| 12:09p |
Alternatives to swimming in the middle of winter
Last Wednesday, I was at work putting together these things called style sheets. They are A4 pages with tables on them that show our Winter 2006 range. For each piece that has been designed in the range (e.g. skirt, pant, jacket), I had to cut out a tiny piece of fabric and glue it down onto the page. I'd been doing this cutting and gluing routine for the past 2 days, so by Wednesday, I began to feel a bit bored and crazy. Plus, our office is always overheated (everyone gets really political about how warm or cool the office should be- I am so over it), so I was sleepy, too. Towards the end of the day, I was beginning to wonder if anything could actually happen to you if you were too bored. Like, can you go mad? I looked at the pinking shears I was using to cut the fabric and wondered if I should give my hair a trim then and there- like I said, I was feeling a little bit nuts. Then again, it was also refreshing to feel bored- I spend so much time at work feeling angry and frustrated, that it was actually nice to feel something slightly less aggressive.
So when I left work, I had a small conclusion in my head: that my life lacked excitement, and that I needed to do something different and wild. The two ideas I came up with to change my life were: 1. Find the ocean and jump into it; and 2. Get a tattoo. After a brief moment of thinking, I realised that both ideas were bad. Firstly, I live and work nowhere near the ocean, and plus, it was cold. Secondly, I made a decision when I was 19 (which is another whole story) to never cause extreme pain to myself for the sake of beauty, so a tattoo was out of the question.
Instead, I decided to take small steps towards a more exciting life. I prayed about how I felt while I was on the train...about how I've been feeling that I live an I-love-working-in-an-office lie, and how I've been anxious about my lack of time, and about how I've been missing having close friends. When I got off the train at Town Hall Station, I saw this girl wearing a totally cool skirt- it was short and black, with a black-and-white striped ruffle at the bottom. I decided to be spontaneous and tell her that she looked great in her skirt, and ask her where she got it from. So, in a daze, I walked up to her...and discovered that she was actually my good friend Yvonne, who I went to South Australia with! It was a more-than-pleasant surprise to see her with her boyfriend Cameron. Yvonne was wearing matching black feather earrings and looked fantastic, but of course, her smile made her look even better.
After we parted ways, I began to walk the usual way I do from the train station. But then, being in my new wild and desperate state of mind, I decided to take a detour and check out a record store instead. Like I said, these were tippy-toe steps to a new beginning of adventures and adrenalin. As I browsed the store for albums by The Weekend and Bertie Blackman (they weren't there- I need to make a trip to Red Eye Records soon), I heard someone call out my name. I turned around, and there was my good friend Chris Vanden Hengal, working behind the counter of the store! Chris Vanden Hengal, who was supposed to be in Brisbane! Chris Vanden Hengal, my super-cool art girlfriend who changes the colour of her hair about once a month! We gave each other big hugs and chatted at supersonic speed. We talked about how scary it is to start drawing again, how no-one seems to have the time to hang out with friends anymore, and how we missed each other.
I went home with Chris's number in my pocket, and with feelings of buoyancy and buzziness in my heart. It's amazing what a difference friends and positive human interaction can make in one's life. I praised God in my head for the way He sees all my small sad thoughts, and how whether He answers prayers slowly or quickly, the result is always perfect. It's always great to know that He is there for me. |