30 Days of Me - Day 4 - Bad Habits

When I was little I bit my fingernails. As in, down to the quick and then splitting kind of biting. Ouch.
My parents tried a lot to get me to stop - including horrible tasting clear nailpolish. It didn't work.
The only thing that stopped was getting braces at age 12. I simply couldn't get my stumpy nails to my teeth on order to bite them.
But that doesn't really count.
 
I do still bite off (and eat) the flesh beside my fingernails. Not until it bleeds and/or looks unsightly, but it's not the nicest habit.
It also makes me curious about how much human flesh one must consume before one is at risk of a prion disease.
 
I correct people. Too often. On their grammar and spelling mostly.
My pet peeves are: the less vs fewer rule, the oxford comma, and nauseous vs nauseated.
 
I can also be a religious bigot.
I recognise this in myself and I try my hardest to resist but ... I can't help but feel that an intense and fundamental belief in mythological beings speaks to a paucity of intelligence. I do make the distinction that it's (on the whole) people who are fundamentalists, who proselytise, or who feel I am deficient because my spirituality is more fluid and syncretic.
I don't have the hubris to presume that we can either know or not know about the existence of supreme beings (but I find calling myself agnostic ties me too closely to the judeo-christian mythos).
It's ironic that my two closest friends are quite religious. Christian and Jewish. But they have never attempted to change my beliefs and I accept theirs as just another facet of their sparkling personalities. Not flaws, facets.
 
I use polysyllabic words when monosyllabic ones would suffice.
I just prefer rolling the syllables around in my mind, and it makes life more interesting when it contains more words.
But some people can see it as intellectual snobbery.
And it confuses Craig at times.

30 Days of Me - Day 3 - Friends

Oh dear, oh dear.
The trouble with being mainly behind the camera is that you end up in so few photos.
Also, I only have my fancy camera, and abhor the flash, so I honestly don't tend to take my camera out when I'm out with friends.
Also also, there are TWO days in this 30 Days of Me thing where a photo of you and friends is requested. That's just cheating. So I, instead, will feature one of my closest friends on each of these days. For I am a rebel.





This is Kat. She blogs at Humming Along. She is just lovely.


We were at creche together, or so she tells me, but the first I remember of her was at Intermediate School (age 11-ish).
She was absolutely teeny (the only time I was ever taller than her) with coke-bottle classes and her strawberry-blonde hair cut into a boys bob for a musical theatre role.
We weren't friends. We went to different high schools.


We met again when she came to my high school for our final two years. Again, we were more acquaintances than friends. But we were thrown together repeatedly as we studied the same sort of arty subjects and loved drama. She made me laugh, a lot. We used to keep quote books where out of context phrases were written down, to hilarious results of course.


I don't remember exactly when I realised that she was so important to me. But it was a few years ago.


Kat sung at our wedding. She performed Tori Amos' version of The Cure song "Lovesong" and I remember standing with Craig, gripping his hand, while our wedding register was signed and our marriage became legally binding, blinking back tears because she was just wonderful.


She also wrote us a song, The Middle, which I barely ever listen to because I never fail to cry, but which remains one of the most amazing presents I have ever, and suspect will ever, receive.


Kat lives in Edinburgh now, and I am forever grateful that she blogs and uses Twitter. I miss her a lot (a LOT) but this near-daily contact ensures that I feel as close to her as if we were not thousands of kilometres apart.


The Middle by Kat McKenzie

So this is what I know for sure
That when a brown-eyed girl met a blue-eyed boy
It set the world afire
And the light could not be kept from any door

And I've seen what no one else has seen
And I've been where no one else can be

I don't want the end
I want the beginning and the middle with you
All holes we can mend
I want the beginning and the middle with you

I'll see the middle with you..

And every day before you came
Were just in waiting for the one I knew would fit
So when you looked my way
Something stirred inside me, more than I'd admit

Don't want to face each day alone
Can't unearth all these seeds I've sown in us
I'm happy when I know you're home
Your voice on my telephone

You're my own sweet dream

So let me kiss you just once more
Before I know that I can do it for all time
Bind our hands as one, this day
So I'll be sure that I am yours and you are mine

And I'll be wherever you will be
And I'll see whatever you will see
And we'll be whatever we will be now

We can't see the end
I'll have the beginning and the middle with you
All holes we will mend
I'll have the beginning and the middle with you
I'll see the middle with you.

I know this time
Know this face
Know what's coming around
I know I won't be this
With anyone
With anyone but you

I don't want the end
I want the beginning and the middle with you
All holes we can mend
I want the beginning and the middle with you

I'll see the middle with you.
Let's have the middle.


Turns out? I can't even read the lyrics without tearing up.

30 Days of Me - Day 2 - Blog Name

Oh! Darling, please believe me
I'll never do you no harm
Believe me when I tell you
I'll never do you no harm
- Oh! Darling by The Beatles

I started this blog a year or two ago (actually, it was August 2005) when I was in the middle of wedding planning.
And yes, I named it Oh Darling after The Beatles song (which wasn't actually included in any of our wedding music) and bought ohdarling.net.nz ... but of course I don't have the internet skills to host an actual site or anything like that so it's secretly (not so secretly, really) called sarah-craig.blogspot.com as this was also back before I started using Sarah-Rose full time.
Back when I was plain old Sarah*.

Also, in my mind, Oh Darling is said with a crisp british accent, and a querying tone.
As in "Oh, darling? could you pour me another glass of wine?"

I was @ohdarling on twitter too, when I started using it in 2007. But after twitter exploded and I was tasked with setting up and running a[n UNDISCLOSED] work account I changed it to @ohsarahrose so it hinted at my website but also included my actual name. Much less embarrassing when it came to showing people in the office how twitter worked.
And it kept them away from my website for a while. Not long, of course, because it's linked from my facebook and, well, I tend to tell people about it ...


* One of my enduring memories from primary school is of a horrible nick name. Our class was reading "Sarah Plain and Tall" and, being decidedly NOT tall, a lovely little friend of mine called Kate decided that my new nickname would be "Sarah Short and Fat".
I wonder if she knows that such a silly little comment has stuck with me for decades, and seriously seriously messed with my self esteem? I doubt it.
Horrible girl.

30 Days of Me - Day 1 - Facts

Self-Portrait featuring the glass of wine which made me think this was a good idea

1. My favourite icecream flavour is Mint-Chocolate-Chip and my favourite candy is Snifters. Both have been discontinued in New Zealand. This is supremely annoying.

2. I swear like I come from the 1950s. I say damn and blast and shoot and bother. They are much more fun to say. But if I do want to swear, then I can swear like a motherfucker.

3. I have a degree in Criminology and Religious Studies. A bachelor of saints and sinners*.

4. Craig and I met when I was 16 and he was 17. We've been together ever since.

5. I'm related to acquitted murderer David Bain. Distantly.

6. From the ages of 12 to 26 my hair has only once been shorter than my shoulders. It's mainly been close to my waist. It seems I'm a long hair girl.

7. I love language. Words are beautiful and among my favourite things. Vespertine is my favourite. It means “of the evening” and I have it engraved on a bracelet. I also know two poems off by heart - The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll and Spring by Gerard Manly Hopkins.

8. When I was at high school I played Pauline Parker in the school play "Daughters of Heaven" - I kissed a girl on stage, left a legacy, and won a drama award.

9. I'm quite obsessed with Lindow Man, Stingrays, and Charles Manson. I am also intrigued by my insanely high caffeine tolerance.

10. I used to have very very very little interest in politics. Yet somehow I ended up working (somewhere unspecified) at Parliament. And now? against my better judgement, I am interested.

11. I've seen David Bowie and Marilyn Manson in concert and cried at each. I just never thought I would ever see them in person. It's not an every-concert thing. I promise!

12. I can't drive. I can bend my pinky fingers in half while keeping the rest of my of my fingers straight. I don't think these two things are related.

13. I'm very pale. Like, nearly blue pale. I also like having bruises, I think they offset my pallor nicely.

14. I pierced my own belly button (it got infected & I had to take it out. SHOCK), tried to pierce my own nose, stretched one of my 3 ear piercings to 0g, and have 5 tattoos. But I’m a huge baby and I hate pain so avoid injections at all costs.

15. I have always been very good at spelling. I didn’t even hesitate about the correct spelling of caffeine up there. But of course there are some words which trip me up. Ironically, misspell is one of them.



* but my religious studies papers all related to eastern religions. It was not a theology degree.

30 Days of Me!

It may be the large glass of wine, or my giddy mood, (it's probably the wine) but I have decided to take part in New Zealand's Twitterverse "30 Days of Me" ... thing.
Let's see how this goes. Hooray for narcissism*!

day 1- recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
day 2- the meaning behind your blog name
day 3- a picture of you and your friends
day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have
day 5- a picture of somewhere you've been to
day 6- favorite superhero and why
day 7- a picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
day 8- short term goals for this month and why
day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days
day 10- songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad
day 11- another picture of you and your friends
day 12- how you found out about blogging, and why you have one
day 13- a letter to someone who has hurt you recently
day 14- a picture of you and your family
day 15- put you ipod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play
day 16- another picture of yourself
day 17- someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have
day 19- nicknames you have and why you have them
day 20- someone you see yourself marrying or being with in the future
day 21- a picture of something that makes you happy
day 22- what makes you different from everyone else
day 23- something you crave for a lot
day 24- a letter to your parents
day 25- what I would find in your bag
day 26- what do you think about your friends
day 27- why are you doing this 30 day challenge
day 28- a picture of you from last year and now, how have you changed since then?
day 29- in this past month, what have you learned
day 30- your favorite song

* kidding. I am actually looking forward to reading everyone else's posts.

So there was a big earthquake in Christchurch ...

After the 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch on Saturday, and the subsequent devastation and aftershocks, the nightly news has been somewhat earthquake-preoccupied.
 
Sarah-Rose: Do we have an emergency kit?
Craig: We have some bottled water.
Sarah-Rose: but no canned food or anything?
Craig: Nah. Do you want to make an emergency kit?
Sarah-Rose: ... nah.
Craig: ...
Sarah-Rose: I want YOU to make an emergency kit.
 
Yes. I am a little worried about the impending apocalypse (there have been two small earthquakes in Wellington this afternoon) but not TOO worried. Obviously.
And Craig is lovely.

Week Thirty-Six

Sunday
Craig and his Ramones tee shirt accompanied me to the Irish Club for dinner.


Monday
It was hard to capture in a photo but these shoes are insanely fluorescent.


Tuesday
A long Tuesday - I resorted to chocolate.


Wednesday
I stayed in town late to go to Back Benches. I caught the last train home.


Thursday
I popped out for lunch and the shopping gods smiled on me - an outfit I'd been dreaming of for months, a book on sale, and a card for my papa of a dog dressed up like Charlie Chaplin.


Friday
Sitting in the spring sunshine by the Supreme Court.


Saturday
Blue skies and a flowering magnolia tree. It's spring in New Zealand!


&