Wednesday 27 August 2014

My 100th Post and 100 things about me (that you probably don't know)

So apparently it's a 'thing' to do a list of 100 things about yourself for your 100th blog post... I have no idea how I'm going to come up with 100 but we will see how this goes.
This is also the Lucky 100th post, it's taken a few years and a lot of missed posts - I haven't been fantastic at the whole "blog post each week" promise I made years ago!

1. I'm technically a Lisa Marie, in other words officially I don't have a middle name!
2. I'm the oldest in my family - oldest child, oldest sibling, oldest cousin, oldest grandchild (on both sides) as well as oldest granddaughter (on both sides).
3. My High School Sweetheart died when I was 18.
4. My Parents are High School Sweethearts.
5. My Parents share their birthday, although in different years - Dad is older.
6. I learned Dance when I was a child.
7. I cannot wear High Heels.
8. I don't have children and I don't want any: I'm Childfree.
9. I've bitten my nails since I was a child. (Onychophagia).
10. I have been treated for Depression.
11. I'm open about health and contraception.
12. I've talked about having an IUD on Facebook.
13. I have an Instagram account where I upload photos (I'm better at photography than writing it seems!)
14. I love drinking tea. Green tea. Iced. It doesn't bother me.
15. I love pineapples.
16. I'm mildly allergic to coconut.
17. Also mildly allergic to kiwifruit.
18. Badly allergic to Ventolin.
19. I'm Asthmatic - from a Bakery job I had when I first moved to Wellington.
20. I moved to Wellington in June 2009 for University.
21. I'm nearly 26.
22. My birthday is September 22nd.
23. I don't believe in religion, God or otherwise. I'm an Atheist.
24. I love cats, but I'm allergic to them.
25. I want to have a dog, one day.
26. I joined Skeptics In The Pub with Dan - We do a lot of Activism there, like writing ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) complaints about advertising...
27. Dan and I have been together for over 3 years now (and counting!)
28. I spent a year after high school at Art School.
29. I have 6 papers left of my BA to complete at VUW.
30. Dan and I moved into an apartment with a flatmate and we love it.
31. Secretly I love DIY...
32. Last year I had my hair cut off into a Pixie cut - loved it for a while but then really wanted long hair. . .
33. I learned that Hair takes a LONG time to regrow when you chop it all off!
34. This year I was diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder - I've been treated with CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).
35. Stopped being on the Pill after 11 years... (and got my IUD about 5 months ago).
36. A huge ally for my Queer, Gay, Lesbian, Trans* and Intersex friends.
37. Have been flatting, living away from parents, since I was 18.
38. Learned to drive while I was really depressed - the plus side is that I can't remember how scary it must have been!
39. I have memory problems relating to my depressive episode (at age 18-23).
40. Parents and family now live 4.5 hours away from me.
41. I live in the capital city of New Zealand.
42. I wear glasses for reading.
43. I have my full drivers licence.
44. I adore Bubble Tea (with the Tapioca bubbles).
45. I taught an Asian friend how to boil rice on the stove. (He had only every used a rice cooker).
46. I want to learn how to fly an aeroplane - helicopter.
47. I dressed very tom-boyish as a child.
48. When I turned 22 or 23 I started to dress more femininely; more dresses anyway!
49. I still don't know how to wear skirts well.
50. I wish I knew how to sew better and I want to buy a sewing machine so I can do so.
51. Dan can't drive, so I do it. But we don't have a car so it's not a big deal.
52. I'm quite lazy - but only with certain things.
53. I really don't like exercise - if it's not "fun" I won't do it.
54. I'm still in touch with my high school sweethearts mum.
55. I fear that people close to me, don't actually like me.
56. Justice Crew is the coolest Dance/Song group I've seen in a while.
57. I worked as a Security Guard for 3 days.
58. I have had Panic Attacks.
59. I admin on Facebook for a variety of groups from childfree ones, to fluoride (pro) pages to anxiety groups.
60. One of my childhood school friends fathers is a convicted sex offender.
61. I volunteer for Wellington Rape Crisis, where I work on their behalf in a charity store called Eva's Attic which is a charity shop that runs off donations and volunteers manning the shop. It's all designer and stuff so I've had to learn lots about fashion!
62. I'm quite frugal, possibly because I've always been kind of on the poor end of the middle class scale.
63. I own TWO designer pieces (both brand new) that I got for under 75% off retail through Eva's Attic. (Volunteering has it's perks!)
64. I was a Supervisor in a previous job.
65. I was 2IC in a shop I worked in when I was 19.
66. I have moved house ten times, the first time when I was 7 the most recently in January 2013.
67. My favourite colour right now is Purple.
68. I like the look of tattoos, but I'm scared I'll be allergic to the ink.
69. On the topic of tattoos I can't nail down a design I love, so I'm going to wait.
70. I love the Marvel comics, movies and shows.
71. I adore eating chocolate.
72. Cupcakes are so fun to make and decorate.
73. Cider, and wine are my beverages of choice alcohol wise.
74. I love wearing scarf's.
75. I'm a grammar nerd, but I make mistakes sometimes.
76. I love languages and I'm learning French and Korean.
77. I taught Korean students English for a year.
78. I love baking and try to do so.
79. I have occupational asthma - Baker's Lung, which means I'm allergic to an inhaled Flour particle called alpha amylase and here I wrote about my journey.
80. Although I'm allergic to the dust of Flour, I can still eat it in other things (like in cakes, cupcakes and cookies!)
81.  My Flour allergy is NOT the same as being Gluten Free.
82. I worked in a Pie Shop for over 2 years. (Jesters Pies).
83. I'm trained with Occupational Safety and Health  - in Kitchen Hygiene.
84. I trained as a Barista (coffee making) but the smell of Coffee makes me feel sick.
85. I want to live in Asia - teaching ESOL.
86. I am yet to travel the South Island of New Zealand. I've travelled around 99% of the North Island of New Zealand.
87. My first car was a White Ford Laser, which we bought from my best friend. It was a 1991 one. Sadly after I sold it (to fund the move to Wellington for University in 2009) it was written off by the following owner after us. *My parents bought it for me.
88. I'm often caught not wearing glasses when I should be (anything on the computer and doing anything up close, like reading). *Grabs glasses and puts them on.*
89. I don't know how to wear make up and I am trying to learn. It's my goal before I turn 30 to learn how to do it.
90. I have nice blue eyes.
91. I've been to Melbourne three times. Once with my family, and twice with Dan and his family.
92. Highlight in Melbourne was going on the Oldest wooden roller coaster in the Southern Hemisphere at Luna Park.
93.  I get into marathons of TV shows, so I'll watch the entire season in a short period of time. Most recently The Hills.
94. I drowned a recent cellphone in the washing machine, I was sick and put my dressing gown etc into the wash and realised when it had been going about 30 minutes that my phone was being washed too! Oops!
95. I don't really have a favourite band or music, but I listen to a lot of the Top 40 songs...
96. Dan and I saw Macklemore when he came to Wellington.
97. I'm quite Introverted, so a loud night out ends with me needing a quiet day to relax.
98. First pet was a bird named Barney, a blue budgie.
99. I decorated the sign that hangs outside the Eva's Attic shop (art school paid off!).
100. I had a car crash when I was 20, I backed into someone who drove behind me when I was reversing out of a car park. It was really scary and I still don't like reversing when I'm driving. But like everything, practise makes perfect.

Bonus fact about me: 
I have piercings: 2 in each ear lobe, my industrial bar on one ear and my bellybutton pierced. As always, I wish there were more!

One of my Demons

Today my post is taking a bit of an educational direction - talking about a mental health condition I suffer with  have to deal with on a daily basis. I'm talking about Nail Biting. Onychophagia.

This article is a good one which explains what Onychophagia is and how to deal with it.
For me I think my nail biting started back when I was 7 and had an incident with a cousin with long nails, a tennis ball fight and a resulting scratched eye. Ever since then I'd had short nails, shortened not from cutting or trimming them, but from biting them. It's not something I'm proud of... It is something I face every day to challenge myself and aim to stop doing.

Nail Biting is a Habit, but it's also a mental health condition - technically it comes under an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and as such is not as easy to break as a regular bad habit would be. It takes years to work through therapy and months to see real results.
Treatment varies from therapist to therapist, mine told me that mine is likely linked to my mental health (anxiety and depression) and when those flair and times are hard, bad, rough etc that is when I'm more likely to bite them. I think that is a pretty accurate description, so now my goal is to try and work through those triggers without biting my nails. So using my other techniques to deal with the issue/s at hand, rather than taking it all out on my poor nails.

Here is an article on the medical side of things with Onychophagia and another here.
Here is the wiki. The usual treatment is the use of a foul tasting nail polish containing Denatonium Benzoate - however from using these in the past (such as "stop it" nail biting preventer) I found that it wasn't effective for me - especially since I like to have finger foods I can pick up to eat (grapes etc), which meant I'd have to change my eating patterns and that isn't really a good idea for me.

One of the ways I'm working on being Accountable for my Actions is sharing my photos regularly on Instagram. This means I'm sharing my photos and reflecting on my self. My nail growth in the past few months is big for me. I have White Tips on my nail tips! For me that is a big thing, before I'd bite them before they could get them.

I'm also much more aware of how long my nail polish stays on for... chips on my nails annoys me so I remove it and start again. It does mean I'm re-doing my nail polish every few days or so. I'm slowly learning that using things like a nail polish base and top coat is very important! (I have a couple of base and top coats now)...
Pale colours (closer to my skin tone) don't show the chips as much, so they seem to last a little longer. Dark colours seem to show chips a lot more easily.

I'm also moisturising my hands more now too. Still only once a day - at night before bed. It's become a good ritual.

Taking the time to show my skin some love is having it's benefits too, I'm also taking a multi-vitamin - and my hair is growing more and more too...

There are photos of my progress up on instagram (linked above).

Sunday 10 August 2014

Wellington Women's Expo and thoughts

This weekend (August 9th and 10th) was the Wellington Women's Expo an event run by Peacock Promotions Ltd. It was open between 10am to 5pm each day. At the TSB Arena. Entry cost $10 p/person ($5 on Sunday with a voucher). There was also an optional $20 Goodies Bag. 

I went along both days. Saturday felt busier, but then I did go (with a friend) in the afternoon. Sunday was a little slower, but still had good crowds. On Saturday I went along with Neil and then on Sunday with Dan and a skeptic friend. 

Some key things I took home from the expo; 
(other than the Goody bag which I'll go into in detail below)

Friday 8 August 2014

Postage, couriers

One of the downsides to living in an apartment is that with a shared lobby where the letterboxes are is that local post-people and couriers won't leave packages - even if the parcel has a message on it which says to do so! Worse is the couriers who deliver weekly packages to your building but won't keep the door code/ access code on file, even though they come in every week! (*Sigh*)
Today the problem is that the courier won't call to advise the parcel has arrived, and that they don't have access (so can't leave a card for you in the mail box), even though your phone number is right there on the parcel! I swear that the local courier and post-person is out to annoy me sometimes. Hehe.

Then again I know that "they're just doing their job, following the protocol and policies..."
But it is frustrating.

I had an email from the sender, saying they had been told by the local courier (here) that the parcel had had a card to collect/call left, but I have not seen one since my last parcel arrived! I swear they had no access. It is a mixture of annoyance at the sender for not including all information on the address ticket, and the courier for not knowing the door codes (even though they're here - weekly at least) *Apparently it is against company policy for them to know door access codes.*

Still, it is super annoying.

Thankfully I'm still working only casually, so I have a bit of time to go down and talk to the lovely people at the local post shop to get things moving, but it's still a pain. That time I could be spending on doing actual worthwhile things. (Like catching up on laundry - it never seems to end, doing chores, shopping for groceries, or something fun like dancing around in the living room! - With loud blaring music off the TV station.)

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Conflict and Aggression

With the conflict in Gaza and Israel recently and the death rates rising every day. The peace talks that result in a "cease fire" which never seems to last as long as they promise it will. . . Has me thinking about conflict and aggression in general.

  That small thing that bugs you to no end. 

That little pesky annoyance that just grinds your gears. 

That person that just constantly pushes your buttons, even though you've talked to them numerous times about them not to do so, yet they persist. 


That irritation you feel about something not being quite right even if you can't lay your finger on exactly why it isn't right. 

Tuesday 5 August 2014

Happy Blogging!

3 years and 5 months ago I started this blog. {Way back in 2010} Now look how it's changed and adapted to suit my life and what's happening now. I've gone from writing about the Pacific and Literature (university studies!) to my life experiences. The day to day. The real life 'stuff' that's happening to me.

I went from joking about 'crushes' and my love life, and loving being single to this... Relationship. Seriousness. Living in an apartment. From living with a group of friends, to living with my boyfriend and one flatmate. Times have changed. And time has definitely flown by super fast!

It feels like only yesterday that I was diagnosed with Baker's Lung. (It also feels like only yesterday I was saying goodbye to Mike.)

It is INSANE how much has changed in the past 3 years, nearly 3 and a half actually.

In a little over a month I'll be 26.... Where have my 20's gone?!

I'm definitely not the same girl I was when I graduated High school.
Not the same girl I was when I decided to pack up and move to the city, to start University.

Crazy to think it's already four and a half years and I have still not graduated yet.

Good things take time.
A lot of time.

Monday 4 August 2014

Nails it's the small things

I've been thinking about how it's the small things that really make the day a good one, or a bad one. It is almost like the little things really matter, and then some days we don't notice the little things so much.

Today I spent most of the day waiting for the courier. It's annoying that I have to be here. A real test of my patience. But it's going to be good. New things. Changes. All good things.

The little things, like my nails are growing more....
[More after the jump]