blog.olya

realization of the day: i am very happy when i have fresh flowers that i can cut and arrange. i had my G test this morning (passed, from the first time! wooo!), and then worked until 7, so i was pretty stressed out and tired. upon coming home to a clean apartment i decided that instead of vegetating in front of the computer/the tv/the book i should do something that would take my stress away.

turns out pruning flowers is one of the many things that work very well to make me feel calmer, happier and relieve my stress. after spending around an hour cutting and trying to arrange all the various flowers that my mom gave me (it was her birthday, and she basically gave me some she didn’t really care for, plus some pretty ones - like the sunflowers) into the vases that i had on hand. after that i decided to take photographs, and turns out that i took like 38 photographs that i liked. so, there you go! diny, enjoy the chairs.

here are my favourite ones, you can see all of them here. (i culled the vignettes into this set)

now about my g test.

well, let me tell you, i was worried. most people (as in 20 except for 2) that i asked didn’t pass it from the first time. i don’t take failure well, despite knowing that its stupid to stress out about a test that DOESNT EVEN AFFECT YOUR GPA OMG. (and you can retake endlessly for just some small amounts of money). and yet, there was, sitting in the parking lot and trying really hard to calm down. i borrowed the russian translation of dale carnegie’s book (compilation of all 3 of his most famous ones) from my parents, so i tried to read it.

the guy who was testing me (i think his name is randy - thank you, randy!) was a friendly looking young guy, unlike the person who did my g2 test. he asked me how i am, and i honestly replied “nervous as usual”. i think this confused him, as he asked “this IS the first time you’re taking this test, right?” (it already said this on my form). i replied in the affirmative.

the test itself went nicely, with some awesome happenings. i pulled out of the parking lot with no problems (went really slow as there was a young kid who i saw running around before, so i informed the guy that the reason i’m going this slowly is because there’s a kid behind us, and i’m worried about him). fast forward to driving on the highway, and no problems. (i did apparently make some errors on the way there, but all minor things). so we’re going on the highway, and he says “please change lanes left and then right whenever its safe to do so”. i check stuff, see that its safe, and change lanes. obviously i’m going 100km/hr on the dot, so is the person in front of me. and then i see in my rear view mirror a pick up truck with a flat bed trailer (like the small one) speeding toward me. my first though - “ok, change lanes to the right so that you get out of his way”. except, the crazy pick up truck swerves to the lane to the right of me, without dropping speed. at this point i’m thinking “shit, he’s gonna pass me on the right and i’m very screwed, especially if he honks or breaks badly”. what he did was worse (or better? since i passed?). he passed on me on the right alright, but he did it without dropping speed, signaling lane change, and with his flat bed trailer SWINGING WILDLY, missing my car by maybe a meter. i actually said “holy shit” outloud, because that was some horrible driving there. randy didn’t say anything, so we continued on our merry way, while i’m kinda going “oh shit did i just fail?” inside.

what was remarkable is that he didn’t ask me to do any kind of parking. at least now i’m a pro at this parallel stuff, thanks to our wonderful street. anyway, we park and right away he goes “congratulations, you’ve passed!” (let me remark, this is BAJILLIONS YEARS OF LIGHT BETTER than my g2 test, where the guy just sat there for like a minute silent and writing stuff on his paper, until i couldn’t stand the pressure and asked with a shaking voice “so did i fail?” and he was like “oh no”. turns out i had 2 mistakes out of 15. but that was g2). i’m not sure how many “points” i lost on this test - i still have the paper, but it doesn’t say which errors are more crucial.

anyway, randy, wherever he is, i’m hoping he’s having a good one, because turns out that exams/tests still make me crazy. great! :P

so.

tim and i have gotten engaged this weekend. it was wonderful; it was romantic, and i am still walking on clouds.

how crazy is this? i think out of all the crazy things i have done in my life, this beats them all. even skydiving.

there is a wonderful sensation of drinking an almost full bottle of wine after work, expecting a haircut the next morning, watching utterly romantic and COMPLETELY over the top cheesy movies while knowing that
a) a great haircut! will be here! in a short 12 hours!
b) i’m officially will be graduated in just two days!
c) and tomorrow i get to celebrate tim’s graduation!
d) and that work is freaking AWESOME

this moment of watching way too much sweetness on the screen and feeling all the “completely-wrong-how-can-a-grown-woman-have-these-sensations” twinges is utterly fun and awesome.

(this is where my indepth thoughts start)

have you ever considered how many of your actions stem not form your civilized, rational, logical being - but rather from the very hidden (almost invisible) instincts that generations of survival have developed within us.

every time i enjoy a romantic movie there is a part of me that feels completely and utterly ridiculous - stereotypical, even, and that’s a rather unpleasant feeling, being stereotypical. but i despite my best desires of being a rational, perfectly logical and neutral human being can’t help but swoon when a girl rushes onto the airplane to catch her love in the last possible second.

(pauses for the umpteenth time during this buzzed entry to watch the movie)
oh gosh he is a WIDOWER! so he is a a GREAT person after all! awwwwww

there it goes again.

tonight i’ve resigned to these feelings. might as well look at myself with sarcasm and laugh at them, rather than try to at all to deny them.

(i think my blogs are neater when i’m drinking wine. and lacking sleep.)

i picked up a new pair of eye glasses today. i’m loving them. tim called them “high tech”.
(also got the lenses replaced in my emo-pair, so that now i can actually see through them!)

when we were in the opticians i asked for a quick check up. while my mom and i were waiting for him to come in, we took turns sitting in the chair and trying to read the eye chart in the other end of the room (like 3 meters away). she could see until the 9 and somewhat 10th line for the linked eyechart as an example. i… couldn’t really read the first. like, that big letter up top. holy cow.
in good news, my vision did not change in around 5 years now! woo!

this week should bring some exciting updates. all in all, life is pretty goshdarn great. kudos scarf, i even have a flickr account now. makes me feel special, for the low low price of $25/year! i should just give someone else the money next year and have it work out that way.

SO work search has began. recruiters are hunting me. i am shocked! but love it. all the people! all the talking! i feel so responsible and smart! it is wonderfu
bought 2 new shirts today, work type ones, white and black.
found my black pants here.
got all my marks back (OH YEAH its good)
and i am a GENIUS. that is all. i am firmly convinced that this life will be freaking awesome. awesomeer than it was before.