artathon and blogathon

WELL what a day. Started off with one of those weird nights where you keep on waking up, and feel like you never actually sleep but are just continually in a quasi-sleep zone. But that didn't make me grumpy (at least, I don't think it did...), just tired which is good (and lucky for my family :P)

Then this arvo we had this 'Show and Tell' art thing where we each had to show everything that we've done in art this yr- our first prac, start on our second, and student choice investigative study- to the other three art classes. Sounds cool hey; change of scene, get out of class, get to see everyone's work and have a bit of an insight into who they are through their creativity. Sure, it started out good enough. I was near the beginning so got mine out of the way, was gathering ideas for my back up etc. But the stage in the Forge (our school's new flashbang performing arts centre thing) soon turned from backdrop for our creative masterpieces to a torturous dungeoun chamber hell. I never want to see another back-up folder in my life. It ended up going for 3 1/2 hrs NO BREAK.

It got to the stage when one of my friends called guache paint 'goolash' paint by accident in her talk that I, feeling giddy with undernourishment, had one of those laughter things where you keep coming out with short bursts of laughter after the few ppl who also laughed have stopped laughing and you, trying to distract yourself from laughing at the unforeseen amusing event, keep inadvertantly keep replaying it over and over in your head whilst you try to distract yourself or focus on the talk. Then in another talk I leaned forward on my flipdown chair, whilst I was sitting cross legged, to see who was about to come on and almost fell off it, which then just started me off with the wierd and embarrassing bursts of laughter again with the girl sitting next to me. So that was fun.

But amidst all this fun, frivolity and mind numbing boredom, I also got thinking (for there was ample time for this) about people. I know this is a common theme in blogs atm, but I also am a lover of ppl. I love observing, listening, talking , trying to fit together all the different pieces to find out what makes ppl really tick. I thrive on people- not always having to interact, but just being in the company of people keeps my mind and heart ticking over, and stops me from becoming ridiculously self-absorbed. I used to have too much of a 'lone journey' kind of focus on life- I mean sure we're the only one's who live our lives, but we're all living lives together- while all being very different, we're all very much the same. There are so many people I want to get to know, and let them get to know me, and I hope that when I leave school I won't regret not doing that enough while I had the chance. That's something that's frustrating me atm, bcoz I haven't been going on msn much with homework (or at least trying to plug distractions) and, though it may be me being paranoid, I hate the feeling of missing out on ppl time, chat time, bonding time, whateveryouwanttocallit time. Ah well, only a wee bit longer to go.

When I got home from this artathon (at FIVE!) I continued my 'athon' theme and had a blogathon after I discovered Emma's blog, which, yes Emma, I will link to soon because I think it's a very good read (and I read all of it!). In FACT I read so much my eyes got sore and I had to put my reading glasses on (which I haven't worn for several months).

I was talking to a woman last night after sas who was in a pretty bad way (but I won't go into any details for her sake). I'll be honest and say that I felt really inadequate as a little eastern suburbs girl to try and comfort her. I never know if what I'm saying is actually helpful or a bad case of foot in mouth disease. And then I feel selfish for just thinking about how I feel! But I guess it reinforced for me what the church is, and should be all about- sometimes it feels like we (I guess broader society as well) get so caught up in petty issues when it's really all about dishing out real love- by that I mean the sort of love Jesus gave, not superficial or half-hearted, but straight to the heart and bone sort of stuff. It's good to get a bit of a shove out of our comfort zones quite often.

Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble! Ciao for now....