Fail-vacuum

"I have this breath and I'll hold it tight
And keep it in my chest with all my might!"


I never thought I could feel sympathy for a vacuum cleaner after having to lug one up and down the stairs for countless years of my life, but it seems that all things do, in time, change.
I had been sucking up some bits with Jared's mum's smaller vacuum cleaner- which we have, uh, acquired- and went to put it away. I don't think the neck for that thing had been disconnected for MONTHS because there was a thick wad of dust and thread stuck in the connecting area of the two bits of pipe that make up the neck. So I sucked that up too and it suddenly dawned on me to check the bag as well. And it was FULL. Like, not just full full, but full to BURSTING. It was so fat and heavy that it felt like a medium-sized cat when I picked it up. I looked at the filter too and it was so clogged with dust that I'm surprised the cleaner was working as well as it was. From my mouth, completely involuntarily, sprang the words "poor, poor vacuum cleaner!" in a soothing voice; not that it's odd for me to speak to inanimate objects, especially electrical ones, but I had never felt so sorry for one in my life.
I changed the bag and the filter and found all the little components that go in the top compartment, making the cleaner complete again. And then I named it Max (because I always turn it up to max when I'm using it). And now I'm glad to say Max is feeling much better.

I tend to name any appliance that I use often or am particularly attached to. The first one was Fred, the P.A. system I used to use as part of Finn's band. Then there was Felix, my first slightly owned laptop who couldn't unplug and had 20 GB of memory. After him came Toshie, my new Toshiba laptop. My Scarlet Lily plant that I keep in the bathroom is called Theo. I named the toaster Buzz because he has an odd habit of buzzing when you put bread in the left side. My iPods have all been named after songs of my favourite artists: my first 1GB nano, Little L (Jamiroquai), my second 8GB nano Octavarium (Dream Theater), also known as Octy, and my current 160GB classic Stellar (Incubus). I named Jared's 6-string Washburn bass guitar Washy, and thankfully my brother has bought him off Jared, because I got quite attached to him. The brand name of the back fridge is Kelvinator- I mean, who could resist calling that by its name?! And the list goes on... I can't wait till I get my new keyboard, my Korg Triton TR-76, so I can name that too!

Foreword

So here I am again, planning to pour my heart out to strangers on a public website... although the only people who are going to be reading this are (probably) people who care about me, or at least know me. So it's more like planning to pour my heart out to people who are thoroughly sick of me already.

The main reason why I started this is because my friend Daniel- mostly known as Danny- is on this site, blogging out his life, and I love to read about it. Danny's the one who inspired me to start writing life-blogs on my myspace, and now he's moved on, I guess I've followed him... I think I also want to try and shut down at least one of my social websites (I have myspace, bebo AND facebook) and myspace is definitely the one I use least. In fact, in all honesty (which is my new policy) the only reason I was on myspace is to read Daniel's blog, because I like to keep an eye on him... I'm a mother hen.

Myspace used to be a "thing" between me, Cloe, Daniel and Ayesha- then my three best friends outside Avondale College, and my confidantes. They were all there first and Cloe cajoled me onto the silly site, and we all blogged about our lives, our loves, our hopes and our disappointments together. But now... well. Ayesha's blogs have gone private, and fair enough- I haven't made an effort to keep in touch with her, and I'm paying the price. Cloe's blogs haven't really changed since their beginning, but most of what she says are things that I could hear from her personally when I text her. Danny's blogs have moved here. And my blogs slowly petered out and stopped when I met my soulmate, Jared, because suddenly there was a sudden lack of negative drama in my life... and I just recently realized that most of what I blogged about was my dramas.

You might ask why, if my negative dramas were what I blogged about and they have stopped (or nearly so), am I starting a blog at all? My answer is a bit silly really. You see, most people I know who keep a diary keep just that- a diary, a book, physical paper with physical ink telling about their days, their nights. I used to as well, but the onset of technology has had an interesting effect on me; I find I get impatient with writing for several reasons. These are:

• My writing is HUGE- I fit maybe ten average words on a line of pad paper on a good day, and maybe five on a bad day.

• I am not a fast writer, and when I try to write fast my writing gets messier and bigger and messier and bigger until I'm absolutely disgusted with the result. Despite the evidence of my messy room which is usually covered in discarded clothes and books, I am not a person who revels in messiness. I can't study or do homework in my room when it's messy, I hate it when things are colour-coordinated, and I can't stand disorganization. Can't. Stand. It.

• However, I am a very fast typer. I love the speed and neatness with which the words run onto the screen- typing can keep up with my out-of-control train of thought, and the events and changes in my life.

So there are my reasons. This site is fantastic, it autosaves like every five minutes so if I lose any of my silly rambles due to Felix's spazzes (Felix is my laptop, but don't get too jealous- as you might've realised, he's a bit senile, and his battery is shot so I can't unplug him at all), I don't have to tear out my hair about it.

Hopefully this blog will be an easier way for the people I love best to keep caught up with my life and so on. A few of my friends have left Auckland (e.g. Ee Laine), and quite a few of them who are still in Auckland aren't at Auckland University (e.g. Deanna, Priscilla, Cloe, Quanny, Brooke), and quite a lot of them who are at Auckland University I haven't even encountered around campus that much yet (e.g. Sarah, Meeral, Julia, Sonali, Danny, Dhakshi), and this is my third week. I guess I'm confessing to being lazy- I don't feel I have time to write to each of these people individually- as well as concieted- who really wants to hear about all the silly stuff that happens to me, day to day, or even the serious stuff?- but there it is.

Just know that I love you all. This chapterbook is for you as much as for me.