Poor Unfortunate Souls

This semester, I was enrolled in the best subject ever and luckily, I also was in a class with absolutely incredible people who have now become some of my closest friends. And that class is "music theatre" (which is the class where we had to put on an interpretation of Cabaret). But it's not all fun, we also had a few essays for the subject as well as the performance base, but I finished my essays for the semester and all that I have left for this subject is the final performance piece. In groups of four, we have to perform a 15 minute scene from a pre-existing musical, or a musical that you have created. What my group decided to do is our own devised scene of "DISNEY VILLAINS REHAB" with each of us playing different villains from the Disney movies (the title is pretty self-explanatory). As you can probably imagine, in my group, we are all extremely enthusiastic about this assessment- I don't think anyone has been this excited about an assessment before probably- and there is a twist at the end which is also exciting.

I'm playing the role of Ursula, which means that I'll be singing 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' from 'The Little Mermaid.' We also are including 'Cruella De Vil,' 'Mother knows best' and 'Be Prepared' into our scene. 'Poor Unfortunate Souls,' like all Disney villain songs, has quite witty lines. And Ursula, like all Disney villains in general, is such a charismatic character, making this assignment so much fun, because who doesn't love Disney? Today we rehearsed for several hours, which is the reason why I thought of it for today's song. I absolutely love this song so much. 'The Little Mermaid' is definitely one of the best Disney soundtracks, with 'Part of Your World' (which is one of my favourite Disney songs), the classic 'Under the Sea' and not forgetting the really amusing 'Kiss the Girl.'

The voicemail that changed my life

While I was at work today, I had a miss-call and a voicemail was left. When I finished work and discovered this, I thought it was odd because... who would phone me? My friends message me on Facebook or text me. No one phones me and it wouldn't have been my parents because they knew I had work during that time. It was extremely puzzling, so with great curiosity I listened to the message and it changed my life completely:

The school principal wants to talk to me about my son's behaviour in class today...

So apparently I have a son... my life has changed in oh so many ways! I personally think that his behaviour is due to him craving for attention because obviously his mum (that's me) doesn't even acknowledge his existence.

I am, quite obviously, killing myself laughing because I think it is absolutely hilarious and such a typical thing to happen to me. How awkward for that school to get the wrong number though, and as I said, it's so typical that the wrong number was my number. I haven't replied because that would be weird for me phoning up a school to say "that kid isn't mine" because I don't want to come across as an irresponsible parent. However, the principal said that she'll try phoning me again tomorrow, so I've got that to look forward to (the sarcasm is pouring out of me right now). But I'm working tomorrow again (I need to provide food and shelter for my son... obviously), so I'll probably miss that call, and I don't want to have another voicemail from the school telling me how I'm neglecting my duties as a parent and not taking an interest in my child's behaviour seriously... I think the school really needs to redo some of their admin stuff.

It's just such a bizarre thing to happen, that I can't even properly put it into words, and I know that I referred to 'Friends' the other day, but this is me right now:

So much responsibility! but at the same time...

Grow Up

I'm now 20 years old. OHMYGOSH! I'm no longer a teenager and it's so weird when I think about that. But other than that weird realisation that comes over me at the most randomness of times and places, I feel exactly the same as I did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. To be fair, I think I have matured over the past few years in some areas in my personality. For example, whenever someone comes over, I automatically want to feed them or offer them tea, which is exactly what my nonna does, which means I'm like a 90 year old lady in a lot of ways. However, I also still find it exciting if I see a rainbow, I still like watching Disney, I still laugh at toilet jokes, I still like running after falling leaves, I still walk into walls by accident, I still use my hairbrush as a microphone when I'm dancing around my room, and for that matter, I still have one-person parties whenever I have the house to myself. I still listen to audio books some nights if I find it impossible to get to sleep, I still have no self control when it comes to Tim Tams, I still have no filtering system when I speak. And the list continues...

But as a whole, this Simple Plan song pretty much sums up my feelings about growing up very well: 'Grow Up' is about rebelling the idea of growing up and to be "immature and stay[ing] that way forever, until the day I die" and telling the world that I "promise that I won't change, so you better give up." And not only is this song about defying the normal idea of ageing, but it is also a nostalgic song for me, as it is from Simple Plan's first album ('No Pads, No Helmets... Just Balls'), which was from 2002, and a much loved song from my childhood. I can't believe that was thirteen years ago... what have I done with my life since then? I actually have no clue. But I definitely remember when this song was a new release and I was dancing around my room listening to it, and how excited I was when it was in the Scooby-Doo movie, which I saw at the cinema... twice. Does anyone remember that movie? It was fantastic. I remember how much my friend and I laughed when we saw the scene where Shaggy and Scooby were having a 'fart-off.' I was seven at the time, but I still laugh so much in that scene even now when I'm... I'm... aagghhh, I'm 20!

Quarter life crisis

It has come upon me... the quarter life crisis! I will be leaving my teen years in a couple of days time, and I'm not ready. I repeat: I AM NOT READY TO ENTER MY 20's! That means responsibilities and adult-ness, which I certainly am not prepared for. I swear that there must be a mistake on my birth certificate or something, because there is no way that I'm older than five years old. I'm just a tall five year old.

This is the first year that I haven't been excited about my actual birthday. I'm looking forward to catching up with my beautiful friends, but other than that, I really am just in denial that I'm turning 20. EEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is seriously me right now (but 20 instead of 30):

I couldn't decide on the still image or the video clip, so just went with both. See, I can't even make simple decisions... how am I supposed to be expected to be an adult making important decisions?

I can't be the only one who has ever freaked out about turning 20. I remember when I turned 13, I was in denial about becoming a teenager and I actually convinced people that I had actually turned 12. And my teachers believed me until one of my friends, who had known me for most of my life, told them otherwise. Wow- I really don't deal well with this ageing thing. I dread to think what I'm going to be like in my mid-life crisis. Oh dear.

Seven Women

Seven Women: "empowering marginalised women through skills training & employment"

Since starting uni last year, every Wednesday I volunteer at the Seven Women stall on campus. Seven Women is a fair trade charity that aims to empower women in Nepal. It began by Stephanie Woollard in 2007, after visiting Nepal where she found seven disabled women in a shed making candles and soap in the hope of selling their produce for their livelihood. However, they were ostracised from society, so Steph bought the products and sold them on her return home, sending all the money back to these women. Now, there are over 900 women who are a part of Seven Women, women who are disadvantaged, with disabilities, from abusive backgrounds, single mothers' etc, all of whom now have a place, are being trained to create the products sold, and being given shelter and fair wages.

It is an incredible organisation and I'm really proud to be a part of it, as it helps so many women who otherwise would be living in terrible conditions. I really encourage to look on their official website, you don't have to buy products, but just to even find out more information about the organisation and share it, because it is a really good cause that does change so many women's lives:

Seven Women link  

The reason why I have decided to write about it now, is because of the earthquakes that have been in Nepal over the past couple of weeks, which have devastated the country. Because of this, all the money is currently going towards the earthquake appeal, to help provide food, shelter and clothing for the people. There is an option to donate through the website too. Every dollar counts to help the people in Nepal. Thanks 

Anche Questo e Sud

For Mothers' Day, I proved to be a bad daughter, as I had left my essay that was due today, to the last minute and spent all the day writing that instead of spending the day with her. But to make up for my horrible neglect of yesterday, today I spent the evening with mum and bought all these Italian songs that she loves for her. When she was younger, apparently she had the record of Rino Gaetano and it was her favourite, but she hasn't got it anymore. Her suspicion is that her brother took it because he liked the album cover and never gave it back, so today was the day when I could give to her the songs of her youth.

This is a song called "Anche Questo e Sud". Unfortunately, I don't actually speak Italian, so I have no idea what the song is about, or even know what the title means. I should really ask my mum about the translation some time, because it seems like a really nice song, but it could be about anything... I guess I should add learning Italian to my bucket list. Like, I can understand key words when my nonna speaks and I understand the gist of what she is talking about and can reply to her in English, but when it comes to word for word comprehension...  I'm an epic fail.

So this song selection for today is more of a tribute for my mum, as a way of saying sorry for being a rubbish daughter on Mothers' Day. 

Not Afraid

Okay, I'm not a big fan of rap, however there are always exceptions aren't there. One of my friends has converted me for this particular song, 'Not Afraid'  by Eminem and to be honest, I don't know anything about him except that he is a rap singer.

Despite the heaps of swearing in the song, I absolutely love the chorus, and find the song as a whole, really motivational.

I'm not afraid (I'm not afraid)

To take a stand (to take a stand)

Everybody (everybody)

Come take my hand (come take my hand)

We'll walk this road together, through the storm

Whatever weather, cold or warm

Just letting you know that you're not alone

Holler if you feel like you've been down the same road

And when you are 2:40 in, the bridge is so good! Despite being not a fan of rap, I've never claimed to hate the genre, I just hate the really swear-y, sexist, racist rap, but it's songs like this one that, yeah it has swearing, however it is sending out a really good message. 'Not Afraid' is saying to stay strong and that you can do anything you want, if you work hard and not let anyone put you down. "Facing demons" and to "stand your ground" and that we're all together in this. Anyway, now this song has become one of my "yeah, I can do this!" songs. 

Be warned, that this has strong swearing, sorry- and I don't mean to offend anyone by it

'You and Me and Everyone We Know'

Okay, this is a really short post, but I really wanted to share a small scene from a film of video art called 'You and Me and Everyone We Know' by Miranda July. It is known as the 'shoe scene', which we were shown in one of my lectures where we were discussing what video art was. We watched a few examples of this medium of art, and some of the clips we had to watch, I thought were quite tedious to be honest. However, this one thought was quite adorable and really enjoyed watching it. The shoes (and feet) each represent the "you" and "me" in a relationship and the motions people make when they care about someone, for example, the hesitations and missteps (which is quite literal in this case).  The motions are also like a dance, which I guess is what love is like, I think. 

As I said, it's a very short post, but this video is really quite beautiful and very clever.