It’s A Good Life

This is my life right now (and what was also the contents of my pockets):

This was really a great day. A wonderful autumn day, sun shinning, birds (the winged kind) being uncharacteristically friendly. I swear, as I was walking along I came across this Mudlark and I walked right up to it, within a foot of it I was, I could have bent down and fed it if I had any food on me. It just looked up at me, with its little pointy look of interest.

I had decided, about 20 minutes ago, in the spur of the moment and rather quickly, that I would go shopping. My teacher was away so I had the rest of the day (from 11:30am onwards) off. I had not got my mother a Mother’s Day present yet. I felt terrible about this, last year for her birthday I got her a foot spa but the damn thing was so dodgy that we had to send it back. Have you read the instructions for one of them? You can’t use it for more than 20 minutes, store it wrongly, fill it too full, place it on carpet, use certain functions together, move your feet too suddenly… in short it was a very dangerous disaster. But today I decided to make up for it. I set out from my school with nothing but a phone (with no call credit) a wallet, with some change and my singing teacher’s money from last week’s non-existent lesson (which I would reimburse later), and a USB drive. I set off on the long 6.5 km (4 miles) return journey. I had to get a present and I had no ideas. I thought of getting a key wallet, because her old one had worn through years and years ago, and was now held together with glue, tan leather and rubber bands. I looked on the internet for them but I couldn’t find any with enough pockets. I had no idea where I might find some in the city my school is in, I knew the place, but I’d never looked. I didn’t like the idea of making this quite exhausting trip all for nothing, but I liked the idea of being stuck at school for 5 hours doing nothing less. So as I was walking along I came across this video store on the corner, and a thought struck me – “The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers”. She had been after this movie since she first heard it was released. So I walked in (conspicuously under 18) and asked very politely if they had that in stock. The surprised man at the counter did a search (both on the computer and of the store) before his colleague handed it to him. I bought it for a very reasonable price and walked onwards feeling very empowered.

The next stop was a party supplies place. I wanted to get something pretty and subtle and obviously brand new, to highlight the fact that I had gone to a lot of trouble to wrap it. I found and excellent roll Edwardian looking paper, but it was 2 and a half foot long. How was I meant to take that into the house without being detected? It doesn’t fit into my school bag. So I went for the more expensive folded sheets of paper, in dark cream with gold flowers, and some perfectly matching raffia.

I then strutted purposefully (I say this because that is what I do) to a place I knew sold handbags. I asked the rich, snobby, badly made up woman there if she had any key wallets. Close but no cigar. Not enough pockets. By this point I was feeling a bit deflated and though I might look around in the men’s section of the big clothing department store. No key wallets there either. I was even more discouraged. And as I resolved myself to the fact that I would have to resort to the old favourite – chocolates; I came across this sumptuous smell around where I was looking for safer foot spas. It turned out to be this range of body products by this new all natural company. It smelt divine, and after thinking about what she would or wouldn’t not actually use, I bought a coconut and lime (the best smelling) body treatment kit.

I was somehow resolved to three presents, and after failing on the key wallet front I still went after the chocolates. She doesn’t have a sweet tooth but there is this particular brand of cherry liqueurs that are just delicious. The big grocery chain didn’t have them, so I tried the smaller Italian café. I couldn’t find them. It was lunchtime, and the place was packed. My shoes had just stared to give me hell. But I did find some organic dark chocolate (something she also craves at rare times). After paying for this I ordered a coffee to go. I savoured the long wait that I had, in peak the peak of lunchtime. I was in the city again, alone, on a secret mission, which I had achieved, at lunchtime in a lovely Italian café and… oh my coffee was ready too.

I felt so pleased with myself after this. I walked back easily taking in all the sights, drinking my coffee and planning all my brilliant surprises… I was going to make it back safe, sound and undetected to catch my bus and spend a lovely lazy weekend making someone happy. I sung ‘Good Day’ by the Dolls in a quiet voice up the last street I travelled.

I got back to school early, carefully hid my presents in my school bag, grabbed my lunch and sat in the study hall. I put my rye bread and Swiss cheese sandwich in the sandwich press, took off my shoes, which had given me two painful blisters for my trouble (and I didn’t mind one bit) emptied my pockets and put my feet up. Then I took that picture, already pleased by the thought of getting to share my good day on my blog.

And… right after I typed that, sitting in my nice cosy room before dinner, I got to reveal it all and give my presents! She wasn’t expecting anything at all. It was magic, really, I might get accused of being selfish but I do love giving. I’ll get to hear more about what she thinks of it when my grandmother leaves. She thought I only got her one, but I had individually wrapped the presents and padded out the big box with newspaper for dramatic effect.

Which reminds me, my grandmother is indeed here. She has… issues… and when she is about there are tense times to be had, let’s just leave it at that.

I was thinking about her on the bus on Friday, the day she would arrive, about getting old. Most young people fear old age. I don’t. I think I will have achieved a lot by then, and I am not going to let it stop me all the same, as vain as I am, I won’t mind going grey, and getting wrinkles; when I do I shall grow my hair out and dye all of it white-grey except for a big chunk at the left side of my part, then wear it up like the woman in the Hogfather movie. It shall be awesome. I will be wise and interesting and have many tales to tell. I will continue to work and be a valuable member of my work environment. I will make an effort to keep up with technology and not be of the mindset that something dreadful always happens to music when you hit 60. I think that has already happened with the advent of hardcore hip-hop. I’m sure getting old won’t be fabulous, but I’ll make sure it doesn’t suck.

I really feel like nothing can touch me right now. Not my grandmother, not all the negativity rife within this household (I accidentally wrote househole), not all this shit with my university, certainly not the ‘stress’ of my last year of school – I’m having a ball with it, I’m older I’m smarter, I’m having a great time with my teachers, the work is great and I might just get my pittance of respect and friendship out of the place yet.

You know yesterday, also on the bus, I discovered that I like brazil nuts? I had always wondered what the big things that tasted like a subtle blend of almond and macadamia nuts in my muesli bar were – brazil nuts, yummy.

Every day I am discovering new and interesting things like this. I haven’t felt this good in quite a while. But it does come with a measure of laziness. I’ve been putting off this blog like everything else, my tiny bit of homework, the washing, cleaning my room… but I always find time for singing, not even my bad voice, nor my teacher who confronts me with harsh
realities, or my slightly tactless mother… can ruin this for me, for once, not now at least.

Oh it’s a little mushy and sick with lovely sentiment isn’t it? Bit too flowers and kittens? I’m liking it for now. I hope I don’t get too sick of it, my mind has a great way of indulging my subconscious whims. One day I was feeling a bit bored with the way things were, I wondered why I wasn’t chasing after a boy, having a fight with a friend, in with the gossip, working hard at school… and the very next day boys looked hotter, people started pissing me off, other people told me nasty rumours, and the assignments were all due.

It is one of those Murphy’s Law things (I like Sattinger’s Law better: “It works better if it is turned on”). I remember saying this to a friend in a letter, and I remember the quote exactly “The moment after you decide you are sorted is the moment you realise you are irreparably fucked.”

I hope this is not like that. I really do have a singing lesson this week…

And in the ‘Since You Asked’ category, which I am enjoying more and more as the weeks go on- I did indeed create my avatar. It’s one of about 16 that I am working on for myself and my art project. I’m going to a big canvas tactile collage with everything on it, everything that inspired me and relates to the characters’ essence: pictures of the media personalities that they incorporate, large paint splodges, string, beads, material, feathers, dolls hair, rope, plastic scraps, glue, bears eyes, lacquer, papier-mâché, glass, glitter, twigs, leaves, card, foam, dirt… all of it. It’s very exciting. I am a bit of an artist, but I confess, that picture is electronic. It’s the product of four very carefully constructed Sims 2 Body Shop faces. Where the program is limited as a game, it excels as a people modelling tool. I sampled the pictures, loaded them into PhotoFiltre (like Photoshop but simpler, easier and better) took all the colour out, changed the background shade, tinted the four quarters with pink, blue, green and orange, adjusted the contrast and gamma to get the best effect, posterised the image, reduced the dust, blurred it, refined it, cropped it, and added a sand coloured wash for the aged effect, then resized it. It’s almost unrecognisable now, so I guess it is more or less my work. Multitalented, I’m not sure about but thank you for the compliment, Idril. I tried to hear your band’s song that you sung on, the first 38 seconds sounded quite promising, but that was all my moody slow dial-up connection could handle. Maybe on Wednesday I’ll take a trip, and some headphones, to the library and listen there, on their 100mbps LAN connection… drool.

I do do other drawings, once in a while, mainly to distract myself from the fact I am not writing a song or similar things. My Amanda Palmer Live On Your Stereo is up on here, but next time I do something I will post it.

Speaking of singing and posting, I promised a song… now I don’t know how I am going to do this, logistically. Maybe you can just send me a request email (so I get your email address and the world does not, or if you are fine with posting it here, that’s cool too) then I simply email you the attached mp3. It’s not very big (3.93MB) the same length as Gravity, I called mine, in a very self important way: ‘Dresden Dolls featuring Anika Harrington – Depravity’. I didn’t have any real feedback on this song, my mother doesn’t like Gravity to begin with, so she hates all versions, my grandmother (the lewd lyrics, you ask?) doesn’t understand or care for contemporary English music, since it is not her first or favourite language, and there is no-one else in the house. But the reason I chose it is because it is the only opportunity where you will be able to hear me sing something at least part original, with full musical backing. And I think it’s a tad amusing, so I get to have a bit of fun. Please, please do not view this as Dresden Dolls sacrilege if I do a bad insensitive job, I don’t want to have to post a disclaimer. The Box seemed OK with it; you say that they want to connect with Amanda through the book and that’s a terrible misconstrued inference, but make fun of a Dolls song in a loud, crude and possibly out of tune way and that’s cool; I mean, I love them and all, but I just find it a little strange. But the song is going ahead. Thank you to Musings for giving me the inspiration for the song, and thank you Idril for giving me constant moral support and advice.

Ahh it’s so late I shouldn’t have put this off, and now after my tradition of great endings, I am left with nothing to finish on. But I will instead give you some very out of character air kisses. He he…

☆Anika☆