Nearly A Week

It's been nearly a week since I last blogged which really isn't good enough. My only excuse is that I've been very busy. I can't really remember what I did now though.

I did tidy my room in the time it took me to watch Joseph. It really looks much much better now and I fully intend to keep it that way! I'll take a photo later when I get my digital camera.

On Thursday night Lizzie and I went round to Donald and Dorothy's for tea which was nice. They have kids and I enjoy spending time chatting to kids as they are much more on my level than adults.

On Friday I met La La for lunch at Subway before spending the afternoon shopping in Morningside. I was tired and had loads of bags of shopping and just missed a bus so had to wait twenty minutes for another one which was a pain.

Saturday was the big party day. I woke up and couldn't walk which is never good when you have lots to do. I had a flare-up of a type of arthritis that I have and my foot was quite bad so I couldn't put any weight on it at all and had to hop/hobble everywhere. It cleared up after a few hours though and it was fine by the time of the party. La La very kindly came round a few hours early to help me decorate and those few hours were really needed. It's a shame I didn't take any photos when the decorations were up as the place looked smashing with coverings all round the wall that were meant to make it look like a 50's diner, a jokebox and guitars on the wall (not real of course), a life-size cardboard cut-out of Elvis, loads of bunting, loads of streamers, loads of helium balloons including stars and giant '2' and '6' balloons to make up 26... they really are very big! I'd invited about 20 people and with my usual optimistic outlook on life I expected between 5 and 8 to turn up. Amazingly over 20 people came! I was well chuffed and it was a tight squeeze! John (usually referred to as Onion Boy) didn't come. I was worried that he hadn't come because of me winding him up but he had been fully intending to come but had been told he had to work. I'm not sure Arlene believed me though as she was in a bad mood with me all day on Sunday. Maybe I take my ribbing of John a little too far at times? Nah. Everything I do is quite mild compared to the level of ribbing that went on at the school I went to.

Anyway, the place was all decorated. When people arrived they got given their party hat and ordered to wear it. If it was their birthday they also got a male or female birthday medal to wear for the evening. They got a party bag with chocolate coins, a chocolate bumble bee, popping candy, a sherbert dip, a balloon, a party popper, a blowout, bubbles and stuff like that.

Once everyone arrived I set about cooking. I had a few things on my mind so was too distracted to do as good a job with the cooking as I should have. It all turned out fine but I think it could have been a sleeker operation and 'fine' isn't good enough! We had at least 20 oven trays worth of hot food so it was very stressful. One person was critical of me using the bottom of the oven to put trays on saying the underside of food would burn and the top wouldn't cook. I think that's true if the food is quite thick which is why I did thin things like pizzas (which get cooked like that anyway) on the bottom the 1st time round and these puff pastry things. The 2nd time round when I was a bit flustered I put two garlic breads sticks on the bottom and when they were fully cooked were more well done on the bottom (but still fine and I've had much worse). The criticism just made me feel like a much more inadequate cook, party host and human being in general though. If I was a more rational person I would probably know that they weren't criticising but just giving me some advice to assist me with my cooking and that they were being caring and helpful. Unfortunately I'm not rational though and it made me decide I'm never cooking again.

Back to the party though and once we'd finished eating and sucking all the helium out of the ballons we played "Who's in the carrier bag?" which was really fun. Some of the people had a real lack of awareness for who celebrities and TV stars and historical characters are. The lack of basic knowledge is really shocking! After the lightweights left at about 1am we played buzz for 2 or 3 hours before all the semi-lightweights headed home and Lizzie and I watched Casualty then went to our beds.

I was a wee bitty tired on Sunday morning. When Paul and Elizabeth came in to church (during the first song) I saw them carrying their wee baby boy Ben and it was the first time I'd seen him so I let out an audible (and high-pitched) 'awwwww'. I love chatting to people after the service and went to have a wee look at Ben and talk to Paul.

::skip this paragraph::
For some reason a couple of people decided to have disagreements with me yesterday and it left me feeling a bit low for the rest of the day. When everyone else went home after lunch I stayed in the church and did some stuff on the computer for Fraser before giving the place a good tidy up because there were mugs everywhere and loads and loads of books in the wrong place. We had a meeting about Young Peoples Lunches and then the evening service. I found it difficult to stay awake because I was really tired by this point but just about imagined it. Direction was a study so that was also quite tiring from me. One of my friends had been 'off' with me all day and I seemed to annoy them every time I opened my mouth so I decided it'd be best to keep quite when they were around so as not to annoy them any more. I think a few things contributed to me not feeling the happiest. Firstly, I already had things troubling my little mind. Secondly, I was tired. Third, when I've had a really good time I always feel really rubbish when I come back down to Earth with a bump. Fourth, a couple of people had been cross with me on Sunday and I didn't think I deserved it (usually I do deserve it). When I feel like this I can still have a laugh and a joke with people but it's much more of an effort and I get constantly plagued with thoughts and feelings that I don't like. I don't want to go in to any more detail than that but it'd be nice if some of my friends would pray for me in general... also, I need as much distracting as possible so if anyone wants to take me out anywhere of come and visit then I'd jump at the chance because I don't want to be left on my own too much. Self-indulgent moan over.
::start reading again::

I will try to get that photo of my nice tidy room later today. Did I post that my sonicare toothbrush has arrived? I haven't given it a try yet... I've still been using my normal battery toothbrush. I probably need to see the dentist soon, that'd be a nice trip out for me. I'll read the instructions and charge it up later. Back to doing some boring work now :-(