Catch me if I fall

Sunday, September 28, 2008

You are the one

And I can't seem to understand
The reason why I'm hurting
Was this part of Your plan
And is it going to end?
I've been running for so long
And the sky is getting darker
I'm looking for a place
Where I can stand until it ends

The grass is greener on the other side
Where I don't belong
Sometimes it's lonely but I'll stand
Until I see Your face again

You are the one who brings the rain
That falls to wash away my pain
And in the darkness I can see
Your light of hope alive in me

And I believe You when You say
Your eye is on the sparrow
I know You're watching me
I know You set me free
From all the fear that used to hold me down
A better way I've found
It's time to heal and time to grow
Into the child You used to know

You are the one who brings the rain
That falls to wash away my pain
And in the darkness I can see
Your light of hope alive in me

- 'You are the one', Seven Day Jesus

Saturday, September 20, 2008

A really, really, reeeeeally good someone

I was chatting with a friend on MSN the other day and somehow my situation came up (it almost always does these days). This is his take: "You always needed someone, but you also needed a really, really, really good someone. You just allowed the former to take precedence."

I agreed with him, and on further reflection I also came up with a good reason why I always 'allowed the former to take precedence' - because no one I've met has yet lived up to my standards and expectations. And so I invariably end up 'settling' for someone, even though I tell myself I'm not. I think I'm afraid that I'll never find anyone good enough, that maybe there isn't such a person out there - I don't exactly have the highest opinion of guys. Perfect guys only exist in books and dreams. In real life, the guys I meet just don't cut it, at least not for me. I don't need, or indeed want, a perfect guy - I'd be overjoyed with just a good one. (Not even a really, really, really good one!) And I don't mean good in terms of wealth or career or social standing - anyone who really knows me also knows I don't care for these things very much! Just a nice stand-up guy who values family and God, who's a gentleman, who's honest and steady and kind. Everything else is just gravy. Is that really so hard to find?

But it seems like - and I've said this and heard this said a thousand times over - all the good ones are ancient, taken or gay. The sad truth.

I don't know. Maybe as my girlfriend says, I just need to widen my social circle. Maybe I've just been meeting all the wrong guys. (So where are the right guys hiding???) Or maybe my standards are just too high. But then if this is what happens when I lower my standards then obviously that isn't the way to go...

So what now?

I guess I keep my standards and keep looking. And waiting. And praying. And maybe someday...

Okay. No more 'settling for' anyone. It's time to raise the bar.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Fragile things

I've been reading a lot lately. Well, I've had a lot to read lately. The Twilight series and lots of Neil Gaiman - I just bought myself a Books of Magic graphic novel (Oh yeah and I just discovered two magic/fantasy fans today. Yay.). And now I hear there's gonna be a sixth Hitchhiker's book next year, even though the writer of the series has expired some time past. Whoooooooo!

So I'm also reading Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things and it's so awesome I'm inspired to write my own stories. Was. Heh. The feeling sorta wore off on the way home. Musta left it on the train.

Oh well. Maybe tomorrow, then.

It is really pretty awesome though. There's a story written for the website of The Matrix, a set of stories meant to accompany a Tori Amos CD, and one discussing the problem of Susan - the one from Narnia. I always wondered about her. The story's pretty disturbing though...

And one of my personal favourites is Other People. A story about the afterlife, or one of the options anyway. I wonder if Hell really is like that? Owwwwwwww. I'll be good now! Promise.

I love the book's opening. The first line of the introduction - 'I think... that I would rather recollect a life misspent on fragile things than spent avoiding moral debt.' Hmmmmmmm. Food for thought. That certainly describes me, although I suspect I'm getting too old (physically and emotionally) for this. Someday I'll have to stop.

Maybe tomorrow.

But...

Hearts, dreams, people. What is life, after all, without these fragile things?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

I have a dream

Mamma Mia! What a show! Whoa I wasn't expecting that much, really, but who knew Abba would still rock me this way? I enjoyed this so much, and I loved the songs...!!!

Maybe it's 'cos I seem to be living my life in songs these days. There's always one in my head, keeping me going. Some are angry, some are boppy, some are downright joyous. But mostly they make me cry.

Lately I've been listening to Switchfoot again. Their songs always make me happy, even when the songs aren't. This is from 'I Dare You to Move'.

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here


Really puts things in perspective huh? And this one I think is just beautiful. Abba's 'I Have a Dream'.

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream

Beautiful.

Now where's my angel? ;)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Lessons in rejection




What Melanie Means



You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!



You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.

You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.

At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.



You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.

You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.

Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.



You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic "Type A" personality.



You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.



You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.

You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.

You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.



Hmmmmmm I guess that's pretty accurate. Though I'm not so sure about pulling it together for the important things now. *sigh* Anyway.

Spent the morning selling flags with the parents for Focus on the Family. It's appropriate, doing it as a family - wish the siblings could have joined us too. It was surprisingly fun. Maybe because this is one cause I really believe in - keeping families together. It saddens me to hear of the rising divorce rates and how parents and kids don't get along. Sometimes I feel like screaming at these people, "You have so much, how can you throw it all away? Don't you see what you're doing???"

I'd like to think if I had my own family someday, I'd just know what to do. Not make the same mistakes so many other people make. I'd be so careful to cherish and protect what I had. Now that's a big if. If I ever get that someday... we'll see.

These days I'm not entirely sure I want that anymore.

Oh, I do still want that, in itself. I'm scared of what it takes to get there though. I'm definitely not ready to go down that road again. To pour my heart and soul into a relationship, hold nothing back, give 110%. To trust, to believe, to love. And then have it all taken away, for no apparent reason. No, I definitely don't want that. I really don't know if I'll ever have the courage to try again. Right now, it hurts way too much to even contemplate. Hurts beyond believing. So. Maybe someday.

Back to selling flags. If you've ever done that, you'll know how people react to flag-sellers... it varies from the heartwarming to the downright rude. But you have to keep that smile on your face and keep at it, till your stickers run out or you're dead on your feet. Hey, it's all for charity, right? It certainly thickens your skin though.

And I guess, like in all tough situations, there are lessons to be learnt. Here's what I picked up today on how to sell flags:
1. Generally, people are too shy to just approach you. That doesn't mean they're not willing to give though. All you have to do is make the first move!
2. Patience and persistence are very important. You are going to get rejected more than a few times, but just get over it - the next person may be much nicer.
3. Always be polite, no matter how rude the other party is.
4. People respond much better to a sweet smile than to aggression.
5. Even when you get rejected, however rudely, just smile and say 'thank you'. And really mean it.

And I suppose these can be applied to relationships too. Heh. Hmmmmm, I'd say I've been pretty good at keeping to the rules (both today and in my relationships). Even the last one. That was really tough though. Looking back now, I can't believe I did it... wow. I amaze myself sometimes.

Yeah... that's what I mean by way too nice. I should take Mr W's advice and be more of a bitch. Haha. Somehow I don't think I could even if I wanted to. I'm such a bad liar anyhow.

Okay, enough. Enough enough enough. Time to snap out of this. I've spent enough time wallowing. Yeah I know, I'll say this about 10 time more before I actually do it. This is just the first of many. It's a start, at least.

And in other news... Sam's got me totally hooked now on the Twilight series. It's all about vampires and werewolves and it's surprisingly good. No, not good. Totally awesome. I just got my hands on the third and fourth books. I've already devoured the third and I'm so afraid to touch the fourth because there's no more after that. (Oh, the horror!) I just can't put the books down, once I start. And I just found out Twilight's been made into a movie! And it comes out on Christmas day!!! And guess who plays the lead vampire, Edward???? None other than Robert Pattinson, aka Cedric Diggory of Harry Potter fame. Argh!!!!!!!!! (Although in my mind Edward always looked like Jason Behr aka Max Evans from the TV series Roswell. Especially since I've seen him play a vampire before - in a bad movie, it's true - and he looked so gorgeous there. But then I guess Robert Pattinson looks loads more English, and that suits Edward...) Can't wait for the movie. I've booked Sam already. And I thought Harry Potter was good. Haha.

Off to dreamland now... and I know what I'll be dreaming of tonight. Rowr.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Die, die, die my darling

I love my friends. Especially my girlfriends (no offence to the dudes, but I'm not exactly a huge fan of that particular half of the population at the moment). Amazing how you babes catch up so quickly... I guess it's good to know people are keeping tabs on me. Or something. Anyways, I'll be all right. And I WILL talk about it, eventually. Just not right now. I'm still too angry, I think. Keep me away from baseball bats, axes and choppers. And guys. Cheers!

I think things are getting a little bit clearer, day by day. Certainly can't ignore the tons of advice, and the horror stories are very comforting, in a strange way. At least I know I'm not alone. Not by a long shot... but still. Sigh. I still feel like kicking things...!!!!

Far suggested kickboxing. I might take her up on that.

Or something a bit bloodier...

These days I vacillate between super energetic, almost hyper - that's when I finish all my work too fast and comtemplate asking for more (bad idea!) or I totally kill myself at the gym and make my trainer very happy (I swear, the guy's a sadist, he laughs when I whimper in pain) - and so lifeless I'm borderline comatose.

...

Still feel like kicking things. Hard. Guess I'm in the energetic phase right now.

Listening to lots of angry music. My Chemical Romance's 'Famous Last Words' and Shinedown's 'Second Chance' in particular.

My eyes are open wide/
By the way I made it through the day/
I watch the world outside/
By the way I'm leaving out today

I'm not angry, I'm just saying/
Sometimes goodbye is a second chance...

Yeah. Oh and I really like this one:

Die, die, die my darling
Don't utter a single word
Die, die, die my darling
Shut your pretty mouth
I'll be seeing you again
I'll be seeing you, in hell

- Die, Die My Darling. Metallica

Hmmmmmm. You can see the direction my thoughts have taken. It's pretty dark, this road. And perhaps, this way madness lies.

But what the heck.

I've just devoured two awesomely thick novels Sam lent me. Twilight and New Moon. I finished each one in about four hours each, which is impressive, even by my standards. But as Sam says, don't you just love Edward? And indeed I do. I think I've just developed a major crush on a fictional character, which says something about what I think of real guys right now - especially considering Edward's a vampire. Heh. I think I'm developing a streak of dark humour somewhere there...

Moody. I'm about done with the ranting for today, though I'm still fighting the urge to kick things, hard, which would probably mean three broken toes and a concussion, knowing me, so I won't - but I'm not exactly chipper. Argh. Stupid guys.

I'm still being too bloody nice, aren't I? Dangit.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Rollercoaster ride

Life's a rollercoaster, that's what they say. And I'm not enjoying the ride anymore. I'm really not in a good place right now. It's just a royal mess, and I don't know where to begin to clean it up... I'm not sure I really want to. Maybe when I've got my head screwed back on straight. Then I'll start picking up the pieces, one little shard at a time. And I'll put myself back together, and I'll hope I don't get shattered again.

This time I'll use Superglue.

I'm all ranted out, so I won't bother with venting. Not today, anyway. I'm trying hard to look for the little silver lining. And I think I'm finding it, some of it quite unexpected. I'm pleasantly surprised. Just when you lose your faith in people, someone else comes along to restore it. Maybe not quite the same way, but still.

You guys get me through it. Thank God for people like you. I didn't think I'd be smiling and laughing again so soon, but I am, thanks to you. So here's to a better tomorrow, whatever it may bring. I hope you'll still be there. Stick around... the rollercoaster's on its upward climb now, but it just might plunge again. I don't think it's over yet. It's just begun.