It's not a cry you can hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light...

I love this house.

♥

That is all.

Oh my god. I just watched Stardust. I am in love. Neil Gaiman, why are you so goddamn lovely? Why do you write the most awesome things?

Oh right. Because you are the most awesome. True fax.

In the end of the movie I yelled "BUT WHO IS GOING TO SHINE UP THERE" and then my question was answered and I'm so gosh darn HEARTWARMED I could heat...a...cold place. And then the three of us giggled because we quoted Boosh. "Look at them shine! Look at them shinin'. Look at them shine!"

No, but seriously. Love. And Henry Cavill had twat hair in it and then he made SEX EYES at ROBERT DE NIRO who was the most fabulous person who ever fabuloused... Henry Cavill was supposed to be with Sienna Miller but he winked at Robert who is a MUCH BETTER CHOICE yes he is. I approve. Go make fabulous sex.

Also, Charlie Cox DOES = Peter Rodgers when he gets a makeover. It was pretty awesome.

Why did I wait until now to see this movie? It's been out forever, and I love Gaiman. *sigh* But now I have seen it and I can go to sleep with a warmed heart. All together now. "D'awwwwww!"

Jesus H. Particular Christ, my insides are melting. And yes YOU ALL NEEDED TO KNOW.

At least my back feels better today.

/old lady

I have 7,500 words left of assessments to write, one mihi to give, and then one exam which I am not worried about, and this university year will be over. Three more days of class. Two if I can't be buggered going on Monday which, frankly, I might not be. All the assessment for that class is over! We'll see. We'll see.

I don't like endings. But a summer of nothing? I might be looking forward to that.

Instead of NaNo, because I don't wanna, I am going to write 50,000 words in my RPGs. Because I CAN. And I am going to learn to play my guitar again so I can do it like I did before, and I am going to jam on my uke with Alison and Ness :D And probably drink white wine in the sun (because all you Minchin fans were waiting for it) though the wine might just be sparkly. Moscatoooooo. And I'll get to revel in the beauty of the place I live in, because it is SO beautiful. And then in December/January, my Jayannpants is coming to visit. Every time I think about it, I just about cry of happy.

Things are wonderful, despite the way I started the post. I don't know. I think I deserve it.

So...that was a big aftershock. Shouldn't they stop now? Augh. My poor kitty was scared. I AM TRYING TO ESSAY!

I lied. I was copying Teresa and doing wordclouds because they are awesome.

I made this

My most used word is 'Love'. That makes me grin.

Peter's
Deirdre's
Flynn's
Thomas' (I love that it says LOVE NOW, SPECTRE! It also says God Kick Peter and Got dick Peter which LOL)

I was feeling down today (LONG story) so I decided to do something constructive to take the feeling away (social work training, oy) so I wanted to make a post of all the photos of people and places and things that mean something to me. And when I started to plan it, I realised just how long it would be if I put everyone into it. And that made me feel so amazing, you have no idea...

I did it anyway deciding I would only use photos I have taken myself (or by my family since I wasn't at the reunion to take those and I didn't take the ones of me as a kid, but you get the point!) to cut down on spamming random Hugh Jackman pictures ;). Not everyone that should be here is including my friends in Australia. Woot, Peter, Laura and Ness, I have no (not blurry) photos of you!! And there are other friends who aren't on here, but be that as it may, here it is. Some of my happy things.

( To me you are perfect )

Can't...stop...eating...pasta. It is seriously the most amazing thing on this planet right now.

Also in class today we were learning about psychoanalysis and psychodynamics. The lecturer is the head of the program and someone I really admire. He was giving his lecture and he got to the point where Freud's theories had been talked about and he said something about them influencing other theories like Erikson's and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And how if we find a balance between the id (imagine Captain 'find me a space whore to bang' Kirk) and the superego ('I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer' Bones) balanced by the ego (Why hello, logical Spock) "then you can share yourself completely with someone without losing your individuality. This is called real intimacy" and then he clicked the button to show the picture at the top of his little diagrammy pyramid thing which illustrated true intimacy.

It was a gay couple and they were embracing and adorable and not even white. He made no comment about that, just moved right on to the next slide as if it was the most natural thing in the world. And I just sat there and thought...thank you. Thank you for putting that in there at all, when most people automatically put pictures of straight couples in because we live in a vastly white, heteronormative society. And it wouldn't have been offensive at all to have a white, straight couple up there, but the fact that he thought to seek out a picture of a gay couple for it, and he didn't even do it to make some obvious statement or draw attention to it because it was natural to him...it made me so happy. So here I am drawing attention to it ;) but honestly, I nearly burst into tears because I am overly emotional and I had two hours of sleep anyway.

God, I love New Zealand. And my course. And the people I study with. And the man who brought us all together? I reckon Dr Andrew Frost is pretty damn awesome too.

He also gave us a little (non-graded but for fun) quiz on Freud. In the last question, he spelled Freud as 'fraud'. I loled and said, "Freudian slip?!" and he was like "what? NO!!!" Aahhahaaa. I got 16/20 right on the quiz. I blame going to Vienna for this! I went to his study and then peed in his toilet.

True story ♥

Safely back in Christchurch! The neighbourhood around here is pretty unscathed, minus a few chimneys and some brand spanking new pavement cracks. But they're incredibly minor. Compared to the damage down town (which I have not seen in person and am content to leave it that way) it's nothing. At least nothing really visible. Some of the sand from the water table has shaken up through the grass around the place which is just WEIRD to see. Tomorrow I might take a walk to the cemetery to see how it fared. Half of those older plots are crumbling into the ground anyway.

Alison's amazingly wonderful parents came to pick me up from the airport (complete with hugs! See, THAT is how to pick people up at the airport) and they brought me back here. They said our wine glasses miraculously stayed on our shelves! Apparently there was one of the tiny glasses on the floor and it was unbroken! In my room, one of my candles was knocked over and that was it. My closet doors had opened so I closed them, but otherwise, nothing. I cleaned up the DVDs, but only my Star Trek and Leah's Farscape ones fell and I checked them all and they are absolutely fine. None of them even came out of their boxes. I checked the knick-knacks on your bookshelf, Leah, to make sure they hadn't scattered. Rescued a few from behind the bookshelf! And I've rescued Alison's laptop from her room, just in cases. AND I went shopping with Peter and Alina (who are also amazing) so I don't have to eat the earthquake rations. Glad those are there though, because I meant I had something to eat before the shopping trip happened. Canned pumpkin soup, yo.

Now I am boiling water and letting it cool so I can refrigerate it. We have to use the boiled water for everything, including doing the dishes, so even though we had water rations, I'm doing more.

And since this is probably not interesting to anyone but me... I'll shut up. Ariadne is glad to see me, though. She hasn't left me alone since I got home. She was NOT glad about the aftershock this afternoon. It woke me up and then she let out an annoyed yowl and pouted under the sofa. She's my brave little trooper ;) Much more dramatic than Jane's, "Oh go away now!" reaction to the aftershock that happened while I was having lunch over there. I enjoyed that. That's enough now, plate tectonics. Calm down, we all know you're upset. Let's talk about this instead, hmm?

EDIT: Two aftershocks in the space of five minutes. Since returning at 8 this morning I have felt like five of the things. And slept through more, probably. Considering there have been about 50, this is minor but I'm still impressed.

I have my friends, I have my house, I have my cat, and the best possible landlords in the entire world. I received texts from Alison and Alina to let me know the house was still standing and my Ariadne is okay if terrified. I may have cried with relief in the LAX bathroom because I didn't let myself panic while I didn't know. I don't know why someone with anxiety disorders actually handles herself okay in a panic-filled situation, but there you go, right? My landlords (they are Alison and Peter's parents and calling them landlords feels weird, but they ARE) are picking me up from the airport because buses aren't running and they are just so ♥ I logged on to Facebook and I assume it was Mike was messaging me instantly to let me know how things were. What wonderful people I know. God, I am so blessed. Going back to a place where people actually care... What a difference that makes.

The university is closed until September 13th, which means all of my assignments have been pushed back a week. I am not sure if this means CLASSES have been pushed back a week as well which would mean going one week over. Not that I care, because I'm game for anything. Having a week to clean up will be good. Clean up and calm down. Not get in the way while poor Christchurch picks up the pieces. Oh my beautiful city. I could cry for what's been done to you. And I know it could have been far worse. I'm glad it wasn't.

It's almost time to board the bigass plane and wing my way to Auckland. Here's hoping there aren't massive delays to get in to Christchurch in the morning. If there are though, worse things have happened. It will all be okay. I have a raspberry white chocolate mocha and a warm fuzzy feeling inside, even through the surreal sense of horror at seeing the photos.

♥

I am in the US. My family is surrounding me and it's terribly amusing. I also just slept from 9 pm until 3pm the next day. Seriously. 21 hours travelling. Goodness me.

I'll post my travelling stuff later because it's almost time for dinner and there's steak and salmon and corn and squealing nieces.

And my nephew is the coolest person in the world. We just spent an hour talking about Rent (NO SERIOUSLY OH MY GOD IT'S THE BEST THING EVER OH MY GOD YES <---Direct quote from Malik) and later we might watch Rhys Darby or Dylan Moran. Because I need to convert him.

>:D

It's only July and already I'm all sad I'll be leaving my kitty for two weeks in August. My little Ariadne. I don't wanna :(

She's curled up on me right now, watching the mouse with intense fascination and it's adorable and darnit why can't I take her with me!!? Murgh. I lost a cat once and a piece of my heart went with her. I tend to get hyper about this now. Wah.

( Ariadne says o_0 )

She seems less concerned ;)