Carla Gypsygirl's Blurty

We sooooooooo have to catch up!

Drawing courtesy of Gracie Lee, my cherished and uber-talented friend!

Wow, this suspense thing is getting out of hand. I have even begun writing little suspense teasers at the end of personal emails. Oh, on a slight tangent, can you BELIEVE that it is now socially acceptable to spell email without the hyphen? I could not accept this new spelling as the truth until the day I saw the word "email" on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald. Of course, I have no blimmin' idea what the article was about, because I didn't read it. Anyway: email! Whoa!

Okay, yeah, suspense. I realised that I have a whole backlog of things that I have not explained. And the reason for this, dear readers, is not because I want to keep you all clicking and clicking on my URL until your finger falls off (although that would be quite funny). No: it is because I am so ridiculously BUSY! I, Carla Gypsygirl, am so poopily busy that I do not have time to use the melty hot chocolate thingy that Niccola gave me for Christmas. I am so busy that I am not going to tell you how often I do my washing, because it is yucky. I am so busy that I do not reply to emails, even if they DO have my cherished hyphens! Argh! The perils of living 2 hours away from your workplace!

And so, in updating you on all of the trivialities of my life, I feel as though I am catching up with a friend. In a one-sided sort of way, of course. And so, here is the news, in no particular order...

The weekend
I went away last weekend with my church. We went away to this Christian retreat place in the bush, which felt like it was ages away from the city, even though it wasn't that far away at all. I had a marvellous time. It was the first church weekend away that I have been on where I have been free of issues (eg. sort-of boyfriends with ex-girlfriends, scary talks about sex, no-one to talk to, etc). I was really, really hyper the first day that I was there. I just love being away from home for a bit- it makes me feel so refreshed. I spent time with a lot of my friends, and also got to know some people I didn't know that well. My friend Cheryl cornered me during free time and gave me lots of advice about marriage, jobs and babies. She's a sweetie. I became obsessed with her chubba of a bubba, Cameron- he's a 1-year-old walking MACHINE! I realised how unfit I am, after my legs ached on Monday from a bushwalk I did on Saturday morning. I felt infinitely cool as the youth at the church invited me to hang out with them. After I informed them that, contrary to what they thought, I was not 18, they began to call me "Grandma". It was a lovely weekend of friendship, community, and God's warmth. It has been really great listening to God lately. I have been trying to pay more attention to Him. I feel like I need him more, as things which were once stable in my life begin to spin around me...

Meeting Meiying
A few Sundays ago (don't ask me when), I met one of my favourite bloggers: Meiying! How do I describe how Meiying and I came into contact? It's a tad confusing. Back in the day when I was an idealistic design student, I sent some of my drawings away for a competition called Noise. Meiying was working for the competition (I never asked what she did there, though), and she saw my drawings. Then, during my final year design exhibition, Meiying came across my final year project. I had written my URL on the back of it, and wow, she actually looked me up! Since then, we have struck up a friendship through email and the odd comment on each others' sites (you can check out her darling blog at http://bowb.pitas.com ). We finally plucked up the courage to meet each other on that mysterious Sunday. It would be an understatement to say that I was a bit nervous. I have never met anyone from the Internet before. The thing was, I wasn't scared that Meiying was a weirdo or anything (because hello, how can anyone who likes chocolate THAT much be weird?). I was more worried about what she would think of ME! Like, what if she thought I wasn't as funny or charming as I appear on the web (assuming, of course, that YOU ALL think I am funny and charming)? What if she thought I dressed like a skank (I wore a super-short frilly polka-dotted skirt because I watched Mean Girls the night before)? What if she thought I ordered boring food? To my delight, Meiying was a totally calm, sweet, nice, interesting, talkative, FUNNY AND CHARMING girl! As soon as we saw each other, she exclaimed, "You're real!" We hugged, and trooped off to Passionflower for ice cream. But alas, somehow I ended up with pancakes instead. I don't think that I ever stopped being nervous, but I still had a glorious time. And, I cannot believe I have written about Meiying without mentioning her baby girl, Maeve. As you may or may not know, I am OBSESSED with babies at the moment, and Maeve just stole my heart. I felt a little bad because I asked Meiying more questions about her baby than about herself. Maeve, quite adorably, ate EVERYTHING. She even jammed her fist into my glass of apple juice and grabbed the ice cubes so that she could crunch them. While Meiying might have looked on in horror, I thought that Maeve was adorable and I simply stared at her in wonder. If you are reading this, Meiying, I swear, I was totally not offended. I have seen kids wipe their own poo onto the bathroom walls at the childcare centre I worked at, remember? A cute little girl eating my apples is so not a big deal.

Geoff's 21st
This party was so long ago that it is a bit embarrassing to write about it now. I mean, it is like writing about Sydney winning the 2000 Olympics bid- hello, so yesterday! But, I suppose that is what Geoff's 21st was about- looking at the past. He had an 80's themed party. It was a blast. I strung up metallic streamers, and there was also a real, rotating mirror ball. Oh, and a smoke machine. It was strange being at someone elses' 21st- it's special, but not as stressful. Some kind people (Drew, Nick and Mon-mon) even remembered that it was my birthday too, and got me PRESENTS! Obviously, they know the way to a Gypsygirl's heart. I got mentioned in the speeches, too. Two speeches mentioned nice things about me (thanks, Dave and Dave), and one said that I was the only girl that had said "yes" to Geoff (a sarcastic thanks to you, Mike). Geoff, meanwhile, wore a hideous outfit that was the culmination of many an op-shop trip. Yes, Patricia, he wore the carrot-orange pants. Although I had threatened him with various things if he dared to wear the ancient Nike singlet, he did wear it in the end. And you know what? I thought he looked adorable. I mean, that HAS to be love! Like, I am not kidding, YOU COULD SEE HIS NIPPLES. I, on the other hand, dressed as a 1980's prom queen. Check out the photos for proof. And, you can see that my crazy siblings got in on the act...I can't believe I saw my brother's midriff! I lurve my siblings. And my Geoff.

Gracie
I don't think that I have promised to write about Grace, but I do know that I have promised HER that I will catch up with her soon! Actually, I have promised nearly all of my friends that I will catch up with them soon. That busy thing again- argh! ANYWAY, Gracie is my good friend from my design degree days. She works for a cool girl's fashion company. She designs t-shirts for them, and she is very talented. The reason that I mention her is that she is one of the few things that keeps me sane at work. She sends me these long, hilarious emails that make me giggle a lot. She also sends me TOTALLY ADDICTIVE links. And, she draws me PICTURES! The picture at the top of the page is Grace's depiction of the time we accidentally bumped into each other at the train station. She poked me to make sure that it really was Carla Gypsygirl standing in front of her. And, the darl, she remembered my ENTIRE OUTFIT! I wish that everyone had a Gracie in their lives. She is just so funny, cute, different and cool. I love you, Gracie!

And so ends another post by yours truly, Carla Gypsygirl. Am I off this suspense thing? Probably not. So of course, treasured readers, you must continue to stay tuned. And post me a comment, pleeeeeeeeeeease!

With love,

Carla Gypsygirl xxxooo