Shout-out.
Fully huge shout-outs to
Neely, for
this interview with Michelle from
Mikao's World. Notice this part:
3. If you could hang out with three people off the internet, whom you have never actually met, who would you want to hang out with and why?Michelle of mikao's world
Tracy Jeffries of i like shiny things
Alyssa Nuske of Alyssa's Ramblings
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That's me. I am loved. :o) Yay!
So I watched Labyrinth last night. My husband had never seen it. How could you not have seen Labyrinth?!? It is, like, THE movie of the 80's. I saw it for the first time in about grade 4 of Primary School. It's fabulous. These days, everything would be done on computers, but since it was released in 1986, they used puppets. Oh yes, the puppets are so awesome! I can't put it into words how awesome they are. Especially after you watch the 'Making of Labyrinth' special feature on the DVD. Oh my goodness. So much work was put into it, and so many people! For one scene, they had to have over 40 puppeteers working at once. Needless to say, I want to be a puppeteer after seeing that. What a cool job that would be!*
*Note: I am one of those people who will see a McDonalds commercial and say "Man, I feel like a Happy Meal!", or hear something about a new TV show coming out, and instantly wanting to devote every night of the week to watching it. So it's completely understandable that I'd want to be a puppeteer now. Just so you know.
We're getting brand new computers at work! And since I am on the reception desk, I get a flat-screen LCD monitor! Oh yes. No-one else gets one, only me. Sure, they say it's because people see my computer when they come in, and they want the company to seem all modern and stuff, but I'd like to believe it's because I'm special. :o)
Leonie came into work today, to introduce us to her 5-week-old baby boy, Austin. He is so gorgeous! Ahem. I'm not clucky. Of course not...
Birthday update.
Presents I received for my 22nd birthday!
My husband:A guitar!
Guitar case
Guitar stand
Guitar strap (it says High Voltage)
Two sets of strings
Heaps of picks
A tuner
Mum & Stepdad:Rose gold earrings
A notebook
An organiser
Brother & his fiancé:‘Labyrinth’ on DVD
Brother & his girlfriend:‘Elf’ on DVD
Karaoke microphone
Two karaoke DVDs
Nanna:Punch bowl, cups and server
Step-grandma:$50 (which I used to buy Bethany Dillon’s CD, the book ‘Lights on Tenth Street’ by Shaunti Feldhahn, and a keyring)
Naomi:Notebook
Little notepad
Caleb & Joy:Frisbee
Barbie Easter egg
Two pairs of kitten socks
Rachel:Black top
Red Earth shower gel, hand lotion and body lotion
Brendan:Girls’ nail polish set
So I think that’s it. Yay! And I got 20 phone messages saying Happy Birthday, and two phone calls. And we had a birthday BBQ on Sunday afternoon, and a cake at Home Group last night, and a cake at work today. All in all, I’ve enjoyed turning 22. It’s been great fun. :o)
Meanwhile, I got a call from
Daniel Kay today! I’m starting fortnightly singing lessons on Monday night! Yay! I’m so excited/nervous. I’ll be with Lana, who’s also Keren’s singing teacher. So I know she’s good. :o) My brother was also called, and he’s having lessons with Daniel on Thursday nights. So we can compare notes. What fun. Awesome, awesome times. :o)
Sorry, this is a pretty boring post. But thank you to the wonderful people who left me Happy Birthday comments on the last post, you guys rock!
Happy birthday to me.
It's my 22nd birthday today! Yippee!Today I've received 18 'Happy Birthday' phone messages! I feel so loved.
Lots of cool presents, too. I'll tell all tomorrow.
Love Alyssa.
P.S. This is, like, the shortest post I've done in a long time! It feels strange. I'm officially freaked out.
Letter and randomness.
Dear Crystal,
I saw you last night - for the first time in years - at the Coffee Club, then at Woolworths, then at the cinemas. We said a passing “Hello”, but nothing more. I’m really sorry. Ever since then, I have been regretting not saying more – not reminiscing about high school, not introducing my husband, not telling you how good it was to see you… and most of all, not reminding you how much God loves you. I heard you’ve been going through some tough times, and I’m sorry I didn’t reassure you that everything’s going to be okay.
Why didn’t I say more? What was I so afraid of? At the time, I didn’t think God was telling me to go talk to you, but maybe I wasn’t listening hard enough. It was pretty obvious, wasn’t it? We were in three places at the exact same time (you were even standing behind me in the line at Woolworths), through no fault of our own. It
must have been a God thing… and I missed it. I’ve been kicking myself ever since.
I think I found your parents’ address, so I’m going to send you a letter via them, and hope it gets to you. I just really want to apologise.
Love from Alyssa
-------------------------------
For anyone who’s wondering, my first and second days of walking at lunch were a failure. :o) It’s okay. But I didn’t have any coffee, and I’ve been drinking quite a bit of water, so that’s still kinda good. I got enough exercise from cleaning the house when I got home yesterday, anyway. Wednesday night, being Home Group night (which is held at our house), also becomes cleaning night. I clean madly from about 5:30 (when I get home) to 6:45. Then people start arriving to a {hopefully} tidy house. Perhaps it would be better not to leave cleaning to the last minute, and therefore reduce stress levels, but for one reason or another it never works out that way.
But guess what? Yesterday, I arrived home to find that my wonderful husband had done ALL of the dishes! You don’t understand how awesome this is – there were A LOT of dishes. A LOT. And he hates washing dishes with a vengeance. I will love this man forever.
Aaaaaaargh! Crystal just sent me an SMS, saying that she received my letter, and she’ll write me a letter soon. For some reason that simple message made me really nervous. She’s just a school friend, Alyssa. Calm down. This is the same feeling I got when I was witnessing to my friend Kirsty after watching the Passion Of The Christ with her. But Crystal was a Christian at school, so for all I know, she could still be going strong for God (although I have heard otherwise, but only through someone who heard it from someone else, who heard it from someone else…). I don’t know. I’m just really having mixed emotions at the moment. I can’t even explain it. And I’m rambling, which is awesome.
To be fair, my blog is called ‘Alyssa’s ramblings’, so it’s perfectly acceptable for me to ramble. :o)
I think I'm going to have a hot Milo. I brought a can of Milo and some honey to work, for this purpose. I bring everything to work. I have some tomato sauce underneath my desk right now, in fact. Yippee.
The pursuit of healthiness.
This morning: I’m not addicted… am I? All morning, after deciding that I’m not going to partake of a Very Vanilla Latte today, I’ve been craving one. Badly. To the point that almost every second thought somehow involves my favourite coffee. Don’t worry - I can handle it. I can resist temptation… until lunchtime, when I’m going to go buy one.
Now: Yep, I did it. I bought a Latte. It was so worth it. But I’ve decided that, starting now, I’m going to abstain from coffee for a week. A whole week. I don’t think I’m addicted at the moment, but I just want to make sure I don’t
become addicted. It’ll be really interesting to see my reaction to the situation. Hmmmm. A scientific experiment!
I am also on a quest to drink more water. Daniel (whenever I talk about Daniel, which will probably be often, remember that he’s the singing instructor who took the vocal seminar on Saturday) said that he encourages his singers (i.e. the singers that he teaches) to drink between two and three litres a day. I’m aiming for three, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. And I’ve learnt not to try drinking
the whole amount at once. Even 600mL at once is too much. Can anyone say “bloating”? Moderated sips for me. If I could draw, I would sketch a person looking sick, saying “H2Ooooooo”, the ‘Ooooooo’ being sickly moaning. If you know what I mean. That would be cool. :o)
Thought: I think I should start exercising more (when I say ‘more’, I mean ‘
.’). Oh, that ‘walking-at-lunchtime’ “routine” lasted about two days, by the way. But I think I should start it up again. I’m getting a little pudgy, a bit squishy-around-the-edges. I think lunchtime is still my best bet, because I am SO not good at getting up early in the morning, and after work I’m usually either busy, or tired. So lunchtime it is. Okay, for a whole week, along with the no-coffee rule, I will implement the walking-at-lunch rule. So basically, until my birthday (which is NEXT WEDNESDAY!), I will be all healthy & stuff. Yippee. Then I’ll have a wonderful birthday filled with junk food, coffee and laziness, before going back to the healthiness (if I have the motivation). I sound so committed, don’t I?
Why has this whole post been about health? Seriously, people. What is up with that? Could it be that I’m turning over a new leaf? Departing from my old, non-health-conscious ways? Becoming a better, more ‘hale and hearty’ person? Shaping up?
{'Better shape up, ‘cause I need a man, and my heart is set on you}' Improving my physique? Oh, I like that one. Physique is a cool word.
Speaking of cool words, I
love the word
PROPOLIS. And I love propolis lozenges (throat lozenges for singers, since they don’t numb your throat). I could just say it all day: Propolis, propolis, propolis… {I always think of The Amanda Show, where Judge Trudy says “Mrs Popadopolous… I’ll pop
your Dopolous!” then the bailiff relays “Judge Trudy says she gonna pop your popol… popolop… dop… lous…”}
Okay, I’m done. I got nothing! Hey, at least I can admit it. :o)
Amazing, amazing weekend.
Saturday: Vocal seminar, and my solo. Eeeek. :o) Although I was nervous, and held back quite a bit, the reaction was better than I could ever have imagined. Oh my goodness. One lady said it brought a tear to her eye, two guys said they got the shivers, people said "Wow" a lot. I even got a standing ovation. I almost cried. Truth be told, I was too nervous to think about communicating with the audience (my mind was focused on whether or not it sounded good), but they felt it. Boy, did they feel it.
I was admonished for not feeling anything for the song myself, though (which is true). But Daniel said it could take years and years of practice to be able to feel & convey emotion and passion about what you're singing.
Daniel also taught me an exercise to give my singing more "body". It's called speech-level singing. Kind of saying the words, but with melody. I don't fully understand how to do it, but when I ran through the start of the song again, he said it was much better.
Saturday Night:Fusion, a combined Youth Group event. We had over 350 people at Youth, from different churches around the city. It was awesome, and HUGE. Very much a Planet Shakers atmosphere. :o) I was involved in the Service Teams.
That was the big decision, by the way. I am now a Youth Service Team leader. I'm glad I said yes, because although it'll be a lot of work, I'm really excited about being involved in making the night happen for Craig and everyone who comes to Youth. My team is awesome, too (we just picked members last night, and they don't even know they're on my team yet). Happiness. :o)
Sunday Morning:I was on singers at church, and Keren was leading. She gave me the opportunity to start a song by myself! I had a feeling that would happen, but I wasn't prepared for it to be a praise song! It was 'You Are Worthy', by the wonderful Mike Guglielmucci (my apologies if that's spelt incorrectly).
You alone are King of all kings
You alone are Lord of lords {high note}
You alone, my Lord, are worthy
Worthy of this offering of praise...
I wasn't very nervous, surprisingly, but that's a bit concerning, because Daniel was saying on Saturday that "if you're not nervous, you're dead... and so is your performance". But a little bit nervous is still nervous enough, right? I just see that as an improvement in my confidence level. :o)
Sunday Afternoon:My husband and I went to get sushi with Dale and Jalane. Jalane rocks. We talk really easily now, and we're becoming quite good friends. I think she's fabulous! Oh, and Dale's not too shabby, either. :o)
Then we went home and slept. Especially good for my husband, since he hadn't slept
at all on Friday night (he was setting up for Fusion)! He hadn't slept for
42.5 consecutive hours (from 6:30am Friday to 1:00am Sunday). Craziness. But he's having the day off today, and hopefully it has involved a lot of sleep.
Today has been pretty good. Tonight we're going to our friend Sarah's birthday party, at Hog's Breath Café. It should be fun. We got her a box of chocolates and a fluffy toy baby horse. It is so very cute! I found a picture of it - the horse at the back of this photo (it's so much more gorgeous in real life, though):
Encounters of the strange kind.
I was at Gloria Jeans, waiting patiently for my order, when my boss walked in. There was no overwhelming sense of dread {quite honestly, I thought there would be}, and no awkwardness. I simply felt… amused. Like “Oooh, this is funny, I wonder how this situation will play out!” So after he ordered, he walked up to the waiting area, and said hello. He seemed happy to see me there… because he’s a huge coffee drinker, and I assume he was happy that I’ve jumped in the boat too. Always looking for new recruits, those coffee addicts. He said {smilingly}, “Starting your day the sensible way, I see!”
{{Yeah, why don't I go eat some hay. I can make things out of clay, or lay by the bay, I just may. Whaddya say?}} I laughed. {Come on, you have to humour the boss!} Then we talked about my husband’s car, and the alternator being set on fire because the oil cap was left off, and oil spilt all over the place. {Good times} Then my coffee came, and I left. He’s a really nice fella, my boss. Sometimes I think he looks at me like a daughter. He is protective of me, but reprimands me; he’s friendly and kind to me, but also wants to be respected.
Okay, I’m getting a bit nervous about singing my solo tomorrow. Eeeek. But you know what? It will be alright. Everything will go awesomely, and
Daniel (the singing teacher) will have only a minimal amount of criticism for me, and will say it in such a way that will make me feel like I’m wonderful, but just need a bit of tweaking to become even more wonderful. Yes, he will be a fantastic instructor, full of constructiveness. Yes, he will. Please God, make him
like me! And, more importantly, make Keren like me!
I’ve just recently realised how much I look up to Keren {who is, by the way, in charge of one of our music teams at church, and basically every church event that involves music}. I really, really crave her approval and acceptance as a singer, and honour her opinion above all others. I guess that’s part of the reason that this is such an important step for me… but it’s also to gain confidence, and become a better singer by working on anything I may be doing wrong.
I’m surprisingly chipper today. I really thought today would be a blur, after I stayed up until 1:30 this morning working on a sign my husband is putting together for Fusion (combined Youth Groups event tomorrow night). He’s doing an awesome job, and it’s looking fantastic, but sometimes he asks me to help. And even though I’m very, extremely tired, I give in. Probably not the best idea in the world.
I have a very important decision to make today, and I have no idea what my answer’s going to be. I mean, it’s not life or death {not even close}, but it would give me more responsibility {my husband’s convinced that’s a good thing}, and I’m still deciding whether I want that. Hubby said that, since I’m a Youth leader, I should really be stoked about having the chance to actually
lead something… but it’s not in my area of calling! But then I think,
everything we do doesn’t have to be in our area of calling, does it? No, of course not. Otherwise all I’d be doing is singing, all day every day (until I have children, then I’d be singing and parenting), and doing nothing else. So it’s not a
bad thing to be serving in the house of God in something other than your area of calling, at least until an opportunity arises in your area of calling. Agreed? Yes. So, God? What do You think? Should I do it?
Frustrations, dreams and automobiles.
Frustrating phone conversation:Me – {company name}, Alys… (cut off)
Her – Oh, hi, my cab hasn’t come yet!
Me – Did you order it through {cab company 1} or {cab company 2}?
Her – {cab company 2}. It’s probably not coming, is it? I ordered it for 9:00.
Me – Do you want me to give you {cab company 2}’s administration number?
Her – No, I’m blind. Can you handle it?
Me – I’ll have to get John to call you back. What’s your… (going to ask her name and number)
Her – So I’ll put the phone down and you’ll call me back?
Me – Yes, so what’s your…
Her – OK bye! (hang up)
Last night I dreamt that I had a little 3 year old boy with blonde hair. He came upstairs when I called him in for a bath, and he said, “I saw a tummy downstairs!”
I said, “Your tummy’s here!” and blew a raspberry on his tummy.
He said, “No, not my tummy. Baby’s tummy!”
I said, “Here is mummy’s tummy, and baby’s tummy is
inside mummy’s tummy.” (i.e. I was pregnant)
Then other things happened which were disturbing (let me just say ‘random dismembered arms and legs floating in the bath’), so we’ll just leave it with the cuteness.
My husband’s car broke down yesterday. I picked him up from work and jump-started his car with the good car (our Magna), then followed him in the Magna as he drove to the mechanic. He broke down about five times on the way. Thankfully, we only held up traffic once – he broke down while we were stopped at the lights on a main road. I had to manoeuvre into the lane next to him and he got out the jumper cables right then and there. It didn’t take long, but it was a tad embarrassing. We got there eventually, and even got home in time to clean the house for Home Group! An eventful evening, that’s for sure.
Gorgeousness.
Note to self: Never again drink a large Gloria Jeans coffee in the morning to ease your hunger. It works TOO well. Then you won’t be able to eat for the rest of the day, but end up feeling sick because you haven’t had any nutrition. Yep, it has happened. *ahem* A couple of times.
It’s no secret that I want babies – just look at my {recently updated} blogroll. Parenting blogs galore. Yessiree. (Is that how you spell yessiree? Or is it yessirree? Or yesiree? I don’t know. It’s looking weirder and weirder.) But I’ve come a long way. My husband asked me why I haven’t talked about babies in a while. I was like “You told me I couldn’t talk about it for a year!” But he said he changed his mind, and that he wants to talk about it. That’s positive, I guess. But I’ve used up everything I had to say about wanting babies, and now I’m just left with a longing in my heart. Like the wind rushing through the trees, so my heart yearns… That doesn’t make any sense. But I don’t really have a point, so I’m going to stop now.
Today is very interesting, in a boring way. At lunch time I get to read my wonderful book, and I’m happy about that. I also have to write two dreams {from last week! I’m slack} in my dream book thingy
(update: it's five minutes until the end of lunch, and I still haven't done it. I'm still slack). The first one I was a bit hesitant about writing, because in it, I was…
in love with another guy! But to be fair, I had only known him for about two minutes, I had swapped bodies with another girl (so I was really falling in love with him for her), and he was also gay and had a boyfriend. So it would have never worked out. *sigh* Unrequited love is so very tough.
Today I’m wearing a white shirt. Today I had coffee. Today I spilt the coffee on my shirt. I’ve cleaned it as best I can, but it still looks bad. Maybe not from a distance, though. Solution: don’t approach anyone today. Just stay away. Come on, Alyssa, you can do it. For the sake of your reputation as a clean-shirted woman.
You know when you read something about kids that makes your heart melt, and you get all clucky, and want to have a baby right now? Electric Boogaloo does that for me every time I read it. Nicolaus is the most gorgeous kid in the world! So far, anyway. Until mine are born. Then they will be so wonderfully awesome, and I’ll be all like “Who’s Nicolaus?”
Okay, so I think that’s all I’m going to write for the moment. {“Praise the Lord!” you say} Except, did you know my most-used phrase is “Have a fun time!”? Even if the person involved is not going anywhere special. I just say it. Who knows why? No-one.
The narrow road.
Guess what? We’re having a vocal seminar at church next Saturday. Awesome, right? This is even better – I’ve been chosen as one of five people to PERFORM SOLO, in front of everyone, and be critiqued by the instructor! Keren asked me to sing ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’, because she has the backing track for it. It will rock my world, I can tell you. I’m fully excited! Well, excited about the performing part, not being critiqued. But whatever he says, at least I’ll know what to work on, so I can improve. Yay!
Did you ever know that you’re my hero…The book that I’m reading, “
The Narrow Road”, is another thing that’s rocking my world. It’s fabulous. Here’s a part that really touched me:
Uncle Hoppy’s own store-front mission was something of a puzzle to me. Its doors were always open, and occasionally a stray derelict would wander in, but only for a snooze or a bit of warmth; when it came time for services, Uncle Hoppy usually found the chairs empty. This didn’t stop him. I remember one day hearing him preach an entire sermon to the empty chairs.
“You missed out appointment this time,” Uncle Hoppy said to the people who somehow had not found their way in. “But I’ll meet you out on the street, and when I do, I’ll know you. Now listen to what God has to say to you...”
When the sermon ended, I objected: “You’re too mystic for me,” I said. “When I get to preach someday, I want to see real people out there.”
Uncle Hoppy only laughed. “Just you wait,” he said. “Before we get home we will meet the man who was supposed to be in that chair. And when we do, his heart will be prepared. Time and place are our own limitations, Andy; we mustn’t impose them on God.”
And sure enough, as we were walking home we were approached by a streetwalker, and Uncle Hoppy plunged into the conclusion of his sermon just as though she’d sat spellbound through the first forty minutes. That night I slept in front of the fire again, and by morning this indefatigable contractor and his wife had a new convert to Christianity.That is amazing. I just can’t get enough of this book. I read three chapters last night after my husband went to bed. Then I went to bed, but could not get to sleep. I felt urgency in my heart to read a chapter of my Bible. So I read Philippians 4, then went back to bed, and fell asleep straight away.
God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good. :o)
The effects of caffeine.
So there is still a slim chance. Even though I’ve given it to God, I still haven’t given up hope. Why? Because some of the things that have been happening don’t make sense without the answer being ‘yes’. They really don’t. We’ll see what happens.
Last Saturday, my husband let me sleep in until 11:30! I really hope the trend continues. You would not
believe how exhausted I’ve been lately. Even (and this is not a good thing) on the way to work. Yes, I drive. Bad bad bad. I am
so getting a large Crème Brule Latte this morning! (Anyone else think I spend way too much money at Gloria Jeans?)
Did you know, the Sleep section of the BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk) actually
recommends caffeine to wake you up? Does caffeine have any negative side effects? I guess it does if you drink too much, but one cup of coffee when you’re feeling tired would probably be fine.
Speaking of caffeine, we had heaps of people (i.e. seven, not including my husband and I) come over last night to play cards, and they brought lots of Coke. I didn’t drink any. I would usually scull it down with the best of them, but last night I drank cordial. And
water. I was proud of myself, and also a little freaked out. But mostly proud. :o)
Follow-up.
Yep, it’s unattainable again. But it felt attainable (very much so) for about a week, and that was awesome. So I’m happy. :o)
I went for a walk yesterday at lunch. I have found a new love for it; so I’ve decided that every lunch-time I will walk for 20 minutes, sit down and read for 20 minutes, then walk for another 20 minutes. Not only will I get to read my new book “The Narrow Road” by Brother Andrew with John & Elizabeth Sherrill featuring Jars of Clay, but I will also get fit. I’m excited!
We have people coming over tonight to play cards. Joy. These people are really competitive about their card playing, and are bad winners. They tend to rub it in our faces if we lose, or if we make a ‘silly move’. But it’ll be OK. I think. I’ll try to make the best out of it.
I’m feeling a bit strange at the moment, kind of light-headed. I don’t think that’s a good thing. Maybe I need to eat something. What’s that? Pickled onions? OK, if you insist! Mmmmm, pickled onions. :o)
The waiting game.
Sometimes it seems so unattainable and so far away, but right now it feels like I’m almost there. Yes or no? It’ll all become clear very soon, but until then I’ll just have to wait in unbearable silence. My mind is playing tennis with itself – back and forth, back and forth – one moment the answer is obvious, the next moment doubt takes over. This game has been going ever since the possibility arose, with no outcome… Yet. Soon, very soon. Just wait.
Yes, the waiting game is annoying. Yes, I am very, extremely impatient. But it’s OK, because I can handle it, whatever the outcome. If it’s no, there will be plenty more opportunities anyway. If it’s yes, that’s awesome, but not the ‘be all and end all’ of my life.
Cool. :o) God is awesome.
