a week on Sunday nights, and then whatever else I can pick up during the week, which should be enough for me to survive on].

We went and saw Any Questions For Ben? last night as a Valentine's Day treat. For reasons I will explain in a bit I might not be up to seeing a movie or doing anything on Tuesday night, so we made sure to do something a bit early. It was a good flick. A nice, light hearted romantic comedy. Probably the best rom-com ever released by an Australian. Stealing the show was the engorged man brute himself Ed Kavalee as a bleach blonde olympic archer. I'm not sure if they were intentional or not, but there were two Late Show references to keep the long time fans amused. It was kind of weird though seeing the guy who played John Bunting in Snowtown as a good guy. I kept expecting him to make someone shoot a dog at any second.

So yeah, in about an hour's time I'm heading out to Liverpool to have my three remaining wisdom teeth out. I'm not nervous which is surprising for a dental-phobe such myself, probably because I'm having the procedure under twilight sedation. Afterward I'm off to my Mum's for the weekend to recover.

It feels good to write about things that are happening again, even if it is boring to read. I will try and keep it up.

Redemption

For the last ten years I've regularly had nightmares about high school and uni. Dreams where I'm late to exams, in class naked, being made to start again from primary school or being made to do the three subjects I needed to get my first degree and failing them again.

Last night I dreamt that at the start of last year I had, due to my decision to go back to tertiary education, been re-enrolled in the HSC, Even though I didn't go to any classes and didn't sit for any exams I received my new UAI which was 20 points higher than the one I got back in 2000. I still flunked Physics though.

It felt like my subconscious mind has finally forgiven me. The weight of my biggest burden, and biggest regret has finally been lifted from my shoulders.

38 Pieces of Flare

Sometimes I feel like I haven't really grown up yet. I mean, I've been out in the big bad world on my own for sometime now, but I'm just not professional. I don't have "work clothes" I wear the same dress, leggings and cardigan combination to work that I would wear on the weekend. I would always choose a bright nail polish over a neutral tone. I was buying an iPad case last night and after much debate I got the baby pink one instead of the sleek grey one. Last but not least my ringtone on my phone is I'm on a Boat by The Lonely Island.

I wonder if there's a point when I will outgrow the kitsch? I'm slowly decorating my house into something I'm proud of, and while it looks great and matches, it's all bright bold colours. On my walls are three posters very tastefully framed and hung, but they are pictures of Matthew Caws from Nada Surf, Gob and Franklin and FAC01.

But is there anything wrong with this? Most of the time I'm happy being the person that brings colour and happiness to an other wise grey society. But I guess that if I'm even having these thoughts whether it's time to change.

And it's another thing that ties into my weight. It's hard deliberately standing out in a crowd when you already do because of your size and how much room you're taking up on the seat of the train.