F is for… Furies

This is a story about the time I drank too many energy drinks and went crazy. And is the reason why I will never take drugs because if this is what happens when I get too much caffeine, imagine how much worse it could get??

It was my final year in college and one of my final assignments too. I can’t even remember what the class was called, something to do with ancient Greek drama. My assignment was writing about the Oresteia by Aeschylus. The story goes that Orestes kills his mother because she killed his father and is swanning around with her new lover and in general being a total b*tch- oh and was planning to kill her son. Even though we're all cheering when Orestes kills his mum, he's still in trouble. Mainly from the Furies.

The Furies are some super scary mythological beings. They are these three old women with snakes for hair and burning coals for eyes who fly around chasing down someone who has done something naughty. Like an evil version of Santa, they know if you’ve been bad or good- so be good for goodness sake! They would basically hound someone to death, the very sight of them was so terrifying that it drove most people crazy. And if they catch you, they’ll kill you in the most hideous of ways. Orestes realises that these ladies will be on his tail so he goes on the run but it’s a little difficult to hide from supernatural beings. Luckily the gods love Orestes and he’s saved, cutting a very long story short.

I had the most fantastic professor for that class whose name I can’t remember. Seriously, can I remember ANYTHING from college?!?! He brought to life all those old and dusty plays, making the comedies funny and the tragedies horrific. The one thing I do remember is that he said something along the lines of “You must never call The Furies by their name. You must always call them ‘The Eumenides’, meaning the Kindly Ones. If you call them that, you can talk about them as much as you want because they'd never think you were talking about them with a name like that. But the second you say their name, it brings their attention onto you and they’ll be standing behind you, suddenly reminded of that thing you did that one time… waiting for you to run”

I still remember him saying that and the way it sent a chill down my spine. Those Greeks sure knew how to spin a good yarn! Anyway, *this* story is getting far too long. I had to pull an all-nighter and I had my bottles of energy drink. It says on the label only to drink one a day. I had four. As I was writing the essay, I realised I had written ‘Furies’ instead of ‘Eumenides’. I remembered my teacher’s words. And I was convinced, ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED, that those old bags were going to come and find me. However, I was more worried about not finishing my assignment in time so I kept writing but I was so, so afraid. Every sound in the night’s silence were the Furies after me. I finished the assignment but was still too afraid to go to sleep. Every time I shut my eyes, I would picture the Furies convening in my room standing around my bed, watching me, waiting for me to wake up.

So in conclusion, next time you find yourself in ancient Greece always call the Furies, the Eumenides. And hopefully I’ll come up with something less nerdy and more interesting for ‘G’.

E is for… Edinburgh

I’m feeling a little melancholy tonight. Not sure why. Although Edinburgh was only my home for six months, I miss it. I think I miss the hope that I had there, hope that absolutely anything could happen. Scotland is most definitely my ‘spiritual home’. Love it to pieces. But I’m a bit afraid to ever go back in case it’s not the same as I remember.

I got to walk with Vikings in a torchlight procession

Visit magical ruins

Discover the best library in the world (complete with secret passage ways!)

While away the hours in beautiful graveyards

Spend hours upon hours wandering through streets that look like this

Watch far too much Gossip Girl and having a headband club and practise giving my best ‘Serena’ impression.

I must try and remember not to romanticise it too much.

D is for… Deadlines

As most of you know because I talk about it 99.999878% of the time (when I’m not talking about celebrity crushes that is), I’m currently doing my veterinary nursing degree. I am right at the time when you need to make a final push and for some reason most of the assignments are due in now. I have about five weeks to go. I can hardly believe it!

I remember when I first started, I was fresh and bright eyed. I was all like “This is not going to be like when I was at university. No siree. I am going to do my homework ahead of time. I am going to do my readings. I am going to do EXTRA readings.” That lasted about a month before I went back to my usual student-y ways of mad panicked study sessions and all nighters to get my assignments in on time. Oh well.

On Wednesday, it will almost be all over. I’ve just got a few more exams (scary, practical ones!) and the odd assignment or two and that’s it. This will really be my last week of full on panic mode. Wednesday is when I hand in my last big assignment. Not that the ones remaining aren’t full on, it’s just that I will actually have the time to do them.

I am not good at meeting deadlines. Well, I get it done but it’s probably due to the stress and anxiety. I can’t wait to be a normal person who doesn't spend her weekends locked in her room and isn’t a manic stress ball.

Today we were watching TV (it’s called a ‘study break’, mum!) and we heard this thump and I had this horrible feeling. I walked into my room and my computer had slid off the bed and landed on its side. BTW, we're talking about my brand new laptop that my mum brought for me. Luckily, it was fine. Probably because my poor wee USB stick had taken the brunt of the impact. It was shattered but was still bravely plugged in. It’s not supposed to be at right angles.

Let me remind you, this is my USB with all the giant assignments on it that I have to hand in. I almost started crying but roomies stepped in. Little USB was still flashing at me, so still working, so we put everything onto my desktop and then I got a loan of a USB from Girl Roomie.

Isn’t he the cutest?!

C is for… Celebrity Crushes (bonus points for alliteration!!)

I thought I'd better continue this alphabet series before I start to forget what letter I'm up to. Oh, celebrity crushes. You get me through the dark days. Where would I be if I hadn't had you? Maybe I'm too old to have crushes on random men who have no idea that I exist but whatever.

Whatever.

My first crush in the world: David Hasselhoff

Oh yeah. This was who I decided to crush on- aged 5. I don’t know what I was thinking. It was Baywatch. Maybe I was attracted to the primary colours? I also watched a lot of Knight Rider and maybe I thought he came with his own talking car.

My animated crush: Dimitri from ‘Anastasia’

As a Disney girl, it definitely kills me that my animated crush isn’t from the Mouse House. He’s super cute, a conman, witty… oh and voiced by another of my celeb crushes, John Cusack.

My high school crush: John Mayer

This was John from before Jessica Simpson, before Jennifer Aniston. Simple, sweet, funny John. Oh man, I had it bad for him!! I really do feel as if he was my high school crush and we took different paths in life. Every time I see him, I kind of go "oh..." and it makes me sad. I just want to sit him down and tell him to concentrate on the music, man!

My celeb girl crush: Zooey Deschanel

Zooey is adorable. She makes me want to dye my hair dark and get a fringe. I love the characters she chooses to play. And she has a beautiful singing voice too.

My five minute crush: Seth Macfarlane

I love his shows and I totally crush on him, but I always forget about him when I’m not watching the shows. I don’t care what anyone says, fart jokes, pop culture references and cut away jokes are funny! And I love his voice too, speaking and singing. Showtunes forever!!!!!

My current crush: Chris Evans... but actually, really, probably, Captain America

An absolutely sweetheart of a character, sweet, honest and brave. Oh wait, and he’s hot. And he has 1940s hair aka hair parted to the side aka my new weakness. I am dying to see The Avengers!!!!!

My runner-up all time crush: Henry Cavill

You guys, he plays World of Warcraft and reads fantasy novels... basically my perfect man. I’m kinda bummed that he’s the new Superman, now the rest of the world is gonna fall head over heels in love with him. I remember the simpler times where he was a suspect on an English crime show.

My all time crush: John Krasinski.

Every time he makes eyes at the camera on The Office, I like to think he'’s making eyes at me :) I'm still a little devo'd he got married, and not to me! But I love Emily Blunt too, so I guess they can have each other.

Who’s on your celeb crush list? Don’t lie and say you don’t have one!!

B is for Balance

And so continues my alphabet series.

Balance is super important and I know that now after spending a week stressed and up to my eyeballs in school stuff. Assignment has been handed in and things look a little clearer now. But it's taken that stressful situation to show me that maybe I need a bit more balance in my life. Not so much play and a little more work. Not that I sit around on my arse all day doing nothing but I think I need to make a bit more of an effort.

This blog post is going to be more like a letter to myself. I want to be able to look back on it when I'm stressed and see what I need to do to sort out that situation. I don't react very well to stress. I have about a week where I'm sitting in the eye of the storm and then the storm hits all over again- until mid November. Then I'm free!

I like to start the mornings getting up a little earlier and spending the time reading my Bible and with God. I find that, for me, it's a good way to start my day. Some days I get up even earlier and go for a run. My body loves it. I personally hate it, but my body loves it. And afterwards I feel better because I already kicked today's butt and it's only 7.30 in the morning!

But really, the only true reason I run is because it means that I can justify eating the junk food that I so dearly love :) And that my friends, is balance.

Sometimes stress is good. On occassion I need to push myself, to only go to bed once I've finished a page of assignments. But de-stressing is good too. Movies, reading, spending time with friends. And sleeping. Sometimes I need to miss my run and sleep in. And that is OK.

I apologise for the two references to bottoms in this blog. It felt right.

A is for... Athena

Yeah, I'm getting all Greek mythology on yo ass! Athena is by far my most favouritest in the Greek pantheon of gods. She is heaps cool. Look at what she is the goddess of (according to wikipedia and verified by my memory)- wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, female arts, crafts, justice and skill.

I enjoy how her skills are all like epic fighting stuff... and then there's 'craft' stuck in the middle as if she was hoping we wouldn't notice :) She was also all about helping heroes to succeed and was always sneakily aiding heroes on quests.

And if that's not enough reason to love her, she's the patron goddess of one of my favourite cities in the world, Athens. It's horribly dirty and smelly and everyone else in the world seems to hate it but I adore it.

There's nothing like being in a city that is as alive as it was thousands of years ago. and where there is history on every street corner. I am also extremely biased because I have been obsessed with the Parthenon since forever so it was amazing to get to walk around the city and be able to look at it whenever I wanted.

This next picture is taken from Mars Hill, where Paul preached when he was hanging out in Athens back in Bible times (yep, I have an Ancient History degree and 'Bible times' is an actual historical era...). It looks out onto some of the places that have been preserved... and then the sprawling city takes over.

And there are hundreds of friendly stray dogs just roaming around for me to befriend. I spent a week there just buying bread from the sweet old men on the street corners, going to the park and sitting on the grass, eating my bread and hanging out with my new dog friends whilst reading a book. I loved this dog so much, I wish I could have taken him home as a souvenir!!! He just sat at my feet and every time I stopped rubbing his belly, he'd look so affronted :)

I loved Greece so much, can you guess what I'm going to do for the letter 'G'????