Happy Birthday!

Rena's birthday party was fun!

(We may have drunk a shitload...that is why there are only photos of a few of us and they are all relatively near the beggining of the night...and of course why they involve animal props.)

wish we were here.

together.

someday.

Sometimes I feel like this when I don't get time to slow down and process.
Miss you girls. Thank you for the birthday sentiments.

Chritmas was funular!

Hello girls

Happy New Year!!

The picture is of Rangitoto island at sunset. I thought it was too beautiful not to share.

Well I had a lovely xmas and new year down in Wellington with my family. I really enjoyed the time I spent relaxing and eating lots of good food!

I'm now back at work and totally ready to just throw it all in. But it's a new year and that means change is on the cards. Not sure what's going to happen. Fingers crossed it's something good.

In other news I may have met someone. It is very early days, we met on Sat night. His name is Matt and he's a forensic scientist for the Police. We went for a walk and got ice cream on Sun night - that's when the photo is from. I'm not sure about it yet and I've instituted a go slow policy as he is a friend's cousin, so we're going slow - not quite Christian American slow but slower than I would normally take these things. It's nice so far. So we'll see.

Feeling a lot disenchanted with my job as I spent all of today researching how to get around an agreement to keep a public park as a public park and let developers turn it into housing. I hate myself.

Thinking of you all. Love Liz

haaaaaaaaapppppppppppppppppppppppy new year.
ho ho ho.

So i had meant to do this earlier - AND I HAD TRIED - but i forgot my username and that made me delay my return until just now when i finally remembered it (it's not the same as my 'contributor' name that goes under each post). Anyway, on to bigger and better things.

The above picture is the abyss of 2006. Look into the abyss my young angels, look and see what will be. I look and I see happiness for you all. I see that Bethany has already started seeking out her happiness and rounded first base as a large part of North America entered said abyss.

p.s. - Please note that boys are not the only means of seeking out happiness. Sure they work and the good ones are fucking damn fantastic at providing a type of happiness and fulfillment that even the abyss never assumed possible for us mere humans, but life has many more amazing and complex aspects and avenues that are just beaming with potential pockets of happiness.

p.s.s. - LIZ - Earlier I saw that I missed you on msn. I'm sorry. I wish I would have actually been there.

p.s.s.s. - BETHANY - Thanks for the quick chat. Looking forward to the next one!

p.s.s.s.s. - MORNA - See you in furry Glasgow.

p.s.s.s.s.s. - I like adding extra s's instead of extra p's. Deal with it.

snow eh?! pfft! not impressed....

you should see our beautiful city here.....it's been a hell of a lot drier than summer, freezing but nothing is falling from that grey sky-glasgow weather is fucked! hopefully we get some snow in jan so i can go have snowball fights in the park (i gotta enjoy it in all seasons).

wish i was there too...on the bright side though gotta hang out with ashy loads recently and went to a party the other night in edinburgh where it was like 90% linlithgow people (and pretty much all the ones i actually liked) including a certain boy who i used to love and who is now pretty hot in the style of jim morrison (it was dark and i had been on the rum n cokes). he's in his last year at art college and already has a commision for 14 grand for when he graduates...looking good. also, his surname is de Feu...
id take it today if he asked!

I am at home and its snowing. It is snowing buckets. I think I will be ice skating in the center of Syracuse tonight with a bunch of drunk farmer boys and Ukranians but I am glad to be home. I wish you all were here and .....

I am moving into my new place on January 15th. It is my friend's old place -- she is moving to Los Angeles for seven months or so. Its over her grandmother's house so I don't have to worry about wayward eyes or beach invitations.

Liz: Where have you gone to?
Let's all post bits here for Christmas. I'll put strange family pictures here, I promise.

Love to my girls.

Do you mean this one?

Congrats on finishing your assignment. Yay for you!!

so, I was awake (and at uni) from wed 9am till thursday 1pm...thats 28hours.....but the good thing is that i handed in my sociology essay on time and then walked home in a zombie state to collapse on the couch for 8hours.

i like graffiti too liz....remember that one in the main building at uni?

im tired and i dont want to go to work.

b, i tried to call you but the microphone didnt work, so you couldnt hear me....ill try later...you at home for christmas? well, if not, i can have a wee chat to your mum :0)

shower would be good.

miss you guys.but in a good way.

Sometime I like graffiti .... I wish you girls were in a taxi ...

Hello my pretties,

I am lost .... but I am alive ... Alive .... Alive I tell you .... (cue thunder and lightening).

Maybe I am going through some kind of delayed quarter-life crisis ... maybe I'm just going crazy. I only have two weeks left of work and then I get to go home and hang with my family for three weeks. I can't wait. Please don't take that in a flippant, I'm really looking forward to it, throw away comment. It should be read as - my sanity is hanging by a thread and it will not take much to push me over the edge and force me to shave off my hair and join a buddist monastry. I would look terrible without hair so this is quite a major step for me .... that is how far reviewing leases and writing rates apportionment clauses has pushed me. I complained at my performance review that I wasn't getting good work, for my sin I have now been thrown in the deep end. This might be motivating and challenging if I cared one iota about this job. I don't.

On the bright side my psycho flatmate has moved out. She didn't even say goodbye. I'm not sad about that, except that it robbed me of the chance to recommend to her that she seek professional help. The first thing she said after coming back from her new flat was that her new flatmates were "pigs". I give it 2 months before either all the other flatmates move out or her boyfriend finally realises she's crazy and dumps her ass.

There is a hopeful turn in my quest to find something fulfilling to do with my life. I have a meeting with two people who work for the company the commercialies all of the intellectual property generated by Auckland University. I'm hoping that it goes well. I plan to spend the holidays polishing my CV and sending it out everywhere in the new year. EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

So I remain lost ... but with hope of direction on the horizon. I will let you all know when the storm passes and I can see land again.

Biological differences take on significance only within culturally defined value systems. It is suggested that men must seek a cultural means of creation through technology or symbols whereas women’s creativity is naturally fulfilled though the process of giving birth. Gender differences between male and female only become apparent as a result of differences between the sexes which are culturally constructed and reaffirmed by action.

This is part of my essay.....I think I'm finally getting there.....its 8pm on a fucking Friday night.....should maybe be done by the time this place shuts at 2am....hopefully.

p.s. I know this is time wasting but I've been reading since 4 so time for a wee break eh...

Rena and Morna:

Thanks for having a beer for me on Graduation day. Okay, so I teared up when I saw the picture and felt homesick for Glasgow and Rena, Liz, and Morna. So to cheer myself up, I put the picture on my blog too. So all the dirty Americans can see it.

Tee hee hee. Hee hee hee tee hee hee.

Sorry. Couldn't help myself.

liz is missing

this liz can be easily found through a google image search, but she's not the one we are searching for

rena hates me....she wont let me write what i want....

there are words for this occasion. but i cant

i cant

i cant

recallthe proper words .....

oh yeah

thats right

you got it baby

baby equals bethany

congratulations baby

youre a master bethany

I have never been in love.

Okay, so this is what my uncle john told me point blank in the car over thanksgiving. He thinks I have never been in love. Hmmm. Boy, well that hurt, even though I took it with a grain of salt and decided to mull it over further. I mean, you let people in and they still just say what they want sometimes, eh? Maybe he was right.....the jury is still out.

But it made me think about Morna's weekend. Love, what a stupid time! Sounds like your family was not being thankful. Too bad the Scotts don't celebrate this holiday officially. You could have reminded them all that they should have been thankful for you instead. Because that is what thanksgiving means. And the real benefits to returning to Paraguay also have a lot to do with your level of familiarity with the culture. You will really have an outsider's understanding of their moreys and stuff. I mean, adding another country under your belt is great and all, but you can travel while you are there! Also, I really applaud you for standing on your own two feet and remaining independent. At the end of the day, you won't have to die in Colombia -- your family could instead be proud that you follow your heart. Cheezy? Me? Never. But seriously, Mo.....

The other family fun I had was the disaster that is my mom. Cute, but really frustrating when you only get to see her for two days. The minute she got out of the car, she turned around to pet the dogs that were barking just over the fence next to where she parked. She instantly lost her key. Had she put the rental car key on a key chain? No, of course not. Who does such logical things? (Not the Olsons.)
Then we spent the next day and a half scraping large magnets around the yard, raking through leaves, making phone calls and finally going to a dealership to get a key re-cut.

Lastly, taking the bus during the holidays is a real shite idea. Some kid from Essex literally ran into me at the bus station and consequently asked me out. Not only was he 21, he had left the ROTC in England to join the bloody American Marines! Not my type? Well, yes. I suppose you could say that.

Rena, its time for us to catch up again. I will be hunting you down on MSN.

There is a gigantic plastic ball in the grocery store with a fake Santa and frosty the snowman. Fake snow funnels through the back and snows on said Santa and company. Think seven feet tall plastic blow-up snow globe. People buy these things from the grocery store, set them up in their front yards and consume ever more electricity. Happy fucking Christmas. I would say 'Happy fucking American Christmas', but Rena? They sell them in Canada too. James gave me a first-hand account!

This is soooooo where I'd rather be right now..............

I feel like updating you guys with some shit I've been up to. So here goes......
I was away this weekend in Linlithgow and up in Aberdeen with my parents to see my sister. The thing is, I shouldnt have fucking bothered. I ended up spending about 60% of the time argueing with all of them. First off there are the general complaints: 'you look ok just now...except for your face, are those spots, you still look a bit fat' etc. That was a joy but something which I could overlook. Then comes the biggie. They start slagging off Paraguay and saying how unadventurous it is to be going back and why would I want to do that..blah blah blah. Now, as I am clearly Paraguayan I got upset (and for that my darlings, read 'mad as fuck!'). I mean, it is clearly my decision where I go and my reasons for doing so. They are complaining about how much money it will cost to come visit me (although at the same time going on about how they have never been to South America and it'll be great to have an excuse to go and have someone to show them around). I mean, to be fucking honest, they dont have to visit me...I'll be back! It was sooooo annoying, what the fuck?! Not adventurous enough? I'm not a fucking pioneer! Do they really want me to go to the bloody Columbian jungle and get attacked and killed so that they can say 'well at least she was doing something really new!'.

Then, oh yes, there is more. Then, we start talking about Christmas day. Now, you'd think that would be a more happy topic. Mariel was meant to have been coming to Glasgow but now she is going to France which is a shame but ok. Also I'd told my mum that Lotta might come and one of my other friends who is here this Christmas without family. This was all fine. Now, Mariel isnt coming and neither is the other girl but I said to my mum that maybe Lotta and Mikko would come. So she is like 'em, no way. I mean we take in waifs and strays but if they have each other then they dont need to come'. Basically voiding the invitation. I mean, what the fuck? I know they wouldnt be alone but might they not want to come to see a Scottish Christmas or so it wouldnt be just two of them, or that I might want my friends to come and meet my family. (which is something I'm thinking perhaps I dont!) I told Lotta and thankfully she laughed but at the time I felt like telling my mum 'fine then, enjoy Christmas, Im going to cook Christmas dinner for them in my flat!' Where has the beauty of Scottish hospitality gone??!!!! Where I ask ye one and all??!!!

Anyway, however trivial and stupid all that sounds I was well pissed off. I mean, the only person it was worth going to see was my dog (and even with her, she had been up on the couch with me for like 2 hours when my mum tells me she thinks mij has fleas! haha, well, at least she cant talk was all I could think!)

Why is this time of year so full of shite? ...essays, way too much time with family and huge amounts of consumerism!!!!! So my beautifully fun weekend left me with a great desire to get to a sub tropical beach and lie under a palm tree for Christmas. Well, at least next year I will be doing it for real........heaven. Hot sand, coconuts, a few friends and some ocean surf to cool off in. Can't wait.

I was going just put publish but it all feels a bit negative....also had a fucking amazing thursday where started with my 11am tutorial and the tutor being drunk when she turned up for class. Cue her asking us our names about four times (despite having talked to us out of class about a hundred times) and trying very hard to focus and pronunce words with some vowels. She even asked us to say 'hurrah' for the fact she had turned up for class! Fucking hilarious. Then a drinking session with Lotta and Vesa (new finnish boy friend from portuguese class) which went from 1pm when our class was cancelled until like 8 when we went to a thanksgiving dinner where we were kinda drunk so ate so much all we could do was lie on the floor laughing about how full we felt. That was a good day and makes up for a 'fun' weekend.
Also met up with Kerri, Andrea and Kevin for a curry on Friday night, which very nearly killed me after the thanksgiving dinner but was cool to see them..........ye were all talked about in nostalgic 'the gate' days stylee! Was fun to order cos as we were a little shall we say 'affected' we decided it would be a good idea to order 4 nan bread for the three of us eating curry (kevin was running the next day and decided it would be a bad idea). This seemed entirely reasonable until I was in the middle of ordering the curry and got to the nan and realised it was a fucking HUGE amount and started giggling so hard I couldnt say the words and after a few mins had to hand over to kerri. I felt like I was asking for like 72 popadoms to go with our 3 curries.....hmm, suddenly not funny but at the time I was crying......

anyways, if you have read this, well done!!!! (especially if you are rena as you have probably heard all of this already) If not, whatever.........
back to the beach for me!
loves.m.x

I'm sorry but this made me kind of chuckle.
Kind of.

Anyway, look at me! I'm blogging!
I'm a blogging fiend!
A fiend, I say!
A fiend!

This is a heart of snow, found in a small river in Lapland, Finland.

unpopular pears
unnoticed elms

stolen from vision,
deflected from light.

cosmetic actions;
mere pennies in snow

i'll broaden our vision
all can welcome our sight.