The End

Well here we are... a whole year and 213 blogs later, and I can't really believe it to be honest.  I had these grand plans to have this beautiful reflective piece for my final blog on 22adventures, something that looked over everything and talked about how far I had come and what happens next.  But the truth is, I don't really know if I can write that at the moment, because I am sitting on the floor at a Big Band rehearsal, feeling very tired and sick.  My nose is running and my head is stuffy and I am just not sure what will come out as I continue to type.  However, the fact is, today is the 8th of April 2010, which means tomorrow I turn 23 and the adventures of me as a 22 year old come to an end.  So whether I feel like it or not, I need to write something to tie it all together.

I find it really hard to believe that exactly a year ago I had an interview in Castlemaine, and getting a job, moving out of home, moving to the country was just a little idea that I wasn't really considering because I didn't want to jinks the job.  Yet here I am writing this blog, a year later and everything, and nothing at all has changed (if that makes any sense).  

There are lots of things that are still the same.  I am still Emma, I still love Disney, blogging, eating and Dave, but now I live in Castlemaine and visit Melbourne.  Now I have a 'real' full time job, not a part time fun thing.  Now I can cook and clean and do general adult things, because I have to and no one else will do it for me (unless they are feeling particularly generous).  Now I have lots of new friends, people who I hadn't even met a year ago today.   

I feel like I have grown a lot since I moved to Castlemaine, and I am not really sure how much of this is just me getting older and how much of this has been because of the fact that I had too.  There have been some really low times, like homesickness, being lonely and getting used to being away from all my friends and family, but there has also been a lot of fun stuff to, and some really really great stuff... my new friends, the things I have seen and the places I have been...oh that rhymed, nice.  I have no idea how to actually sum up this last year other than the fact that I am different and I like it.  I know that I haven't done this by myself and that I my life really has been in God's hands through it all. But I guess when it comes down to it... I am really glad I went to the interview, I am really glad I was offered the job and I had enough courage (and support) to move and give it a crack.  I am also really glad that I have been able to share this with all of you (even if its just Mum, Dad and Dave at times).  Thanks a bunch for reading... my blog would be no fun if no one read it, so thanks for dropping by!  

So what happens next... well I am glad that you asked.  For now, I stay in Castlemaine, and because I can't give up I will continue to blog.  But as I am no longer 22 my blogs will have a new home: www.emjlewis.blogspot.com, so please keep dropping by and checking it out.  But after that I am not really sure and that's ok.  I still have plenty of adventures left in me and I am kind of excited about what is still to come... I guess I will just have to keep to posted, because I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Wordless Wednesday

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Alcohol

Tonight I saw something that made me a little sad.  Tonight while waiting for the train to Melbourne I saw two guys that were just drunk off their nut.  And while people get drunk all the time, I think what took me by surprise with these guys was that I wasn't out late, or in the city, or even anywhere near a pub, but instead I was just sitting at the station at 7pm, in the daylight. 

The thing is, even though I don't drink, I don't really have a problem with alcohol, I am fine with a casual drink, a drink while your out, in fact I really don't care what people do with grog, but I get upset when I see it interfere with people's lives.  Now I guess I was probably in the wrong because when I watched these two mates at the station, I was a bit judgmental, they were loud, disruptive and being a bit offensive and I have to admit it didn't make me think to highly of them.  It did, however, make me wonder what they could have been doing... whether this was normal or perhaps whether it was just a once off.  It just made me wonder why as well i guess, what is the point of being that drunk, why were that they that drunk? What was happening in their lives that had lead to this...

This year, amongst lots of other patients I have seen a number of people that are detoxing from an alcohol addiction and every time I speak to these patients I am surprised at the fact that they are just regular people who have just had a rough trot, or something happen, or are in a lot of pain, but they don't fit the picture of what I expect an 'alcoholic' to look like and I guess I just wonder why its alcohol that people turn too and why its so crippling and while I don't really have any answers, i guess I just wanted to vent a little, you know put it out there and just wonder out loud a little.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Back to work

Here is something that is probably exceedingly obvious...it really really suck to be going back to work while everyone else is still on holidays!  Its not that I don't like my job, I actually really like it, but the thing is, Mum, Dad, Jake, Dustin, Dave and most of my friends are still on holidays....everyone except me and I am not happy about it.

Oh and just to top it off, today I started on a new ward and it was nuts...busy busy busy and I didn't really know my way around, but I am sure I will get my head around it soon enough.

Anyway, the point of this blog is just to whinge...I wish I was still on holidays :(, I already told you I am not made for full time and I miss my 3 month uni break...

I guess that's all part of the adventure!

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Christmas Run Down - No.3

Ok so you know the drill, no need for introductions, lets just sing...

On the Seventh day of Christmas something I did do:
Eat lots if food

It's not really surprising, I mean I love food at the best of times and at Christmas it's in your face all the time! However this Christmas has been full on food wise, especially over the last couple of days. In the space of two days I attended three end of year breakups all of which involved food. I had Indian with me cell ladies, breakfast with my dietitian friends and afternoon tea with work, it was full on and delicious. However, as if all the parties weren't enough, they also included bringing food. I know a little while ago I wrote a blog about the pressure I felt when taking food because when you are a dietitian people expect you to be able to cook, which isn't always true, in fact in my case, it couldn't be further from the truth. However I think this Christmas I have excelled. Seriously check this out... For our dietetics breakup our Christmas gift rule was, the gift had to be home made, and because I leave everything until the last minute, mine was edible, coz let's face it... It shouldn't take that long to cook something, but homemade good homemade craft…way too long. So I decided that I would make truffles and check them out... The look awesome even if I say so myself! Now because I don't do things in halves, one amazing success for the day wasn't enough, no I kept going. That afternoon, at my work CRC breakup, I introduced my CRC friends in Castlemaine to the heaven that is toblerone dip. I must admit though I was a little shocked that they had never heard of it before, maybe it's a salvo thing, but it, like the truffles, were a hit!

Conversation Cards
More Christmas Lights
Come Celebrate
Sing with my Pa
Bendigo's Christmas Lights
and A Pageant with the Kids from Kids Church

On the Eighth day of Chirstmas something I did do:
Shopping centre Carols

Yep you read that right, on my one ADO before Christmas I caroled. It probably didn’t help that Dave was in charge of caroling this year so I didn’t get much choice, but it was just like old times! I was caroling with Pheebs at forest hill this morning, something that we haven’t done for a number of years, but after a few rough numbers we were in out element. Nothing feels more Chirstmasy then racing to say the number of the next carol, or smiling to the little old ladies that stand and watch you play, or even wish a little kid a merry Christmas with a bad rendition of jingle bells (no.100). I can’t say I would rush back and do day after day like Dave and Benny did but it was fun while it lasted. Oh and just between you and me, I think Dave was a little annoyed that us girls brought in so much money…what can I say Davo…they love us!

Eat lots of Food
Conversation Cards
More Christmas Lights
Come Celebrate
Sing with my Pa
Bendigo's Christmas Lights
and A Pageant with the Kids from Kids Church

On the Ninth day of Christmas something I did do:
Nativity the musical:

Once again, this is something that I blogged about a little while ago, but that’s okay, because that blog was all about the fact that I was going to be in a musical, and now its done! Tonight was sooooooo much fun, an experience I will never forget. I was so nervous before hand, but once I was out there under the lights and in costume, everything else seemed to fade away and I just did it. It was so good.

Everyone did an amazing job, especially Benny, my joe, he is one very funny man! I really hope this isn’t the last musical I get to do, because, I know I have said this three times already in one paragraph, but it was just so much fun. Oh and just to make it even more special, two of my good mates from Bendigo, Jana and Sam came all the way down to Melbourne, just to see it. I was sp surprised to see them there, but it meant a lot to me that they came! So thanks to everyone that came, and a massive thanks to Renee for giving me this opportunity…it was the best.

Shopping Centre Carols
Eat lots of Food
Conversation Cards
More Christmas Lights
Come Celebrate

Sing with my Pa
Bendigo's Christmas Lights
and A Pageant with the Kids from Kids Church

FHEEEEW…well we are almost there…Just 3 days to go!

To be continued…

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Brave to the max

Just in case you were wondering…I can be super brave when I want to be! Take today for example, today I attended a Dietitian’s Professional Development day and I went armed with some hard questions for the speakers. Now normally I would have all these questions but then chicken out at the last minute because I didn’t want to make a scene. Sometimes I even get lucky and someone else asks for me, but not today. Today I stood up for myself and other rural practitioners and asked my hard questions. I wasn’t rude, or demanding, I just asked what need to be asked, and while I didn’t really get any answers, I feel like the seed has been planted. Oh and just in case you were wondering, yes I am a bit proud of myself…hence the blog.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Fitting in

I have been in my new job now for about 5ish months and this afternoon as I went out with some of my mates from work to say farewell to our speech pathologist, lucie, it dawned on me just how comfortable I had become with these new people in my life. Now don’t get me wrong, its not as if I have been sitting at work thinking about not having friends, because I have felt welcome here from the very start but it just dawned on me as we sat out the back at Saffs that these people felt like friends, they weren’t just the people that I work with anymore.


For someone like me, who has spent their life floating between friendship groups, especially through those outside my church buddies, and never really feeling like you fitted in 100%, it was a really nice moment. I felt comfortable and accepted and for once all I had done was be myself.


Back when I first got the job in Castlemaine an amazing man of God by the name of Major Parker gave me a scripture verse to take with me on my journey and verse said…


Mark 6:10-11 “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."


I guess at the time I took it to mean that if the town and work place is inviting and welcoming I should stay, but if it wasn’t, I shouldn’t fret or panic, just pick up my stuff and leave…which now that I have just typed it, I still think it means that, so I am not really sure why I wrote ‘at the time’…anyway…I think what I am trying to say is that I feel like today was just another confirmation that I have made the right decision, that I am doing the right thing, because as tough as it has been at times, I know I am in the right place and I am at peace. I have made the right choice, I have been welcomed with open arms, not just by my friends at work, but also by those in the community and it’s good. I think I have grown a whole heap since being up here, sure some bits still suck, but I know its just a season and that the goods out weigh the bads.


I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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Winner

There are some people in the world that just win stuff all the time, the win the school raffle, they win random door prizes, they win lucky seat competitions, they win bingo, they just get given random stuff…they win everything and then there are people like me…who wins nothing…well almost nothing!

I am pretty sure that for my total 22 years I have only won 3 things, with today being the day I won my third prize. But before we get to what I won today let me tell you of my other wins…

1. The first prize I ever won was and Ice Age video from Wendy’s, I entered a competition after purchasing and ice cream and in the mail came the video…the sad bit about this story is that I don’t even really like ice age, and to this day I don’t think that I have ever watched that video.

2. My second winning moment happened earlier this year…I entered the ‘3 question quiz’ on light fm and answered 2 out of 3 questions about Jesse McCartney correctly…because I loved the song beautiful soul and could pick the tune and we share a birth date so I knew how old he, unfortunately I didn’t know he had released 3 CDs, because I am just not that bigger fan…never mind. But because I got two correct I won some tickets to the drive in.

3. My third and final win happened today…I won (with Jana, Benny Waterworth and Mr. Google’s help) the footy quiz for footy colours day at work. There was an email sent around with my name in massive letters and then a poster at the end of the day with me listed won of the day’s winners and I got a wicked prize. I was given a bottle of French Champagne and a footy…and because Jana worked out the answers together she got the Champagne and I got the footy…and I love it. Seriously I am pretty sure this has been the best day of work so far (it also helped that we had to attend two morning teas today too). I love being a winner…and I wished it happened more often.

I guess that's just all part of the adventure!

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