148. Getting a personality award

After writing the last post I realised my original intention for my Friday post and I just can't miss this one out as it really excites me, even on Sunday I was pleased. I have never been in the running for a personality award as I have stuck to a small group of people and so have not been know as the "sporty one" (well there was never even a chance of this one), the "clever one", the "arty one" etc. I didn't think that had changed when we got the form to vote on this year, afew of my Friends said they had voted me Most Stylish, Most Colourful Character (one or two also voted me Miss Foxy Lady) however I was not expecting to win. As Most Stylish was one of the first I was very suprised to find I was actually a runner up for that award although I did not win it. But when Most Colourful Character was called out and she read my name out I was shocked truely. I was one of the most surreal moments walking up to get that award infront of the whole year (the teacher who handed it out made a comment on how appropriate my bright green skirt was). Knowing that my love of colour had been recognised -and apparently my bright personality (I was told by a drunk memeber of my English Lang class that my tendency to smile all the time was one of the reasons he voted for me, he was drunk at this point though) was just brilliant. The certificate will go on my wall with pride and I will treasure that memory. It pretty much made my day I was showing of for quite a while.

147. Having a proper chat with a mild acquaintance

In day to day life there are some people that you may see everyday but you never really get to know them, this usually isn't a purposeful oversight, they just pass you by, neither one of you putting in the extra effort. In school this is especially true, registration one of the main places. When I get up in the morning I am not really awake, I come in to school and that 15 minutes passes me by in a whirl of short conversations with my Friends, never really speaking to the rest of my form. It was our last day on Friday and to celebrate this, after almost the whole year gathering at the pub, a small group then coming to my house for chips resulting in me falling asleep on the sofa, I then went to a different pub to continue celebrating. I wasn't in a drinking mood so I just sat down and chatted to my Friends, people moved around and at one point a guy who has been in my form for two years stole the empty chair next to me. We have briefly exchanged words a couple of times and once we had a short conversation about my tie wearing (reason 94) but other than that we have never really chatted. It could have been the fact that as we probably won't see much of each other again that caused us to feel so at ease but we just started a conversation and it was lovely to talk to someone you don't really know. We bonded a little over our mutual ability to do this weird arm trick (although he could do weirder ones) and others got involved in our conversation it turned into a group talk. It just really made me smile.

146. Tea, coffee and cake in class

It's our last week in school and so for our last English Lit lesson one of our teachers decided our treat would be to bring in tea, coffee and cake for us to drink. It was a beautiful lesson, we managed to distract her for half the lesson discussing our various futures (grades we need, Uni's we're planning on, subjects we're continuing) and the other half was just spent talking about what we need to look at and themes to consider. I was a lovely lesson with a terrific teacher (I was going to put wonderful until I realised the alliteration this would cause) really made me smile.

145. An abundance of cake

It was our last Textiles lesson the other day and as that means no more Cake Fridays (reason 21) we had Cake Wednesday instead (our last lesson was on a Wednesday) and it was amazing I'm pretty sure we had about 10 different varieties of cake (cake encompasses a range of things ranging from tarts to muffins etc) I managed quite a few and took a piece of all the ones I didn't home. There is something so glorious about stuffing ones face with cake, it really made me smile.

144. Knowing you never have to go to a dreaded lesson again

Since in A-level you choose all your subject you do not expect to dread a lesson (unless you knowingly took one you didn't like) however teachers are not your choice. We had a teacher for a subject and I do not wish to slander her as she was a nice person but her teaching skills left most of the class ditching (one lesson only two people turned up one of them being me who can't miss lessons). Sheets do not an education make, there needs to be some actual teaching and knowledge on the subject. Anyway I digress this is not a ranting blog this is one for happy thoughts and lovelyness. We had our last lesson with her the other day, we played games had cake and then afterwards we celebrated by jumping a little in the corridor (by we I mean Best Friend and I). It made me smile to think I would not have to go back to those lessons.

143. Somewhere out there someone created a pretty perfect bed

http://bedroomscene.tumblr.com/post/4233179759 I love books, reading is one of my favourite past times, my bed has similar shelves above it as this one but the draw underneath it I lack. There is something beautiful about finding things like this, something I could fill with books and then pull out when I feel like a story. Knowing this bed is out there makes me smile.

142.Nice rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions are commonly used in our everyday lives, they slip into our subconcious in adverts "Do you know how wonderful this product is?", in warnings "Have you had your fire alarm?", even in normal conversation "You know how I went to the park the other day?". This devise can be used to create many different effects on this day however my Best Male Friend used it to give me a complement, a small message left on my facebook wall "Why are you so beautiful? X" Little messages like this always make me smile and this one really did.

141. Watching a play in which you can tell the actors are enjoying themselves (an added bonus if they are famous)

Reason 11* mentioned a production of Much Ado about nothing I was going to see with David Tennent and Catherine Tate in it, that day finally arrived. Normally when something like that happens you build yourself up for months about it but because of the stress of that-which-is-now-over** I just hadn't really thought about it, it seemed to just appear out of nowhere. We got the train to London in the morning had a picnic in the park (I think is was St James park but I can't be sure) then it was time. I was a little worried it would not live up to my expectations (Much Ado is my second favourite Shakespeare; As You Like It is my favourite) however it was definately the funniest version I have ever seen, the entire cast looked like they were enjoying themselves also the language was not a barrior as it can sometimes be in Shakespeare plays. A brilliant preformance with the added bonus of having two famous actors in it. At the end as we were walking around the theater to get to the reastaurant we heard a scream and so followed this noise and found David Tennent and Catherine Tate signing autographs by the stage door it was the surrealist thing to be that close to a celebrity I couldn't quite believe it (I think it's the first time I have been that close to a celebrity who hasn't been acting at the time) sometimes it's hard to believe those people you see on the screen are real people. My Best Friend and Little Sister managed to get Catherine Tates signature but David Tennet had moved round the other side by the time they got to the front. The meal afterwards was lovely and we had some nice conversations on the train back. All in all a wonderful day it all made me smile especially the play which I was laughing my way through.

*http://365cheerfuldays.blogspot.com/2011/01/11-planning-something-exciting-for.html
**If you are unsure of what this is see here: http://365cheerfuldays.blogspot.com/search/label/Textiles

140. Sleep after 34 hours awake

I feel like a broken record on my blog at the moment with my Textile exam stuff, but praise the heavens it is over completely, this was the last stretch which I will now explain in painstaking detail that no one really wants to read. I woke up at around 8 on thursday and went into school did an hour of textiles while sneezing realised I would get much more done at home so I went to the nurse and cried migrain. This is where irony comes into play I was walking home and I developed a migrain quite a bad one at that (I forgot to mention I had bad backache at this point aswell). When I got home I took paracetamol (which didn't do much) and carried on working... this continued for the rest of the evening. At about 8 o'clock (I like the word o'clock it has a nice ring to it) I went to the shop for glue, walking round I felt completely insane it was one of those moments where it would not have been out of place had I started talking to myself (infact I did a little on the way home)... more textiles. It got to 12 before I started to break down, my backache was reaching an excruciating level of pain I had a half hour lie on the sofa (I couldn't get off at one point) while watching something rubbish on TV. It was at this point my Long Distance Friend unintentionally talked me down from the metaphorical cliff unintentionally and got me working again... took some hardcore painkillers which made me feel very lightheaded then, more textiles. My next breakdown was at about 5 o'clock when I burst into tears watching Brothers and Sister (I watch TV while doing textiles), I got myself a hot chocolate and continued on my quest. At about 8 in the morning on Friday it was back to school for my last textile exam (more painkillers to get through that), it finished at half one (sometimes I write time out in word numbers) and I stayed in school finishing my sketchbook till about four. I realised textiles was over when I was halfway home and proceeded to skip the rest of the way back. When I got home I called my Best Friend to discuss my freedom and how terrible I felt during the exam (I felt quite ill). Then my Little Sister took me down to the nice cafe down the road for a hot chocolate she got sick of my tired ramblings (if I stop talking or moving when I'm that tired I will fall asleep) and took me home. I got in bed at about 6 o'clock and it was glorious. At some point my Practically Sister just came in and snuggled me I woke up sometime around midnight and we had a little chat then went back to sleep. It was beautiful to be reunited with my bed after so long, really made my day.

139. Getting an unexpected compliment during a stressful time from a know critic

As previously mentioned I have had a series of Textiles exams over the last week as we also had to complete a project sketchbook for it the day before my last exam (and the night to, I pulled an all nighter) was spent finishing this off. This was a very stressful time for me I had the sniffles, backache, headache, mindache etc thought I was going mad almost the entire time. During this time I posted a facebook status in an attempt to be witty saying:
"Definitely beginning to feel like a crazy artists, the urge to cut off my nose so it won't run is almost overwhelming... move over Vincent."
My Literature Friend a well known critic known to only give out backhanded compliments which are actually insults commented on it saying this:
"But that would spite your face, which is lovely. (This proves that either the revision has addelled my brain to rice pudding, or -as that would signal approaching doom rather than glad tidings- that I have a nice side.)"
This was one of the many things that helped me through the mad 33 hours of Textiles I did it also really made me smile.

138. Snuggling in the cinema

Well doesn't this sound like my romatic life is looking up, sat on the back seats, armrest up, lights dim, watching Pirates of the Caribbean, arms around... my Practically Sister. Sorry for the anticlimax I just couldn't resist I hadn't seen my Practically Sister in a while and when the oppertunity arises she does like to use me as a pillow especially in the cinema, it is also much easier to snuggle on the back row (there was a huge group of us and we were the first in) believe me the armrest digs right into your back when you try on the normal seats. Anyway snuggling Practically Sister really made me smile (she also brought Haribo and I had a gummy ring on each finger which I slowly devoured through the film).

137. Surprising someone with a week late Birthday cake

Last week it was my Psychology Teacher's Birthday which I only found out at the end of our lesson. A couple of his classes had made him a cake or a card for that day but our class had not done anything, this is why I decided for our next lesson (almost a week later) I would make him a cake, which I did. I went into his lesson late (as I had woken up late) with the cake in tin foil and put in a plastic bag he asked me what I was carrying and I uncovered it slowly. He gasped a little then I said it was for him for his Birthday, the joy on his face made my day, after giving the whole class a piece he even ran out to get another teacher to try some too.

136. An unexpected invite to procrastinate otherwise know as 'fudge this sugar'

My penultimate textile exam was on Monday and at the end of it my Best Male Friend was hanging around outside the room and said 'hey fancy wandering up to Best Friends house as she has gone home? I considered saying no for a moment as I had lots of work to be done but as I know I wouldn't have done it anyway I thought why not and we had a lovely afternoon of chatting, bagels and ice-cream which quite relaxed me after my stressful day. Really made me smile.

135. My Older Sister getting joy out of finding a dimple on her cheek

I got a message on facebook the other day from my Older Sister the other day saying:
'I just found what I think classes as a dimple, on my right cheek. right at the top, when I smile. I'm amazed its taken me 20 years 1 month and 8 days to realise.' It makes me smile when others find joy in the small things.

134. Role reversal, looking after my drunk throwing up Best Friend

She probably won't thank me for this but I hope she gets some joy out of the fact that it was my reason to be cheerful for the day (please say you do?). As it was Eurovision my Good Friend decided to host a Eurovision party (the basic idea of it being you get drunk and make fun of the silly acts) we all had to support a country (I went for Denmark the way they say 'crazy' is beautiful) and Best Friend supported Azerbaijan she just picked of a list randomly (this does come into it). Now I watched the first couple of acts including Denmark I did have their flag on my cheek but somehow I ended up in the kitchen with a Friend of mine lets call her Emotional Girlfriend as thats what she was. We had a chat because well shes part of one of those couples that falls out and she cries at most parties, she is really lovely though. Anyway Best Friend joins us at some point and after a nice chat we end up going back in to watch the end of it. [Bear in mind at this point we have drunk quite alot] We are watching as the results are added up (apparently I swear when I'm drunk in my defence Denmark were not very high up, could have been the backless shirt...) and at the end it is announced that Azerbaijan have won (this bit is hazy I'm working from a retelling) and my Best Friend is instructed to down her drink (some foul concoction of wine, ribena and other such things) which she promptly does and then runs upstairs. I follow and sit by the toilet alternitively supporting her and shouting at her; which was a nice role reversal before it has always been me sitting infront of the toilet throwing up the contents of my stomach. At one point a Friend comes up stairs and askes through the door if she can go to the loo I replied not so nicely that she should 'go away(phrased a little harsher) and pee in the street'. I finally managed to pry her from the toilet at some point and we went to bed it was nice to look after my Best Friend like she has looked after me I feel like I have repayed a little of my debt now. It did make me smile.

133. Finding a packet of softmints and eating them all in the space of ten minutes

I have a bit of a softmint problem I must admit, once I start a packet I just can't seem to stop myself eating the whole packet, as soon as I finish one softmint I pop another one in. A couple of weeks ago on one of my spontaneous Supermarket trips (I have this thing about the Supermarket I'm sure it will be one of my reasons at some point in the future) I bought a four pack of softmints. After devouring two packets I then put two in a cupboard in my kitchen and promtly forgot about them until the other day after my second Textile exam (it's done in sessions one three hour session three four hour sessions) when I remembered I put them there. I devoured the first pack in the space of about ten minutes and left the second for the next day, it was glorious, especially after the long day. Really made me smile.

132. The look on peoples faces after they try my Literature Friends chilli jam

I had forgotten about this one until now which is why it is not on the correct day (but then you are not to know that) but this links back to the Birthday Lunchean my Literature Friend threw a couple of weeks ago... At this Lunchean my Literature Friend brings out his jar of chilli jam and tells us to try some we were unsure and I dab a tiny bit on my gnocchi and it killed my taste bud for ten minutes and the taste lingered for more than an hour I had to drink copious amounts to cool my mouth. You are probably thinking she's just a wus it was probably not that bad (except my Best Friend who has also tried it, you know) and I don't think there are words. After being fed a super sour sweet by a guy in my class he decided to bring in some for payback I didn't put myself through that again but my teacher did she had about the same amount my Best Friend did and was trying to cool her mouth down all lesson. A girl in my class had a bit more than that pulled a face then said it wasn't that bad then it hit her properly and she ran out of the class and was in the loo for about ten minutes. The guy who had given him the sweet had a whole chilli and after running out to the loo he broke out in a sweat. We did warn them about it and so were aloud to sit back and laugh while they suffered it did make us smile quite alot.

131. An unexpected film happy ending

I went to see a film I was told would make me cry and was apparently similar to the titanic, both these dont bode well for happiness levels, you expect death, tragic death. It started quite well and I thought well already this is better than I expected then the ending loomed I was waiting for it I had several plausable sad endings already thought out especially at one point. I was gripping my Best Friends hand and we were both going 'they can't'... and they didn't, the bad guy died but without the main good ones doing so. The ending did feel a little rushed and the did kill two nice side characters which was uncalled for but it had a happy ending when I wasn't expecting it. Really made my day. (I haven't mentioned the name of the film as it might spoil it)

130. Watching my Little Sisters dream come true

For my Little Sisters birthday my Best Friend had the brilliant idea that we should take her to see Tim Minchin, her favourite comedian, on his UK tour as her birthday present and so we did. On tuesday we went to see Tim Minchin and His Orchestra and it was brilliant (I mean I was expecting it to be good as I really like Tim Minchin but it exceeded my expectations). There was not a moment when I was not enjoying it and watching my Little Sister get so excited buying merchandise and having her squeeze my hand to death with her excitment was just brilliant really made me smile.

129. After an accidental disk ejection the film picks up from where it left off

It was a long day there was an accidental nap somewhere I think then I was watching Anne of Green Gables to cheer me up accidently ejected it which was awful. I thought I would have to go through the process of finding where I had left off, but there it was, right where I had left it... beautiful. It really made me smile.

128. Sharing the opionion of clothing in a film with my Best Friend

My Best Friend, Little Sister and I went to see 'Something Borrowed' the other day not the best of films I must say*. During one of the scenes me and my Best Friend both turned to each other to say the same thing 'What is her Friend wearing?' (it was some awful white contraption). Later on in the film we did almost the same thing both turned to each other to say 'She's wearing a really nice dress'. I don't remember who said either of the things but it doesn't matter, we both felt exactly the same, hooked up to the same mindwave and it is always a beautiful moment when that happens (well except my tendency to call people when they need the loo, I could do without that skill). Anyway it really made me smile.
*http://filmnerdsftw.blogspot.com/2011/05/review-something-borrowed.html < a review written by my best friend... if you are interested in knowing about the film.

127. Using my arm as a paper towel

When I am painting in my room there is rarely a time when I remember to bring in a paper towel or a tissue to wipe the brush. Sometimes I find a piece of scrap material around and I use that however on the occasions when I can't do that I use my arm. This inevitably means I end up with paint all over my arm and as the other day I was painting with alot of different colours I ended up with a multi-coloured arm and looking down at it really cheered me up (especially considering I was doing a very dull job of painting backgrounds for my textiles sketchbook and cutting and sticking when I wasn't doing that).

126. Tomato soup for lunch

This soup is divine
although only when heinz
does it give me the goodness I pine for

I could have it for lunch
for my tea or for brunch
on this dish I do wish to dine more

Maybe I should give up attepting poety... then again who is it hurting? I had tomato soup for lunch yesterday I decided thats what I wanted at breakfast and it did not dissapoint my expectations. It has to be one of my favourite comfort foods warms me up from the inside, really made me smile.

125. This DVD is in the case upsidedown... oh wait it's double sided, my mind is blown

I opened my Anne of Green Gables to find this a DVD with two sides, I haven't seen one of those in... well, ever. For my birthday I got some money and the other day I was pondering what to spend it on when I remembered Anne of Green Gables with Megan Follows. I have only seen it once at a Friend of my mums house afew years ago but since then I have wanted it. Anne of Green Gables is one of my favourite books of all time (my taste can be a little childish sometimes) and although the later films don't stick to the books (the first book was always my favourite anyway then I skipped to the end of the third, I think Anne fans will know what I mean, non Anne fans won't really care) I love how they develop it in the Films. The characterisation of the characters I think is fantastic, Megan Follows will always be my Anne. Anyway I decided to use some of my birthday money to buy the DVD's and when I opened the first case (there are three) the incident in the title occured. There is something about turning the DVD over that lifts my heart (along with the fact that it is Anne of Green Gables). I'm going to have to be extra careful with these DVDs. Anyway it pretty much made my day.
(My Best Friend is really looking forward to me forcing her to watch them, aren't you?)

124. Someone far away is reading my writing (possibly)

As a Blogger I have access to statistics on how many page views my blog gets and where abouts in the world it has been viewed this I find really interesting (inside me somewhere is a maths geek I've just hidden it for so long). Now I write this for myself mainly (thats such a cliche thing to say) but even though I have no way of knowing if anyone but a few of my Friends actually read this I can see who has stumbled upon the page at some point (even if it was by accident and they never actually read it) and this I like. Someone in Cambodia found my blog the other day now I'm not even certain of where that is but at some point on a computer in Cambodia my blog was opened on someones computer screen, how wonderful is that? Now as my Friends live in the UK thats where most of my views come from but the United States has been watching me a little Denmark, Guernsey, Iran, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, China and Spain (New Additions: Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Argentina) are the others so far (pretty cool right?). I don't know what it is about this that makes me happy but I love it as this is to cheer myself up getting a multitude of pageviews is not my aim and I'm excited with the ones I get. Knowing someone across the mighty pond might possibly be reading this kinda gives me a thrill but then so does the fact that I can say things to my Best Friend on here and she will read it. All anyone wants in this world is to feel connected to people knowing that I kind of am makes me smile.

123. An glimpse of an old inside joke

I was at my Old Friends house the other day preparing for a Rainbows session (we found out later it was cancelled) by eating toast and watching Neighbours (best way to prepare) and her Older Brother called up. Way back when we were not so old (well probably just a few years ago) and her Older Brother used to live at home he (to put it lightly) disliked me (maybe it was my incessant cheery manner or my ability to get in the way who knows). Anyway whenever I called my Old Friend (which was quite a bit) there would be a point -either if he picked up or when she passed him while on the phone- that he would figure out it was me and groan then pick the nearest insult (actually now I think about it he also did it whenever I was in the house). I would then make the obvious comment that he was secretly in love with me which irritated him more then she would get the phone and the world would be good again. Whats this got to do with now? I hear you cry (well maybe just ponder slightly... or you just read it) well as I said he called up and my Old Friend said "Hey, Rosalinds here shall I put her on?" to which he I assume answered with a groan and load protesting (she did not put me on of you are wondering which your probably not). It just made me think of all those good times and how one line can take you back to a running joke, it really just made me smile.

122. (Dont be appalled by this one, I will explain) Wearing Dungarees

I know many would see this as a fashion 'faux par', so to speak, and in my defence I only bought them to dress up as a child for a party (well my party), but dang are they comfortable. I was getting a little chilly as the sun went down (I had been wearing shorts to take full advantage of it, it's spring and it feels like summer you really have to) and I was unimpressed with my wardrobe. As I have spent the day doing Textiles sticking and stuff I haven't been out the house much. I saw my dungarees on the pile and thought 'why not? It's not like I'm going out'... definitely worth it when I got to that breaking point, something about the way they let you move is comforting. However I looked they really made me smile.

121. So we all pretty much feel the same way?

I'm talking about that moment when someone in the room says something hesitantly and everyone realised this opinion is unanimous. I don't want to say more as it was a close issue to all of us but I went to my Best Friends house with my Best Male Friend and my Musical Friend. There was laughter, tears, music, talking, doritos, salsa and so much more, it was a really nice night. It really made me smile.

120. Very Important emails

My Best Friend sent me an email the other day with a subject "VERY IMPORTANT!!", upon reading this my mind went many places. I was thinking about what it could be that she didn't want to ring or text me about, wondering if something was wrong... then I opened it. It just said:
"I love you very much. Thought you should know. :)"
That was it, one line of text and my day is made, it's nice to be loved.