Sometimes all you need to recognise how incredibly appreciative of your life you are is a brilliant, infallible day, like the one I was lucky enough to have yesterday. And often, weāre talking a full twenty-four hours worth of fantastic, wherein you feel compelled to write it down so that it doesnāt get forgotten in the mists of time. I donāt enjoy writing down a chronological list of things that happen (itās often more comfortable for me to voice such things), but I think that when you hit a point during a given day when you realise how many good, or at least, pleasant things have happened to you, you begin counting. Itās like when you start a morning off by seeing three people walking their dogs; suddenly the day becomes the day of seeing dogs, and before you know it, your tally has reached 5 dogs by lunchtime.
The day began at 3am, where I woke to a message from my friend telling me that he had written creatively, and it had been sent to my email. The previous day, I had been waiting, (im)patiently for such a message, so upon receiving this, I was suddenly awake. I made myself a coffee (decaf, as I still wanted to be able to sleep at some point) and sat myself outside with my laptop, a packet of cigarettes and the wind blowing something chronic. I read, and was metaphorically blown away (though the wind was trying its best) by the feeling of reading something written by a close friend. Itās completely different from reading a book by an author you love. You can tell the author you love their work, yet it means a lot less as you and the rest of the population are doing the same thing. As I have experienced the feeling of receiving compliments on my writing from friends, I could almost feel the personal pride and sense of accomplishment swelling up inside of my friend as I sent a genuine, complimentary message.
Falling back to sleep a couple of hours later, to the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter, I awoke and began to prepare for a visit from a friend who I usually see about twice a year (given that she lives in Queensland.) Thankfully, knowing someone for fifteen years gives you the ability to still be natural with this person, and it is a rare thing for us to run out of things to talk about. I tidied the house slightly, and then traipsed into town to pick up the remainder of her birthday present. I listened to Girl Talk at a high volume on the car ride there and back, and prior to picking her up, I picked up some ingredients for the epicly brilliant sandwich I was to make her when we arrived at my house. The sandwich has consistently been a success; I have not heard complaints as yet. We talked, and became nostalgic and disgusted at the people we used to be, as we considered the stupid things we used to do in high school, and the way in which the evidence of such stupidity is way too difficult to throw away. Upon her departure, I began to make plans for my evening.
Three of us were to go to the Brisbane, to spend time with a friend that lives in Melbourne, and was spending her last night in Hobart. Strangely enough, we were successfully able to problem solve when the Brisbane turned out to be closed, and make plans for a dinner date at the Republic in which we were somehow able to communicate all necessary information to what turned out to be four of us. Waiting for the perfect time to begin getting ready (there is nothing worse than being ready to go, but not needing to be anywhere for another two hours) I found myself on the internet, discovering a) that the housemate problem may be solved and b) the househunting problem may be solved. Stupidly excited by this, I messaged the necessary people, and finally, things appear to be working, happening, and if everything goes to plan, I will have a house soon, with rad housemates, and awesome party-times ahead. All too much for me already, I discover that my first review that Iāve written (and am proud of) is published online, and is doing the rounds of twitter, making me (obviously) the most famous person on the internet.
Flashing forward to the evening, where I was lucky enough to have an amazing time with friends, talk about everything from what to do if youāre raped by a woman to more serious issues, regarding relationships, life, and everything weāve up until this point, neglected to tell each other. I like to think of it as a catch-up of huge proportions, for there were more than enough times that each of us expressed surprise and exclaimed that āYou hadnāt ever told me that!!ā Which means that I have the rest of the week to look forward to, given the potential awesome it may hold, and the way in which it begun. Though the strange thing is that I need to get past some actual brain power before this happens. Task one involves the creation of a Futurama/Red Dwarf themed costume, while task two (foreboding at present, but Iām sure once I think of it, will be exciting) involves writing 500 words, creatively and most importantly, eloquently.
While I am always sceptical about the ānew year, fresh startā thing, I beginning to come around. Now that there has been a landmark point where things will improve, there appears to be at least more appreciation for how well things happen to go. Whether or not it is 2012ās fault, or perhaps simply an implicit internal perception, January is officially my favourite month (and weāre only ten days in!)