I’m standing in a certain kind of light, that’s never shone on me before (Sophie)
The last week off has been great but incredibly busy (when is it not though?!). I’ve managed to get quite a bit of study in but it always seems there is never enough time for absolutely everything you could ‘possibly’ do.
Currently I’m at home and have just enjoyed a delectable dinner of Cajun-spiced salmon done on the BBQ, Nina Simone playing in the background and a CAMP FIRE in the backyard made especially for my younger brother by my father -we toasted marshmallows!!!!
So what are some of the things I have been up to amongst all the boring hours of study?
Well, last Wednesday I was very lucky to have the opportunity to meet up with an investment banker from a very famous European-based bank.
I was so nervous before the meeting…going up in the lift to the offices this man in the lift with me asked if I was off to a job interview because I “looked nervous”! I explained and he wished me luck saying I would be fine which made me feel a lot better. The kindness of random strangers is such a great feeling. In the end I had no need to worry as the investment banker I met with was so friendly and easy-going (while being amazingly intelligent and successful!). I guess I had this expectation that all IBs would be stuffy, snobby and look down on me but he was so completely different! He gave me some amazing advice on my future career plans which I really appreciated. Now more than ever, I am so certain that investment banking is what I want to do with my life.
Saturday night J drove over to surprise me with company while I enjoyed the formidable task of babysitting my 3 younger brothers! My youngest brother (9) insisted on doing absolutely EVERYTHING with us which was adorably amusing. We watched Goodnight and Goodluck which I’ve wanted to see for a long time. (How can anyone not adore George Clooney?!) Halfway through I had to pause the film and explain the whole concept of Communism and the 1950s era McCarthyism in the US to Mr Nine. His ability to understand things at such a young age never ceases to amaze me!
Goodnight and Goodluck was absolutely fantastic. So deeply reminiscent of today’s ‘War on Terror’ -the parallels are frightening. It brings so many questions to mind about the current state of the world.
The usual weekend activities consumed my time work at Target, work at the Tennis club and of course, my Sunday afternoon match at Uni. I must applaud our team’s win (the opposition simply didn’t show up!!).
Last night I went to darling little house party with my best friend M, at the house of a new friend of mine – B whom I met through tennis. B is English and very charming. It was a delightful night. Everyone was very friendly despite M and I being probably the youngest people there (the age group was mid-20s and up) so I was thankful for that. One of the highlights of the night was having my Tarot cards read by this sweet Canadian girl, J! She was amazing! I have never had them read before and being the cynic I am at times, was thoroughly shocked at how spot-on the reading was. M had her cards read too and found it a similarly enlightening experience! I think I could easily get obsessed with getting Tarot readings…but at $40 a time if you have to pay, it’s not something I can afford!
I made a new friend!…he is doing first year Engineering at Melbourne (though is 20 after deferring for two years), he is also learning French AND Chinese!!! I was utterly awe-struck! I wish I had a gift for languages!!! He was very sweet to ask for M and my numbers to catch up when we ended up leaving around 1am. I am usually the person who makes the effort to ask for phone numbers so I always appreciate when someone else makes the effort for once. He messaged me this morning so I am looking forward to seeing him again soon! His sense of humor can only be described as hard hitting!!! I love it!
The funniest part of the night was M and I realising that the theme ‘Traffic light’ had a whole other meaning other than what we thought. Us being the naive, innocent young women we are laughed at what we thought was a hilarious theme…I mean, TRAFFIC LIGHT?! We thought someone thought up the theme while half drunk or on some kind of non-natural substance!
So anyhow back on Saturday night, I told J I was attending the party. I tell him the theme and say I will go in red (as that is my favorite colour). He says nothing (thinking I understand the theme).
At the last minute however I end up wearing my green dress as M wants us to wear dresses.
After a few comments towards my colour green which didn’t quite make sense and left me slightly confused, mid-way through the party it was explained to me: Green means you’re single, orange/yellow means you’re in between and red means you’re taken!!!!
You can imagine my absolute shock!!!!!!!! It took half an hour for the consequences of my colour choice to sink in! It started to make sense how I’d already managed two invitations to dinner when men are not usually so forward!
Speaking to J the next day I explained my shock at having the meaning of the theme revealed to me. He laughed and replied with “It doesn’t matter because you wore red right?”
Foolishly I had to explain “Uh no…at the last minute I wore green.”
I am lucky he seemed to find it more amusing than anything!
Tomorrow night is his graduation ceremony. I am excited! I got him a gorgeous Parker pen which I had engraved with his name on. He doesn’t expect anything. He thinks I am getting him nothing…I know he will like it!
I have to run.
It’s already late, I have to do the dishes, prepare my clothes for tomorrow, my papers for tomorrow, do management tutorial questions and make a hand-made graduation card.
I hate Tuesday nights!
-Sophie
I did know about the colour concept, but earlier when I went to the traffic light party at ‘four’ it didn’t click with me until everyone started talking about it. Although I must say I didn’t see much picking up at that party!
i’m glad to know others didn’t know the whole traffic light concept!!!!!
lol. there was a bit of picking up at this party. you should have come 😉
Thanks so very much for those kind words Soph! Seriously it puts a smile on my face. I showed Mum just for the effect and she walked off muttering something about genetic family charm… I simply turned around and replied that natural charm isn’t always wasted on a someone wearing a red shirt after all.
I didn’t see too much picking up there to be honest! Just B wearing his green t-shirt on his sleeve (not literally, you sleazebags), an approach which was justified by the end of the night when he was the only guy who did actually pick up from what I saw.
Great to catch up with ya on Thursday. We may have to pick a new location next time; I fear I may have been infected by the Commerce building….
KIDDING!!! KIDDING!!!
Anyway, Rick’s presence in your blog reminds me that I have to write up the analysis of the student/staff surveys in his ***** Maths lecture! He’s probably worked out who I am now that I’ve said that – such is life. I think NASA tackles easier problems than we do in that lecture, I swear. Just last week the lecturer said, “Now, when you get to third year this’ll be useful…” and then was perplexed by the way that everyone burst out laughing! I have the survey results in front of me right now, and, let me tell you, if this subject gets any tougher then you could hold third-year lectures in a toilet cubicle….
See ya round m’dear
xx
jez
Hey Jez!
Thanks for the comment!!!
I am sure you will continue to get space in this journal from now on because you are such a fun person to be around!!!! I adore you! (Of course in that platonic purely friends way lol!!!)
Sorry I never replied to your text message the other day – my phone has been playing up and I am hoping to get time to call Motorola today and abuse the hell out of them…
I saw a bit of picking up at the party in the corners away from the action…Les (the other guy that asked me to dinner) was off kissing some girl at one point.
It was fab-o-lous to see you on Thursday. I am looking forward to our next meeting. I say this time you choose the location 😉 Don’t want to infect you with the commerce disease!
OOoooh you get to write up the analysis of the student/staff surveys!!! FUN FUN! How did you get that job?!
I hope there are some interesting comments there….One of my friends, wrote some *interesting* comments about a certain lecturer whom everyone seemse to hate but I actually like! I could find the humour in what he said though so we were laughing about it.
Anyways….must run,
Assignments call and damn its 10:08am already.
xoxo
Sophie
How’d I get it? They asked, I shrugged my shoulders and stuck my greasy little mitt up in the air! No one else really wanted it so I guess I was stuck with it. Actually, come to think about it, how on earth did you end up with an AWESOME gig like this?!!!?
It was interesting reading through some of the comments on the surveys actually (they’re all anonymous, I don’t know who wrote what, so I can say this here). One student wrote “This is too hard. I will fail this exam!” which I thought was certainly honest if nothing else! We also devoted space in the write-up (though I doubt it will pass the censors onto the version that all the students recieve) to a comment saying that “I like your (the lecturer’s) accent!”. Of course, given our wonderful ability to leave no stone unturned, we demanded in the analysis that all future lovestruck correspondance should be sent through us, just so we can read it of course. I think it should be a law at Melbourne Uni that every lecturer should have at least one love-struck student fawning on their every move, preferably one of the same gender, and our lecturer – every inch the bespectacled mathematician, though he is a pretty cool guy – should be no exception.
Anyway, I’m stuffed after sitting up till the wee hours of the night consoling a friend over MSN over some of her boy troubles. I think I need to go and eat some raw Nescafe. Yes, I’m really that desperately in need of assistance to stay awake.
Till next time, Madamoiselle Platonic (!!!)
xoxoxo
jez
Hey Jez,
Do you mind if I refer to you by proper name in my blog? I know so many people with names beginning with J that it will get confusing for my readers! Lol…
Or alternatively, you can give me an alias that you prefer 😉
So how did i get involved on this blog thing? Well on enrollment day they gave out some fliers asking for applications to be involved in this project. So basically you had to write 100 words saying why you thought you would be the best person to write the blog…I guess they were impressed because they invited me to participate – I was so happy to get the opportunity. I’ve kept a personal journal since I was 9 years old…so to write a uni blog was added fun! Heheh.
I laughed out loud over your suggestion that every lecturer should have a love struck student (PREFERABLY OF THE SAME GENDER!) lol. LOVE IT! it should be compulsory.
I hope you’re feeling better and got a good nights’ sleep. Boy troubles are not good troubles….after lots of experience I’ve realised the right guy will give you no trouble at all. xoxoxo
Sophie
I think it’s a bit obvious who I am after I signed in a comment in my own name! So in other words an alias would be a lost cause.
Ya, call me Jez, Jeremy, whatever you like! I mean I stand out that much anyway that you could probably call me Thadeus or something and people would still work it out. Besides, if I was to take on the pseudonym of “J” in your blog we’d hate for me to be reading it and confuse myself with the “other” J…!!!
“She said WHAT about me???!!!??? Christina (the one I was telling you about on Thurs)… please don’t kill this woman!”
So yeh, Jez will do fine, as long as of course you’re still paying me dashing compliments as above. However, if you wish to talk about my two-facedness, large man-breasts or complete absence of standards when it comes to academic plagarism, then perhaps the name of Thadeus wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all…
xoxo
jez
Why don’t you guys talk on the phone?
easier and save time.
Jim…that would be a practical idea. 🙂
I think we will try it.