Elsja Down Under

Happy Birthday to my Oldest Friend July 31, 2007

Well not the OLDDDDDDDDDDDDEST but she is quite old these days!

Nicole is 28!!! TWOOOOOOO EIGHT. TOOOOOOOOOOO OLD!

hehehe

Happy Birthday!!

Again?? Really?? July 29, 2007

Long but funny.

Many of you know the story of my creepy neighbor that hits on me at the gym. Well, for those of you who don’t- I have this creepy neighbor, probably mid 30s who hits on me at the gym. HAHA, ok so… today- it happened again.

The thing about my neighbor is that he doesn’t even know he’s my neighbor. Oh well no biggy there, not everyone knows their neighbors… but he’s lived around the corner the whole time I’ve lived here… and thats going on 20 years!

First instance – He hit on me last year right around Christmas time (2005). Came and told me how he couldn’t just walk by without saying hi to such a pretty girl… blah blah… I was clearly annoyed, but trying to be polite as i worked out. He stuck around for about 5 minutes which is a long time when you just want to work out and not talk to people. I kept trying to look up at the TV for him to get the hint and leave, but it took forever for that to happen. He asked if I wanted to hang out and this was before I had a boyfriend but I pulled some other bullshit excuse out of my ass on why I wasn’t interested. I was 25 at the time. I even told him that I was his neighbor (which I later realized was stupid because he could potentially come bug me) and he still didn’t recognize me. I told my dad when I got home and he explained that the guy had some mental problems or a brain injury or something… ok that explains the creepyness. You wouldnt know he was mentally challenged per se, but you can definitely tell he’s a little strange.

So instance number two… a few months later. This time I do have a boyfriend, so when I see him lurking around my area and finally creeping up to my machine, I was ready and prepared with the boyfriend ammo on the tip of my tounge. I think “what could he possibly say now? Is he going to try to convince me AGAIN to go out with him?” He starts off with the same schpeel… “I could’t walk by without saying hi because you’re just so pretty… blah blah.”

WHAT??? This guy seriously doesn’t remember saying that exact thing to me a few months earlier?? Clearly my dad was right- this guy isn’t all there. After a few minutes of him blabbing I explained that he had talked to me before. He all of a sudden acted like he remembered and said “ooohh… I remember you- let me guess- you have a boyfriend and you are 26.”

Yes and Yes… however the last time he talked to me, I was single and 25.

The woman next to me was really entertained by this guy because he was telling me that it’s good my boyfriend isn’t around right now because he doesn’t trust himself around pretty girls and some bullshit that made no sense but made him sound completely psycho. Me and the eliptical lady next to me just kinda kept looking at each other thinking… “is he for real?” Finally, he left.

The last few months, I have secretly enjoyed many moments at the gym where I witness poor unsuspecting girls get hit on by this guy. Seriously, it’s happened a lot and I’ve decided he has a thing for blondes, because they are always blondes. I always give a little chuckle and think… aww another girl has experienced my pain.

Well so today, I’m on the stair machine and out of the corner of my eye- I see him coming. OOOOH NO. there is no one else around so I just KNEW he was coming for me. I get my ipod and start messing with it to pretend I am just way too busy to talk. It didn’t help. He just walked up and stood there and eventually I had to acknowledge him.

Again, same intro from him. I kinda cut him off and just cut straight to the point… “you’ve talked to me before you know.” Then he explains that it must mean I’m even THAT much more beautiful for him to come up to me TWO times!

Um, try THREE buddy! He clearly doesn’t remember that I’m his neighbor, thank God. I’ll never mention that again! Then he started explaining how not everyone has what I have (yeah except for the 50 other girls per day that you annoy at the gym) and that I am so natural looking and have no body fat.

HAHA! Now i KNOW there is something wrong with his brain.

The best part is when he said “well, since I’ve talked to you before (elsja comment: and NOTHING has come out of it) that must mean you have a boyfriend or you are married.

I just said “yes” and then thought… the statement he just made makes it sound as if he thinks the only reason I wouldn’t date him is because I had a boyfriend. Hmm… a bit cocky if you ask me.

Anyways, I would be way more bitchy to this guy if I didn’t have the inside scoop on his head injury or whatever- I always want to be mean, but then I feel guilty because I don’t know for a fact what his deal is… but seriously- I wonder how many other girls he’s hounded multiple times without even realizing.

I wonder how long it will be before it happens again?

 

Wine Charms July 28, 2007

I’m finally posting some pics. I still don’t love them, but they were my first, well technically 2nd attempt at making cute wine charms. I still don’t think I’ve found an idea that really works for me but I said I would post pictures, so I am. Now I need a dinner party to use them at.

 

 

So What do You Think of Me? July 27, 2007

I’m just curious…. I saw Jill do one of these and thought it looked cool. Take 2 minutes to do it- it’s fun

Elsja’s Johari Window

To see my results – click HERE�

It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… July 25, 2007

Yes, actually it really is a plane. And guess who’s inside that plane??? That’s RIGHT! Andrew! Do you see him??? See… right there… there he is! He’s sitting in the cockpit of that plane, with all those passengers in the back. and maybe a hostie (flight attendant) is even bringing him lunch right at this very moment.

That’s because today is my boyfriend’s first day actually FLYING the planes for Qantaslink. I bet he looks so cute in his uniform (isn’t it sad that I don’t even know how he looks because I can’t see him? boohoo). He’s been studying and training for a few months now and finally there he is… in that plane! Well, maybe not THAT particular plane, but you get the picture!

Now, he is an amazing pilot and has finished with higher scores than other people in his courses. BUT, I have to admit that if I didn’t know any better… I don’t think I woud be too happy if I were one of those passengers and I knew it was his first day on the job. HEHEHEHAHAHA Luckily they won’t know! 

Packing??? July 24, 2007

Yup, that’s right.

Tonight… I started packing.

Well, Kinda. Ok so my mom and I really just organized a few things into one box. But that one box is my first of many that I will be packing over the next month or so. My mom did all the work basically while I sat and watched, but wow, that wore me out. Seriously. Or maybe I’m just tired because it’s late.

Mission Accomplished July 22, 2007

I’ve been searching and searching for a wine bar/cabinet for MONTHS now. Literally months! I’ve found a few that are decent, but they are all cheaply made, or small, or too big or too expensive. My main problem is that all the ones I was finding fit plenty of wine bottles, and maybe SOME wine glasses, and thats IT. I really wanted it to fit all my glasses and maybe some other alcohol bottles too. Soooo I finally sucked it up, spent a bit more than I wanted and bought this one from Cost Plus World Market. After comparing a million of them, I realized that this is just the best of all the things I want in a wine bar. It’s got plenty of space for LOTS of stuff and it’s not TOO giant (it’s about 3 1/2 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet wide). I think what finally sold me on it was the fact that the store would build it for me for free- that is seriously the BEST part! Now I hope that I have room for it where ever we end up living because this WILL be coming with me to Australia… even if the only place it fits is in the bathroom.

As I mentioned before, I had been looking for one of these for MONTHS. I’m the most indecisive person ever so I just haven’t been able to make a commitment to ONE item. I kept reading reviews and pondering the ways I would have to put these items together myself. I had seen this one a few times but didn’t want to spend the money. Sooo, as you can imagine I felt a huge relief after finally buying this today. I felt like i should celebrate. I thought about buying some wine to fill up the bar (and then drink in celebration) but I’d have no one to celebrate with. I wish my boyfriend were here, he’d make these kinds of decisions WAY easier, and they we could drink some wine together.

1 More Thing July 19, 2007

Congrats to Deanna and Mike who had their sweet little baby on 07/17/07. I haven’t actually seen her to know that she is sweet, but pretty much all babies are sweet so I am assuming she is too How could she not be sweet? Aww Deanna’s days of sleep and relaxation are OVER for the next million years!

Welcome to the world Vivian Mia Moore!! I can’t wait to see her!

It’s Been Too Long

Since I posted. Ok maybe not, but it’s been too long without my dear computer. You see, Tuesday morning I handed over my laptop to Emanuel who I work with so he could spruce it up, clean it, make it nice and pretty and wonderful.  I just got it back tonight and I’m SO HAPPY. So far it works great and it’s nice to have a fresh clean start and I can update all my settings and programs and its wonderful! So since I have my computer back, (and blogging abilities) here are just a few little things I’d like to discuss:

1. RSS Feeds. Since Jen kept blabbing on and on about RSS feeds to Dougie the other night (in hopes he would make an RSS feed or whatever for Shannon’s page) I finally decided to make use of these feeds. I don’t even know how they work, but I’ll figure out soon enough and I think once I do, it will only make me a bigger internet nerd- subscribing to all kinds of websites. I can keep up to date on all my crafty goodness and all the happenings with my friends. Woohoo.

2. Bird-b-Gone. Ummm…. yeah…. BEST IDEA EVER!!! I was driving back to work from lunch today and I drove by and office and saw the magic words – Bird B Gone, Inc. A company actually devotes themselves to ridding our lives of birds! I LOVE these people! Let me make it clear, while I don’t want the birds to actually die, I do want them to fly far far away and never hang out in trees or on walls or in bushes anywhere near my bedroom window. I’ve even scared my 4 year old niece with my stories of loud Aussie birds and she flat out told me that she doesn’t want to visit me in Australia because she doesn’t want to get woken up by a Kookaburra! No joke, she really said that. Just like her auntie, she likes her noise-free sleep!

3. Insurance. I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to health insurance plans for when I move and geez I really can’t stand insurance. My best friend sells the plans and I still cannot for the life of me figure this stuff out. I think the parts of my brain devoted to insurance and taxes are just missing. I even contemplated taking a class to learn about insurance and taxes because I just DON’T GET IT! But seriously, it would do me no good. It’s been explained to me 234098234 times and it will NEVER sink in. I will never understand deductibles, max benefits, underwriters, blah blah blah and I will also never understand taxes. Someone please just figure this out for me and tell me what to do!

Posh Rules! July 16, 2007

I don’t really care for reality shows at all… that’s Jen’s forte! And I’ve never even cared for Victoria Beckham (a.k.a. posh spice). She never smiles, blah blah… I don’t follow up on those celebrity blogs (again like Jen). All I really know about Posh is that she was a spice girl, she is super skinny, British and she has a hot husband. But seriously, – I LOVE HER REALITY SHOW! I’ve been hearing about it FOREVER and i had NO intention on watching it EVER! But I just had this channel on while I was working this evening and so I’m watching it and I’m only 30 minutes in and I love it so much that I’m blogging about it before it’s even over!

I don’t know what’s so great about it. She’s just super funny! Really, I mean it.. super funny. Actually – some of the stuff she says isn’t even funny, but the fact that she says it with an accent makes it so much funnier! I keep laughing and laughing. I think it’s great watching a foreigner come to L.A. and adapt. She cares so much about her family and keeps talking about them- it’s sweet. This is so great. I won’t go into too many details, really no one probably cares, but I just want to put it out there that I’ve become a celebreality fan! I can’t even believe it! I’m totally tivoing this show and it will finally give me a show to look forward to.

UPDATE:

DAMNIT!!!!!!!! I just found out this is just a one hour special and it’s not even a new series. WTF! I can’t even believe this shit. All that build up for 1 hour? See… shows just how much I knew about this new reality show. So much for my plans of an exciting summer of Victoria Beckham.

Crafty McCrafterson Update July 15, 2007

So it looks like my crafty skills require a bit of practice. I probably should stick to painting but I really want to be crafty too! I finally got a chance to make the wine charms I was hoping to create. Well, lets just say that my first attempt was… not what I was hoping for. But I had an epiphany today of another idea and so I gave it a shot! So far so good, but I have to wait for the resin to dry and harden before I can finish them so we’ll see what happens. These ones were a lot easier to make than my first versions (I attempted to paint bottlecaps, turns out paint doesnt stick well to metal).

Anyways I decided I love resin and I want to think of other uses for this fun product; however, it’s pretty dangerous and it says not to breath in the fumes- but I never actually smell fumes so I don’t know if I was breathing them in. Probably not a good thing- if I start convulsing out of the blue, you’ll know why. The box also said we should wear gloves… eh… didn’t do that either. Also probably wasn’t a good idea to do my project in the kitchen, where I cook and eat. Eh.. whatev.   I’ll post pictures in the next few days.

�

I Need a Cocktail July 14, 2007

A timeline of my life for the last day: 

13 hours: amount of time the alarm on my phone kept going off all by itself.

20 minutes: amount of time I spent attempting to restart, restore back-ups, etc… to get this to stop occurring.

30 minutes: amount of time spent at the Sprint service center today where they were able to delete everything from my phone to stop the alarm from going off uncontrollably. I also ask why all my calls are getting dropped in my house lately and he says I need to go to the palm website to download software updates.

20 minutes: amount of time spent searching online for software updates, only to find NOTHING. I see a customer service number… and low and behold- its a SPRINT number…. um didn’t sprint tell me to contact palm? but Palm says contact sprint. MAKE UP YOUR MIND PEOPLE.

30 minutes: amount of time I’ve spent so far updating all my contacts and synching data back to my phone

25 minutes: amount of time I was on hold initially before a nice man answered my call and told me, “oh you need tech support for that” (evidently, choosing the tech support option when you first call does jack shit. I was just sent to customer service). The guy says “I know you have been waiting, let me just place you on hold for 1 or 2 minutes and I will transfer you to tech support.”

1 hour: amount of time “1-2 minutes” actually translates to

1 hour, 27 minutes and 48 seconds: amount of time I have been on hold with Sprint.

I’m pretty sure my call is just not even in the queue to be answered anymore, but I’m just curious how long I could possibly sit here on hold waiting for them to answer. I think I’ll just keep the call going and then I plan on writing a big fat complaint letter to sprint letting them know just where they can shove their piece of shit customer service. Usually I’ve never had a big problem, but today’s experience makes my many years of good customer service just get tossed out the window.

�

UPDATE:

15 minutes: amount of time spent writing a complaint to customer service.

4: attempts I made to submit the complaint

Final result when submit button is pushed:

No Maui for Me July 13, 2007

My entire family left for Maui today. Parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew… but not me. For some reason I decided not to go. I Would have had a free place to stay—just would have had to pay for the flight. But no, decided not to go. The last 2 years were pretty fun, but still, I decided not to go. I think there is something wrong in my head. Who WOULDN’T want to go to Maui? I guess me.

 

So instead of hanging out here all week:

 

 

I’ll be hanging out here:

Here’s Your Answer July 10, 2007

So at least 3 or 4 times a week, different people ask me the following questions:

1. Are you definitely moving to Australia?

2. If so, when?

So I will tell you all the answers!

1. Yes

2. I DON’T KNOW!!!!

I have to explain this over and over and over and over to people several times a week, so I am just posting it in the hopes that SOME people may read this and stop asking.

I won’t know when I’m moving until Andrew gets permanently stationed back in Sydney. When will that be you ask? Again, I DONT KNOW!

While I don’t blame people for asking (I certainly would) I just don’t have an answer yet and I wont for at least 1-2 months – maybe even longer. Right now our goal is for me to be out there by October, but that could change at any minute.

Be assured that I will keep everyone posted on my plans WHEN I figure out what they are.

Getting so Old

Here are some things that make me sad about getting old:

1. I hung out with my best friends tonight and we tried to schedule another time that we could ALL get together (mind you there’s just 4 of us) and we literally got to the middle of august in our calendars before we all had a free night to spare. All these trips and weddings and showers and plans that occupy our time as we become adults. We used to hang out every weekend and now we have to schedule a month in advance!

2. Jen claims that we are too old to celebrate our birthday all weekend (“birthday weekends” as people call them). Well, not that I ever really want to do that anymore- but the fact that she thinks we’re too old sucks! That’s ok though cause shannon said if Jen thinks that way, shes just going to turn into a crabby old lady one day while we are all turning 75 and drinking cocktails while we par-tay!

3. Two words: Age spots

4. The idea of going to clubs and bars EVERY weekend makes me want to vomit! Sure, once in awhile fine… but I used to live for going out. Now I just would rather drink wine and watch a movie or something. Actually- I just realized- this point doesnt make me sad at all about getting old. I’m kinda glad I’ve grown up and out of the party mode. While I do enjoy a night out from time to time, It’s cool that I can be content and have a nice quiet night in.

5. Everyone around me is getting married, having babies, buying houses and becoming workaholics. Again, it doesn’t make me sad to think about getting married or buying a house, but having babies and becoming a workaholic are definitely things I’m not ready for.

6. I enjoy crafting and painting and playing cards. Hmm… that doesnt make me too sad actually.

7. Buying household goods and kitchen items excites me more at the moment than finding a cute shirt to wear on Friday night. Hmmm… not so sad about that either.

Ok so nevermind, most of these things don’t really make me sad. But that’s even scarier… maybe I’m actually happy to be getting older! Now THAT is a sad thought!