The Book of Sifty

null 11:01AM

Yeah I know I'm a cynical git but sometimes things happen that really surprise me, and really make my day.

Like today. I got a very unexpected reply to an email that I really wasn't expecting a reply to. So I have this diary book of people's birthdays. My memory is awful and it reminds me when I should mail them and say hi. My friend Tama makes a big deal of peoples birthdays, one year he gave me bike helmet worth $300 .. (of course we both worked at a bicycle shop at the time, and got everything super cheap). But his point was Christmas is commercial, stress filled and impersonal time to give people things and make them feel special. Whereas their birthday is one day a year, just for them, that you can do something nice for them.

Of course this fails if your birthday happens to fall on Christmas day like my roommate in Colorado, but you get the idea.

Well I mailed a nice girl I met overseas, since she'd written her birthday into my book when I told her about it. That was back in December. So I thought oh well maybe she's changed mail addresses, or doesn't want to reply, whatever, I hope I brightened her day a bit.. well so today, more than a month later I get a cool mail from her.

One year ago today.. I was dreaming 11:09AM

So Ashes big write of the last year was cool. I won't do the same .. but I made one new years resolution worth mentioning (well it was made after new years day .. since most of that day was spent in less than peak shape to be making decisions).

This is based around the rather cool thing I've been able to do recently.. of what was I doing right now one year ago? Like this time one year ago I would probably have been asleep in Colorado.. but ignoring the time-zone differences. It's a Friday, so I would have been working. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were my days off. I would probably have been recovering for the night before. (any night before a day where I was working was usually a big night at the local bar.. the theory being I didn't want to be hungover on a day off.. but a work day was okay!) I would probably have got up, had a toasted bagel with cream cheese and run for the employee shuttle. On the bus I'd chat to Mollie and Helen, the young southern girls who lived in the same apartment block. (That's southern USA! Not Speights country!). Sometimes Kim or Steph would produce a piece of toast with Vegemite on it for me.

I think maybe it was the fact I was working outside, or the altitude, or the cold, but hangovers used to go pretty quickly. By the time my lunch break rolled around I'd be well hungry and waiting for lunch. Usually this was microwave noodles and sammies in the lift shack followed by a few runs boarding to fill up my lunch hour. But on Friday I'd usually go to the caf' near the top of our lift, Sun Spot, and visit Carly. Carly was from Brisbane and always used to look after me with extra large yummy burgers and well over-filled chips. Which used to follow the general rule.. 'the more you order the cheaper it is Tom'. (I'd also usually get a good cuddle thrown in too.. :)

So I digress.

My main new years resolution was NOT to get to the point, mid year sometime, where I think what was I doing this time last year? ' 'Sitting in this mother fuckin cubicle doing the same shit and looking out the window wishing I was somewhere else'.

I also reiterated several other resolution from last year, and yes Ashes one was not drink so much.