Going hard at it...

I'm used to being busy and having a lack of sleep on the weekends but I have encountered a new experience recently, the weeknight schedule book-out. This has been my life since Sunday:

MONDAY - I headed off to my ballroom dancing lesson at 6:30pm. Then after it finshed up at 7:30pm we did what we always do and took a stroll over to Safeway Petrol. Every week we perform the same ritual. Warren says hello to Sam, the servo attendent, I catch up on some celebrity goss, Warren asks me if i'm "gonna buy that?" and everyone makes their purchases. Then we stand outside for a couple of minutes chatting and eventually head back to our cars. This week after the servo, Warren and I had a little make out...er I mean...catch up session (Disclaimer: that was a joke) and I went home about 8:30pm to have dinner.

TUESDAY - I scheduled in having dinner with one of my friends from working at Safeway. Natalie and I promised each other that after I left The Fresh Food People we wouldn't lose touch. Our last social catch up was about 8 months ago so it was definitely time for another. We went out to Lazy Moe's at 7:30pm where I had a chicken burger and ended the evening at Macca's for a caramel sundae.

WEDNESDAY - I had a date down on Keilor Rd for coffee. Arrived at 7:30pm amidst the hail storm. Departed at 11:40pm giving the front and rear demisters a good work out. ;) (Disclaimer: also possibly a joke).

THURSDAY - Snuck out of work ten minutes early to catch earlier train from Flagstaff station to get back to my car to get to Mark & Sonia Lindsay's place by 6pm. I babysat their two cutie children till about about 10pm. They're pretty good kids. I listened to them talk to me kiddy style for the first half an hour. The conversation included discussion about poisonous bugs, this boy at school who said he had been down a black hole, the episodes of Star Wars that I've seen and the definition of a "warlord". Then I watched Neighbours with them, read a story for half an hour after that and put them to bed. This time they didn't even get out of bed once. Little angels.

FRIDAY - Well, that's tonight, and as usual I'm hanging out with Stephanie for CEF (Casual Events Friday). I'm going over to her place to share some goss. I haven't seen her since last Friday night. It feels like forever. But Steph is on exams till Tuesday so she's been busy acting studious. Lol. Can't wait till she's finished. There is some much-awaited post-exam partying to be done. Yes, indeed.

I'm definitely looking forward to having a nice, relaxing weekend. Saturday should be mostly sunny with a top of 23, followed by a low of 13 and a top of 28 on Sunday. Some great Spring weather ahead, Pete. Back to you.

Janelle's Pick-up Rules

Walking back from Macca's today I was thinking about all the "dumb" things that guys have said or done to me that they should've got shafted for but... me being me...didn't. You know, the kind of stuff where they think they're being really smooth but they're actually being really sleazy. Like saying, "Hey, you know what, I've never had sex in my car." or "These windows are tinted so...no one can see in or anything" (followed up with eyebrow raising). Anyway, coming back up to the office in the lift I developed a concept based on Paul's MSN Rules. Paul has a points system for people chatting to him on MSN. In summary, you start out with a certain number of points and if you do something annoying to Paul (which, I might add, isn't that difficult) he deducts points. If you lose all your points, then he will block you. So I thought it to be a good system to put in place for the pick-up scene. All guys will now start out with 1000 points and I will deduct points for the following (in no particular order):

• Asking me what my name is more than 3 times - 250 points
• Asking me what my name is after we've kissed - 500 points
• Not loaning me 50 cents when I'm short on buying my next drink - 800 points
• Spilling a drink on me and pretending to clean it off just to touch me - 600 points
• Picking me up (literally) and causing me to lose my shoe - 725 points
• Licking my nose - 999 points
• Attempting to steal my ID, ATM card, mobile phone, money and/or lip gloss - 500 points per item
• Making references to having sex with me on first meeting and/or asking me home - 50 billion points

It's still a work in progress but that'll do for now until I think of more. If you have any you think I should add, feel free to leave a comment.

For the sake of posting a photo...

This is me, Stephanie and Erin at the uni ball in August.

Busy Little Bee...

What a weekend! I have been a busy little bee...and just when I was looking forward to relaxing after "Assignment Weekend". Here is how it all went down. Friday afternoon kind of dragged and judging by the amount of emails flying around the office I doubt anyone was really doing anything productive. Finally, quarter past 5 came around, I packed up and headed into the boardroom for a few drinks. I like hanging around after work for a chat and to unwind. It's a good opportunity to chat to everyone and they're a great bunch of people. At about 6:30pm (sorry Warren, 1830 hours) I caught the train home and quickly changed my clothes before Steph arrived for CEF (Casual Events Friday). We went round to Blockbuster to hire a DVD and discovered that I had indeed incurred a late fine after holding onto a new release for an extra four days. Upon batting our eyelids at the young, male video store attendant, he agreed to drop the fine from $10 to $6. So, we ended up hiring "Take the Lead" which was quite good and afterwards I was inspired to show Steph some of my dance moves I've picked at Ballroom Dancing. She thought it to be quite funny.

Saturday morning I was forced to set my alarm for 10am to get up. I ignored it for some time and eventually got out of bed to get beautiful. I was heading out to lunch and supposed to rendezvous at 12:30. Unfortunately, I was 20 minutes late which threw off the entire game plan, to see a movie at 20 past 1. However, even though we were nearly 20 minutes late for the movie, the previews hadn't even started yet. What luck! The movie was "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." And I've decided that I have a weird sense of humour. Often laughing at moments where everyone else is quiet. And the kind of laughing where you get going by the initial joke and then stop, think about the joke and start up again. Good times, good times. During the arvo, there was a sudden alteration to my evening plans meaning that instead of Steph picking me up at 6pm for our trip to a party in Ringwood, she was picking me up at 5:30pm. I lost track of time, as it were, and rushed home at about 5. I think I'd been home for a total of 30 seconds when she arrived. I made a quick change of outfit, threw some stuff together in a bag for overnight stay and away we went on our voyage. I was on navigation and I must say, the drive was rather pleasant. We arrived in Ringwood at about 6:30 and from there we bounced from house to house meeting new people and eventually ended up at the correct party. It was an interesting evening. I discovered that the subtle blonde highlights I've recently had put in my hair, have possibly effected my level of intelligence in certain situations and Steph got hit in the head with a piece of celery. Top night. We managed to get home safely and I stayed the night at Steph's with a quality sleep. We woke at about 10am, well actually Steph woke at 10am and whispered "Are you awake?". I thought she was talking to me in my dream at first but after the "Pssst. Nellllllie, are you awake?" I realised it was all too real. And I groaned. She laughed. It turned out that what she had to tell me was worth waking up for. There's nothing like a good giggle first thing in the morning.

So, now we're up to Sunday, Steph and I got up for our leisurely breakfast and then launched straight into getting ready for the day. She had to go to work and I had quite a few things to do myself. After she dropped me home I headed down to Porky's for lunch with the gang. Vegetarian pizza with ham, no olives. Mmmmm. From there it was back home to organise my order of service for that night's R7 and over to my auntie's for her birthday afternoon tea. That was a rather brief visit I might add cos I had to go down to the church to start music practice. The practice went pretty well and so did the service. I had a great bunch of musos to work with. Plus, I honestly felt that God was working right in there too. So, that was that. Another weekend over. Often when it goes so fast and I don't get time to relax I feel like I've missed out in some way but really looking back over all the stuff I managed to cram in there. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way.

The Five Love Languages: Janelle Revealed!!!

My primary love languages are probably
Physical Touch and Quality Time.

Complete set of results

Physical Touch:		10
Quality Time:		10
Words of Affirmation:		5
Acts of Service:		4
Receiving Gifts:		1

Take the Quiz!

Janelle Wins 1-0 !!!!!

Sit yourself down cos this is gonna take awhile. Well, chances are you're already sitting so here we go. The rules for assignment weekend were set:

• Must reach 2000 words by Friday or no going out Friday night (great motivation)
• Must reach 4000 words by Saturday or no going out Saturday night (even better motivation)
• Must finish assignment by Sunday night or fail co-op year (ultimate motivation)

I set my alarm for 8:30am on Friday, got up, went and got all my materials required for assignment writing and sat down at the computer. I started with the introduction which took awhile to get going but once I hit the body of the report things were flowing along nicely. I didn't move from the computer all day, except once to pee, and thanks to my mum I didn't starve, she brought breakfast and lunch to my desk. At quarter to 5pm I wrapped up at a word count of 2011, went and had a shower, got dressed up and headed out to Stephanie's place. Her parents were kind enough to drive us out to a party in Warrandyte, at which we had a few drinks and I got home at about 1am. Saturday morning I was up again at 9am and back onto the assignment. I allowed myself to get a little distracted on MSN this time but still managed to get my word count up to 4071 before I finished up at 6ish to have dinner and get ready to go out again. This time it was down to Metro in the city for Steph's brother's birthday. I had one vodka and OJ, two cowboy shots and a Smirnoff black, followed by a whopper with cheese at Hungry Jack's. Knowing there was still a chunk of assignment left to do and Sunday was crunch time I headed home at 2am to get some sleep. For some reason, even though I had planned a sleep in I woke up bright and early at 9 feeling rather alert so I dragged myself back to the computer for one last round of typing. I got the actual assignment done by early afternoon at a word count of 5163 however it took me hours to muck around with the formatting and bibliography. In usual RMIT style, I was locked out of the database where I got some of my references from so couldn't get back in to find out the publisher details etc. Took me half an hour to work out how to renew my password and retrieve the information I required. I slumped into bed at 10:30pm and spent the entire night dreaming of typing on the computer. System overload. I was 40 minutes late for work on Monday and when I stuck my memory stick into my work PC so I could print it all up, it wouldn't register. Typical, something had to go wrong. I got onto the IT guy after trying to hunt down old Pauly Pops with no luck, and all was fixed. I dropped the assignment in the box on level 15 at RMIT at lunchtime with a kiss for success and walked away feeling proud of my achievements and rather free. I suggested a nudey run down Collins Street to Steph but for some reason she didn't go for it. Anyway, thank you blog readers for your support and for bearing witness to this extraordinary achievement.

Janelle vs. The Assignment

Well, it's been a week since my last post and I probably shouldn't even be posting now either. My one and only uni assignment for the year is due on Monday and I haven't even really started it yet. It's 5000 words (being the minimum requirement) on the different types of business structures and their tax implications. The idea is that you're supposed to work on it bit by bit throughout the year and not try and squeeze it all into the three days before it's due. However, what kind of nerd would actually do that? After working for a full week I've got far better things to do with my time than immerse myself in some more accounting.

So, now the deadline looms and I've already gone through several phases of feeling for this piece of ASSessment. Up until Monday of this week I was calm, cool, collected and rather casual about it. Then it actually hit home that I had less than a week to pull this off. Arrrggghhh! So, I panicked a little, started kicking myself for not starting it earlier before I realised that a week was plenty of time if I just worked on it at work. So Monday morning I headed into the office, used the morning to clear my desk of all urgent matters and then after lunch got stuck into some reading. After an hour my boss came around and asked me to get onto a particular job immediately. Damn! So, my assignment went by the wayside and I panicked again as I realised that I wasn't going to be getting anywhere on it at work. I started thinking about worse case scenarios, emails requesting extensions, days off work, me actually finishing it and then dying on my way to the assignment box to hand it in, having spent the last weekend of my life studying. I actually became rather annoyed at everything and everyone, mostly my boss. Then I took some advice from my old mate simmo and went and spoke to my boss about it. Pretty much the first thing he said was, "Take Friday off." So now I have an extra day up my sleeve to kick some assignment butt and I'm feeling like it might actually be achievable. I also have party prospects for Friday and Saturday night so we'll see if I can fit those in too. I'll let you know how the battle ends.

Something else I have been pondering...to miniskirt or not to miniskirt? Yes, that is the ultimate question. Stephanie thinks no, it's definitely asking for trouble, and usually I would trust my best friend's instincts (we all know she's right) but I can't help it, I love my mini. Play it safe or take a walk on the wildside? What to do, what to do...

Mediocre Wednesday...

This post isn't about anything in particular. I just thought I should advise all of my beautiful blog readers out there that my spirits have now been lifted and I sense that I'm on my way up to another high point. It seems that my recent post regarding my acquatic low point inspired many people to continually ask me if I'm "ok". I would like to thank those people, you know who you are, simply for giving a crap.
In other news, life has been rather dull of late. Well, not dull in the sense that I have had nothing to do but dull in the sense that nothing out of the ordinary has happened. I had casual events friday (CEF) with Steph where we went to Highpoint for a shop. There's nothing better than a relaxing browse through clothing stores with my best bud after a hard week at work, chatting about everything from exceptionally horrible fashion styles to serious emotional issues. We ended our little spree with a hot chocolate at the pancake parlour, highly enjoyable evening.
Saturday night, Steph and I headed out to Billboards in the city. Finding ourselves a generous friend to take on the role as designated driver we had a drinky kind of night before wrapping up relatively early (bout 2ish)to kick on at my place. And when I say "kick on" I mean, drink the left over Bailey's from Steph's 21st and roll around on the floor giggling. Sunday I was up and off to lunch with the church gang at Cafe Lomah and then with a sudden burst of energy went to visit my nine year old twin cousins and my auntie where I was forced to join Stardolls and stupidly used my real birthdate for my profile. How embarrassing. I am probably the only 20 year old member of "Paperdoll Heaven".
Work is kind of average at the moment. I have a lot on which makes the time go quickly but my boss is in a "let's tie up all our loose ends" kind of mood so I've had to review all the jobs I have on the go, work out why they have come to a hault and then do something to get them underway again which usually involves hassling a client as to why they haven't gotten back to me. This is on top of all the other stuff that I'm working on at the moment so I'm feeling a little swamped. It seems I have quite a bit of responsibility for an undergrad. I'm thinking of requesting that they hire me a personal assistant.

Updating my blog...

switch on simmo!! says:
i'll tell you who i do fancy though?
Janelle says:
who?
switch on simmo!! says:
i'll give you a clue
switch on simmo!! says:
she likes the beach
Janelle says:
hmmmm
Janelle says:
i don't know
switch on simmo!! says:
you could try having a random guess
Janelle says:
sweep
Janelle says:
?
switch on simmo!! says:
GGRRRR
switch on simmo!! says:
i was gonna have fun with that!
Janelle says:
lol
Janelle says:
too good
switch on simmo!! says:
you rock
switch on simmo!! says:
update your blog
Janelle says:
alright

Have you ever been low?

It could just be a bit of Monday-itis and I'm still really tired from the weekend but I generated this theory this morning that I've been in a low point for the last week or so and just haven't realised it. Sneaky little low point. It managed to creep up on me cos instead of being your average low point where just something monumentally negative happens there isn't a particular reason why I should have a low level of happiness and wellbeing. There's no massive event that I can pinpoint and say "I feel crap cos of this". I just have a general negative vibe going on. And this morning when I realised that I don't feel like my usual self, I realised that I have felt this way for awhile. I usually feel like I'm on top of everything, that nothing can get me down but lately little things have just been piling up and it's turned into this general low point.

Here's my little theory. Everyone has compartments to their life. You know, family, friends, work, uni, whatever. If one compartment springs a leak, something isn't quite right (seems I'm turning this into a boat analogy here, try and stay with me) and that's not too bad because you can just stand there and temporarily plug it up. But if another compartment springs a leak, well, you can't be in two places at once to plug them both up so one's gonna let water in. Then another leak happens and before you know it, the ships starting to sink. That's what I feel like. Little things just keep going wrong, of which by themselves are not that hard to handle. But collectively, they're starting to sink my ship.

Weekend plans...

Well, I've been trying to think of something to post for awhile now but nothing really interesting has come up. Although, looking at the weekend ahead I'm sure I'll have something exciting to post by Monday. Tonight I'm going out shopping in the hope of finding a dress to wear to Stephanie's 21st which is on Saturday night. Yeah, I know, I've left things to the last minute once again but what are you gonna do? Friday night I'm going to a birthday dinner for Tash (friend of Carris', also friend of mine, yay!) and then Saturday there's going to be a few things left to do before Steph's big part-ay. I have to put the finishing touches on my speech and acquire a few more props, load up on some "janellcohol" from the liquor department at Safeway and then not only get myself ready for the party but pack the car with everything but the kitchen sink. And it doesn't end there. Sunday, I've gotta go straight from Steph's down to the church at 3pm (probably with a hang over) for a music practice and then the R7 Big Event is on and it's gonna be awesome. That brings me to about 9:30-10pm on Sunday night upon which I will return home, fall into bed and wake up monday morning to begin another week of work and hopefully have something intriguing and thought-provoking to post for my readers.

Miss Self-sufficient...

Young man serving at counter + My irresistable smile = Delicious, freshly made croissant at a discounted price.

Independence week continues...A minor hiccup on Wednesday where I left my car headlights on and had to go all the way back to switch them off so my battery didn't die but other than that things have ran rather smoothly. I even hemmed my own pants last night before bed. I've been out every night this week and it's been interesting to not have to answer 20 questions upon my return. Instead, my housemate (that's Daddums) just says "Where did you go?" and I say "Keilor Road" and he says "Where?" and I say "Keilor Road" and he says "Oh".

The house is quieter too. I mean, I thought the house was quiet after Pauly moved out but now it's super quiet. No clanging around in the kitchen. Well, better get back to work and/or talking on MSN.

Oh, and a shout out to Boron. Du bist völlig heiß. Küsse für dich.

Miss Independent...

First of all, I have another fun fact. A one minute kiss burns 26 calories. I'm still trying to figure out why that is. I mean, could you burn that many calories from exercising your jaw? Or is it that you're being deprived oxygen, which I think would raise your heart rate? I don't know. Anyway, all you fatties out there, time to get pashing.

More to the point of this post, I'm on my own for the rest of this week. My mum has gone to visit a friend in Sydney. Of course my dad will be around but let's face it, he's not much help to anyone without a hard drive. Therefore, Princess Janelle is fending for herself, having to drive herself to the train station every morning. It's gonna be a tough week. But don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Miss Independent, Miss Self-sufficient...

Last day in August...

It's a beautiful day today isn't it? It's the first day for months that I have walked out of the office at lunch and not been hit with a cold rush. I stepped out today and as usual tensed every muscle in my body expecting to feel the cold chill until I realised that it was warm. It was warm!!! Tomorrow we are officially out of Winter and into Spring. The season of birds singing in the tree tops, sunshine bursting through the clouds and...mating rituals. Yes, that's right. And I launch into this spectacular time of the year still on my high point. I am yet to descend from cloud nine. Everything is still great. Work is great: plenty to do, time passes quickly and I'm picking up a tonne of new skills including a telephone voice I never knew I had, primarily used on government employees, kind of sounds like Sandra Sully. Hehehe. My social life is great: able to fit in lots of time to hang out with friends at the weekends. Attend a ball, a cocktail party, a 21st, you know how it is. And finally my love life is great: Just the right amount of guy contact with the least amount of committment. Don't know how long that'll last but we'll see how we go. I'm enjoying just getting to know guys, finding out some interesting things about them. And then there's still more to uncover, ooo, really wanna crack a dirty joke there. I will resist. Don't pretend like you didn't think of it too. So, yeah, all in all things are coming along nicely.

Challenger, ready?

Good morning world! It is another day in Janelle's Reality. I have to say it was hard to get started this morning. No motivation really, to get out of bed. But here I am...at work. Probably shouldn't be blogging huh? I've got plenty of things to be doing. This morning I have a meeting with the academic loser...er...I mean...mentor from uni. He's coming in to check on how my 5000 word assignment on the different business structures and their tax implications is coming along. I anticipate it's going to be a relatively short meeting considering that I haven't started it yet. I can't decide whether to just sit there and admit that I'm yet to type a word on the topic or lie and tell him that I'm right on track with the timeline I included in my proposal (More lies to spin in my web of deceit). Last time he came in here he insulted my boss, my workplace and despite me submitting my information twice to the university he claimed I "failed to comply" and therefore was the last student out of the 120 co-ops to be graced with his presence. The guy's a complete idiot. He got me annoyed pretty much straight away. When he asked me what I planned to do my assignment on, I thought, I'll give you "failure to comply" and gave him what for. I proceeded to tell him that the assignment was an excuse to make students pay uni fees when they don't actually need to go into the uni for the entire year and that seeing the mark for the co-op subjects is pass or fail, as long as the assignment got me a pass I didn't care about it because I believe the real learning is happening here on the job. My boss saw a different side of me that day. In conclusion, you don't piss me off and get away with it and he'll be here soon for Round Two.

Another one bites the dust...

I am quite annoyed. Sometimes I wonder why I bother making friends with guys. One minute they're you're best buddy, the next minute they don't have time for you anymore cos they've found some chick that puts out. Seriously, it's pathetic. I have a friend who I've known since high school, he's been there for me a lot and I'd say we're pretty good friends. We used to talk almost everyday and he means more to me than he probably realises. However, recently he's totally blown me off. I hadn't spoken to him in about two weeks and when I finally caught up with him he said he's been "busy" (ie. "getting busy") with some random tart. I wanted to tell him how annoyed I was that he'd dropped off the face of the earth but I would be risking looking jealous and seeing that we do flirt with each other a bit, it could look that way. Honestly, I don't mind who he sees, he can do what he wants but I hate that I get zero time talking to him now. And eventually when this chick ditches him or vice versa he'll conveniently have time to chat with me again. This isn't the first time this has happened with one of my close guy friends either. There's another one who I haven't heard from for about two years, coincedently contact was discontinued around the same time he got a girlfriend. It's stupid and it sucks!

A bit of blah blah...

It's an exciting lead up to Stephanie's uni ball which I am attending on Friday night. The preparation for the evening spans over the entire week beforehand. Luckily, I bought my dress a good couple of weeks ago which is obviously the most integral part of the overall endeavour so that takes a bit of pressure off. Aside from that, Friday night I went shoe shopping and came out with additionally a matching handbag and diamonte bracelet. As my grandfather would say, I am a sucker for a salesman, or saleswoman in this case. This is totally going off on a tangent here but all it takes is showing a little interest in your customer and instead of walking out with the bare minimim you could end up selling them two things they didn't even plan on buying. So all those bitchy, stuck up, totally unhelpful and uninterested sales girls out there should think about that one. Anyway, so that was Friday night, then Saturday I did a trial balance, I mean, um, a trial run (yeah I know, only amusing myself with that one) on my hair. I'm glad that I did, cos what I set out to do didn't quite work so I've scratched that idea and am going with something else. You do not want to be trying something new an hour before you've gotta leave and find it's a flop and then have to begin something else. I'm actually going as far as chucking a sickie on Friday so that I have the entire day to get ready. This will involve getting up at 9 to make the *cough cough* I'm not feeling well today phone call, then showering and washing hair after a light brekky, painting nails, packing bag for overnight stay, hair styling (depending on what that turns out to be), applying make-up, putting on dress and departing at quarter to 6pm. (It doesn't sound like a lot to do but yeah it'll probably take the whole day) Then I'm off to Steph's house where we will leave shortly after my arrival to proceed to the venue. Usually I would complain about guys having less to do, like just having to throw on a suit, do their hair and that's it but I actually enjoy all the planning and preparation almost as much as the actual evening, it's half the fun. And let's face it, we all like to feel pretty.

Fun fact...

I found out today from my apple juice (under the lid, that is. I didn't think my juice was talking to me) that the average person spends two weeks of their lifetime waiting for traffic lights to change. I wasn't very happy about that thought, it's a pretty big waste of two weeks. Then I remembered not long ago I discovered that the average person spends two weeks of their lifetime kissing. Ok, you got me, I didn't just casually remember that, I have the lid blu-tacked to my computer screen. Anyway, it got me thinking. If I spend as much time as I can kissing whilst waiting at traffic lights then I can decrease on the time wasted waiting for traffic lights and increase time spent kissing. Yeah, I know, you wish you thought of it first.

Irregular activity...

So it seems I've been suspended on a high point. This is very unusual. It's lasted about three weeks now which at first was just great but now it's beginning to worry me because clearly when I come down to a low point I'm gonna come down hard. I have a feeling that something terrible is going to happen. No one is this lucky for this long without a catch. It's just not the way it works. I'm not going to speculate about what certain tragedy lies ahead but I am curious. Whatever it is, it has to be the inverse level of the high point I am experiencing now. Yep, it's gonna be big. I'll let you know when it hits, hopefully I won't be suicidal.

Burning the candle at both ends...

Ever since Saturday night I've been kind of fidgety and can't seem to concentrate on anything for very long before I start drifting off into daydreamy land. Plus, the lack of sleep from that night, that hasn't been made up for, is starting to catch up with me. I'm trying to make myself look busy at work when in fact most of the time I'm just staring at my computer screen or random pieces of paper with a pencil in my hand thinking about something completely different. I just need some time to catch up on all that has happened in the last few days. And a nap wouldn't hurt either.