Recently, as in, Monday- yesterday, I bought some ginger tea because they were cheap in the shop down the road. Usually I would be drinking water or coffee at home and peppermint tea at work. Very occasionally I'd drink some blackcurrant high juice at home.
But since the buying of the ginger tea, I have had almost nothing else. It is fiery and soothing and I think its helping me battle the cold I've been feeling come on.
I'm also helping it will help me with the frankly enormous quantity of garlic I ate this evening in my dinner, which was super delish.
I still really like peppermint tea, but this has something that peppermint just doesn't- its FIERY! And I like fiery. It reminds me of me. Especially if I'm wearing orange like I am now.
...I decided, I could have one more cup of tea before I went to bed.
Today, this is me with the pot of haagen daaz I was finally able to defeat upon my third attempt:
So today I had another day off because I'd been working on Saturday. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, I decided that I'd like to sleep in a bit.
It was all going swimmingly until I was awoken by the sound of something very heavy being dragged up the stairs directly behind the wall where my head was. I think it can generally be agreed that the sound of banging and drills did not improve my lie in. It was about 8.30 when I first woke up and I thought "ah... I don't need to get up yet, I can just sleep until I feel like getting up, because today is mine" (although, as per usual I spent a great deal of time thinking about what I'm going to be doing at work tomorrow, partly because its so interesting and partly because I love my job so much)
So I fell asleep again, and was woken by all this noise!! But it was, by this time, embarrassingly late to be still asleep considering that everyone else was out at work by this point. I was wondering how long it would take before the landlord and the plumber would leave (they were fitting a new shower in the bathroom on the floor above mine) but after waiting nearly an hour, they still hadn't gone. By this time it was about 11.30 and I was starting to get seriously hungry.
... I went to facebook for help and a number of my friends provided me with helpful escape tips, some of which I used. I was surprised that I managed to go downstairs, and put my laundry in the washer and creep out of the house and go to the co-op for bread and biscuits and ginger tea bags. And then I managed to get back in the house and make beans on toast before I was finally discovered. The conversation went something like this:
Landlord: Oh, hello. I didn't realise you were here
Me: Yep. Morning- um..just about
(it was nearly 12)
Landlord: Are you not at work today then?
Me: Apparently not.
Landlord: How come?
Me: I worked on Saturday.
-plumber comes in-
Me: Hello. Do you need me to move my things?
-plumber nearly whacks head on lowered washing rack-
Plumber: No, its fine.
Landlord: Did the new housemate get moved in ok?
Me: Yep.
Landlord: You got her keys to her ok and everything?
Me: Yep.
-an awkward silence-
Landlord: OK, well we'll just get on with it then.
....it wasn't as embarrassing as I thought, being caught eating baked beans at an odd time. But it was very awkward trying to justify why I was doing it.
In other news, I've successfully returned my far too big jeans, posted my letter to Bernadette and bought a new screen protector for my phone! How productive of me.
...I have also just been embroiled in a mystery FaceTime incident...! If it was who I think it was, then it is tres interesting, but it wouldn't connect!
Today, this is me, relieved after my conversation with the landlord and plumber:
Many thanks for all your messages of support yesterday!
Other things that happened yesterday included me having an utterly awesome day at work, having expected a complete deluge durum the day and having a wonderful day in the sunshine! It's actually for something that is technically a secret project. But I can tell you that it's on an island in the middle of a lake in the dark. And it's on Halloween. So that shoul give you a clue as to what we were all up to. The picture above wasn't taken by me, but it IS the actual island that I was actually on.
On the way home it was a rather picturesque scene across Braithwaite, with the mountain in the other side reflected in the strangely still and glassy surface. It got me thinking- how deep is that lake, anyway?! because a reflection of the mountain fits in there pretty nicely- how do I know that a whole mountain wouldn't fit in the lake?? How deep is it? And who checked?? How do we know that there aren't eerie weird creatures at the bottom? I'd quite like to go down there and have a look if I was so terrified of becoming an ice block- because I'm sure I would become an ice block even if I was going down there in July.
There can't be that many people that can say they've been to the depths of the Lake District-which is something that I think would be quite impressive!!
So does anybody fancy sponsoring me to find a mini submarine, train me to use it, then transport it to some location in the Lake Districy where I could go deep-lake-diving? Great! I'll set up a KickStarter.
I've been working on this post for about a week to try and make sure that I get it exactly right. So here goes.
Let's not beat about the bush. I know why you're here, but in case some of you didn't know or hadn't guessed yet, I am bisexual. Shock, horror. No biggie.
But why haven't I said something before? Well a number of reasons.
1. Being bisexual may not be a biggie, but coming out feels like one. I'm totally fine with the reality that I'm attracted to men and women, but telling people this would require me to come out over and over again.
2. I'm lazy. Letting people assume that I was straight was easier than the repeated task of coming out.
3. I'm quite private about my sexuality. Until now that is- I felt today would be an appropriate day for coming out, what with it being national coming out day and all that jazz. I've kind of dropped the odd hint here and there, using gender neutral pronouns when talking about potential partners/relationships etc. or adding "or girlfriend" onto occasional sentences. I assumed some people might pick that up.
4. At the time I came out to myself, it had not been long since I has come out of a very abusive relationship, and I didn't want people to think that it was this that had "changed" me. I hadn't changed. Not like that anyway. I only talk to a select few about the details of what happened in that relationship, so if you don't already know, please don't ask me about it. Rest assured that I do have people I can talk to about it.
5. It shouldn't make a difference. It's my business and whoever I choose to be with; nobody else's.
6. I didn't want people to think this was a stepping stone to being gay. That's just not how it works and if you think it is, then you don't really understand humans very well.
7. Nobody ever actually asked me. So I don't feel like I've lied to anyone.
Some questions I have anticipated:
Q: does this mean you're attracted to everyone then?
A: no. If I was straight would you ask me if I was attracted to all men? Of course not. Talk about double standards!
Q: what about pansexuality?
A: I am not attracted to pans. In all seriousness though I did give that label a lot of thought but in the end decided that bisexual was more... Fitting for me.
Q: aren't you worried people will change their whole perception of you?
A: I'd like to say no, but I am. But I've decided to come out anyway. Any friends that decide this is worth ending a friendship over are not worth having as friends. If my family don't like it (this is probably the first they're hearing of it) then they're stuck with it. Can't imagine it's gonna be a problem with them though, they're all pretty cool people.
Q: what about work?
A: pur-lease. I work in a theatre. If there was a more welcoming/accepting place to be LGBT (and other letters to this ever extending acronym) then I'd like to see it! Not worried.
Q: do you prefer men or women?
A: I think you misunderstand the term "bisexual". I take it on a person by person basis.
Q: are you just doing this for attention?
A: Don't be so condescending. Really??
Q: are you serious?
A: yep. Given it lots of thought.
Q: how do you know you're bisexual?
A: you just do.
... So that's it! I'm telling you this because I trust you all not to put me in a box labelled "bisexual". I trust that you will leave me in the only box that matters- the one with my name on it. And to be honest I don't feel like I'm in a box. If you want to you can now go and shout from the rooftops "Rosa doesn't discriminate her attraction based on gender!" But you know what? I don't think it would bother anyone. Not one bit.
And if you STILL don't get it, have a look at these, and for goodness sake, educate yourself:
Today, this is me. Still me, the same as I was yesterday:
I had a really good day today, but as there is probably nothing happening tomorrow, I'll tell you about it then.
See you tomorrow!
-Rosa
x
p.s. to those of you whom this is not a complete revelation to, thank you for not keeping my confidence and allowing me to do this when I feel comfortable.
Basically I'm gonna talk about my commute again. I know you're probably tired of hearing about how great it is, but today something different happened.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it to show you because it was raining really hard and the windows of the bus were quite steamy. Basically the bus mysteriously went a different route to normal, leading to me seeing some things I thought were rather unusual.
....llamas. Lots of them. Just... standing around in a field. Not quite as scenic as this might suggest, but very strange, nevertheless. Which is a brilliant word.
Some other very odd, borderline alarming things that happened were that we crossed a bridge that only just seemed wide enough for the bus to cross it, and we were going at some definitely alarming speeds around some corners. Which is odd for a bus. I was starting to feel worried that I'd got on the wrong bus, Even though it said "X4 Keswick for Penrith" on it when I got on the bus- and yet outside I could see some of the same scenery as usual... but from the other side. I'm not sure if I'm right or not, but I think the bus went round the other side of the lake... which is really going to piss off the people who normally catch the bus as it goes around on it's normal route. But then thinking about it, I have absolutely no idea why it would've gone round a different way to normal- it had rained a lot the past 24 hours so the roads might have been flooded, but there hadn't been any weather warnings, and on the way back the bus went on the normal route and there was no sign of flooding on the road. Weird, right?? In fact there wasn't any water, but there was a thick, static, white smoke drifting from a chimney across the road from someone's house. It was the strangest smoke I'd ever seen- it didn't seem to move at all- it just....hung there. It looked like it was trapped in glass or something- or like when they put coloured glass inside a marble. It was utterly bizarre!
p.s. I called this post Llamas in the Lake district in honour/mockery of those Animal Ark books, of which I always liked the titles and cover illustrations as a young girl, but only ever owned one "puppy in the pantry" or something like that. It was about a border collie puppy that was born deaf. I can't really remember but I'm pretty sure that all those books were the same "Oh no! An abandon/sick animal! lets take it to my long-suffering veterinarian parents and give it vital resources that they can't really afford the time or money to treat without someone footing the bill" And I distinctly remember that they had a black Labrador called blackie, but when they made a TV series out of the books on CITV, they had a golden retriever...and still called it blackie. I mean- whaaaat??
Today, this is me on my triumphant walk to the bus station, having completed the tedious and previously impossible task of phoning the council to find out why they've not been providing us with recycling bags- Spoiler alert, they're going to send us some:
The other day whilst walking around a stationary shop because I needed to buy some ink cartridges for my pen and some of those page marker tab post-it note thingies, I was finding the need to wander aimlessly around the shop until I could find a member of staff who could serve me at the counter. I would've called out, but I was wearing my big red headphones so I wouldn't have heard any response, and I didn't want to take them off because I'd just reached a dramatic climax in the podcast I was listening to.
During my aimless wandering, I came across a stand full of crafty bits and pieces of the kind that nursery school and primary school teachers find themselves pulling out of their hair and the soles of their shoes for days after someone has insisted that they do a craft activity at school- even if that person was themselves. On this stand, I saw a packet of googly eyes.
I was instantly reminded of all those pictures I'd seen of things that look hilarious when you attach googly eyes to them. And I thought to myself "Now there's a harmless piece of easily removed vandalism that will bring joy to many- I'd like in on that" so I took a pack off the rack and marched up to the counter where a dim-looking store assistant processed my purchase and offered me a massive plastic bag for purchases, the cumulative size of which came to less than that of a tennis ball. I refused the bag and put the other purchases in my backpack and the googly eyes in my coat pocket, hoping for the opportunity to hilarify something on my way home. Alas there was no such target on this particular journey and the eyes remained in the pocket.
When I went to work this morning, I had a fairly interesting morning and then not long before lunch I remembered that I had the googly eyes still in my pocket and decided to do this to the phone next to my desk:
However- this task, proved to be more difficult than I had expected, for these were not, as I had assumed, self-adhesive googly eyes. They just had a laminated plastic back. And I mean, for heaven's sake, who has googly eyes and doesn't want them to stick to something?? And I wasn't just being weird about not being able to get the sticky back off, Becca had a try at it too, and it was agreed that they weren't going to stick to anything without some help. Which is why these are stuck to the phone with blue tack.
...but as my original dreams of public googly vandalism were now impossible, the googly eyes themselves had proved to be this vandal's very downfall. For who carries glue with them on the off chance they might spot something funny to stick some googly eyes to? ...not many people I'm guessing. And even if those people do exist, I can solemnly say that I am not one of them.
On the way to the bus station, Becca and I discussed the various merits of using No More Nails glue to stick googly eyes to things. On the whole it provided a good solution as it was unlikely to stop sticking and the eyes wouldn't simply fall off. But it would also mean having to carry around no more nails. So...yeah, a bit inconvenient. I might take them back to the shop and see if I can get them changed if they have the sticky ones. I'll keep you posted.
In the mean time, if you have any suggestions for things you would like me to vandalise with googly eyes for the good of common chuckling amongst humans, let me know in the comments below!
Y'know how somethings don't feel like ANYTHING else? And I don't just mean the literal feel of things, but also the social and emotional feel of things too.
Like today, I was walking home over all these little things:
And it was strange, because they look so much like wings...! It made me think that it was probably the same thing it felt like to walk over lots and lots of dragonflies. Also on my way home, I accidentally stood on a snail- my mum would generally applaud me for this, even though the snail wasn't anywhere near our garden- but I always feel bad for standing on a snail by accident. I don't feel bad if it was on purpose, because then I had killed the snail for a reason. But if it's an accident I feel awful about it- like the snail had died needlessly, and hadn't been bothering me at all!
Other sensations are different though, and very specific- like if you blindfolded someone and put a peg on their nose, then got them to plunge their hand into a sack of coffee beans and then a sack of rice, they would feel different! even though their very similar- the way they feel against your skin is subtly unique. The brain really is an incredible sensory organ.
And then there are those things that you can't explain- like those weird shivers you get and someone says that there is a person walking over your grave; which is an odd expression given that you're not in a grave. Or when you can just tell that you're being watched, even if you can't tell where from or who by.
Ever felt something weird like that? Got a favourite texture? Let me know in the comments!
Today, this is me, having finally decided it was time to get out my coat and scarf:
...I was wearing my favourite purple leather gloves too, but...obvs you can't see those.
