hear the sound of a love so loud

What a weekend! Nope, not really because of F1 cos the race was sorta boring, but because I caught NICK CARTER'S T-SHIRT!

Here's the proof:




Ta-dah!



Actually I brought home only half of it but that part comes later. I can't quite believe it really but maybe it'll sink in tomorrow. You know, I was always one of those girls who wished and wished that I was the one who caught whatever the boys threw but I never was because I just wasn't near enough. Well, not this time! The damn t-shirt was coming right over my head and I stretched out to grab it, sort of stumbled backwards and hung onto it for dear life. Unfortunately, so was this other girl from Indonesia. The surrounding people were looking at us in a very amused and, I'd like to think, envious, fashion haha. Flashbulbs started popping and I felt like a D-list celebrity.

I begged her to give it to me but of course, being a fan, she wouldn't so we agreed to cut the prized possession in half. I can solemnly swear that I caught it but oh well, better half than nothing. Then, like, a million people wanted to take a photo with it and some started smelling it. I thought it'd smell like, you know, sweat but very strangely, it smelled like detergent. Nick sweats detergent! As Arisya says, then he probably farts rainbows and burps perfume.

We went on a scissors hunt after the chaos died down and some kebab stall lent us theirs, after first making sure we weren't going to use it to cut up the person who got the shirt into little pieces. I kid.

It's like I waited my whole life, for this one night.

Once again, I feel obliged to give my thanks to someone who'll never see it. She's an old schoolmate of ours and without her, I wouldn't have been screaming and jumping like a maniac and thoroughly embarrassing myself on 27 Sept 2009. So thank you, Saerah and boyfriend, for being too cool to watch the Backstreet Boys and lending us your passes.

We've now watched them in concert for 3 consecutive years! I really don't know what to say because I'm like 22, my generation has moved on to bands like Simple Plan and whatnot, and here I am: screaming like a 15-year-old and still harbouring a secret hope that one day, I'll get to see them live in the US, preferably Orlando, their hometown.

One last childish dig at 'NSync: To my knowledge, BSB has never been accused of and proven to be lip-syncing. Hah!

KTBPA.

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." - G. K. Chesterton

I've come to the end of my first week of being "gainfully employed", as Jaden would say. It wasn't so bad, but mainly because I'm certain that the staff are taking things really slowly with me. I'm not sure if this is a good thing because it probably lulls me into a false sense of belief that I can actually do this but I guess it's better than hitting me with the hard truths from the get-go.

I really like the environment of the clinic though there are few nurses who are around the same age. Talking about age, apparently I look older than I am! So far, no one's been able to guess my correct age and most of them are at least 2 years off. GAH. Anyhoo, the environment's great because it's like a minor operating theatre so I wear a gown nearly all the time. Thus at the end of the day, I feel rather clean and not grimy at all. Yet at the same time, it's not so sterile that I have to be conscious of every move I make lest I get contaminated by germs. Did I also mention that the place is air-conditioned? :) and I haven't even said the best part yet: I actually get home at a reasonable hour because there's no shift work!

It helps that my preceptor's extremely nice and get this, she's a mother and a freakin' Twilight fan! Instant connection haha. She's from the Philippines and so are half the staff, I think. I feel a little like an outsider when they all get together in the lunch room but it's my fault too since most of the time I prefer to keep to myself and read. It's not that they don't try to include me in some of their conversation, but honestly, I just haven't clicked with anyone so far and so haven't felt the desire to mingle much. I feel like a big fake when I talk to them. It might be because I still feel like I'm a student and they are my superiors rather than my colleagues. I shall have to get used to the fact that I'm now on the same level as most of them.

Other than that, I'm familiarising myself with the layout and routine of the clinic. I've managed to participate in two common procedures and gotten to know some of the doctors. No good-looking, young ones so far (BOOO) but one of them has made quite an impression on me with his distinguished looks and the way he carries himself.

All in all, it's been a more eventful first week than most of my hospital attachments. On the first day, a patient fell in the toilet and had to go for surgery. THANK GOD I wasn't the nurse in charge of her. We also found one of the cleaners asleep and snoring in the toilet-with-a-bed. He was dead to the world! We knocked and called out, worrying that it was a patient inside and when we finally managed to unlock the door, he still didn't wake up! I assume he was fired or suspended because I didn't see him any more. And the grand finale: some unmarried dude in his 60s, who was hard of hearing, kept asking us to give him a kiss and displayed the family jewels when I was helping him in the toilet. Can I say Eeeew?

I really hope that I'll be happy here and be able to face whatever adversities that might come my way. Especially that little matter of being on-call in a year's time but I'll scale that wall when I come to it.

On the other (powder-free latex-gloved) hand, here's the latest New Moon trailer. Love the wolf pack and Jacob's totally burnin up the screen.



Happy birthday, Kang Hao.

days of my (non-existent) life

My ass is getting bigger and bigger as each new day passes. Blame it on the TV shows, the non-stop guzzling and the fact that I still am not working.

It was discussed that I would probably commence on 1st or 7th Sept but it's now the 6th and I haven't even been able to collect my work permit yet. Tentatively I might be beginning on 14th Sept. This means that I'll miss the hospital orientation that Joey is going for which greatly saddens me cos I'll have to go by myself for the October one. No friendly faces on the first day! HOW?

But let us leave the burdens of the working world behind because I'm about to share with you how productive I've been during my Lazy Month! I've finished Lost and Ugly Betty, like FINALLY, and started on How I Met Your Mother which is hi... wait for it ...larious. Hell's Kitchen 6 is also out so my daily dose of expletives and food is taken care of. Then of course there's the almighty cable tv so I've been gorging on food shows, cartoons, crime shows and E! News.

I do get tired of the gogglebox sometimes, which is not unexpected for someone who stays at home and watches it for half a day so I then turn to books to keep me occupied. The Marine Parade Library has an on-going auction thingamajig where you use books as points to bid for - what else? - book hampers so I've been borrowing hardcovers and paperbacks on a regular basis. I'm sure there are those disgusting people that borrow and shortly after, return the books just to get the points and I have toyed with the idea but decided I wanted to win fair and square.

I've realised that this is the only activity that doesn't eat up a single cent as (a) I walk to the library and back so I don't spend on transport and God knows I need the exercise, and (b) I don't use up any electricity cos I read by the window (no need for lights!) and a constant gentle breeze keeps me cool (no need for a fan!). I feel awesome whenever I read because it means I don't have to ask my mother for money, which I absolutely hate, especially now when I'm just lying around.

When words start swimming, I then look to the online community to entertain me. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, online contests, etc. I'm trying to participate in whatever contest I can find in the hopes of winning something and selling it off to get me extra moolah. I've also gone back to free downloadable Yahoo! Games :\ I'm so embarrassed but seriously after a month of the above, you have to find new things to do.

I'm also concerned with the issue of my taking one too many deep breaths throughout the day. It starts as early as one hour after I wake up which is BAD. I have no idea what's wrong and can only guess that since I've not been resting well recently, my body is too tired to breathe at a normal rate and has to take deep yawns to compensate. I've never had to concentrate so hard on breathing, for God's sake.

So there you have it: the secret life of the Indonesian unemployed.