Blog On Fire

I got the Blog on Fire Award from the sweet Nicole (we definitely should talk soon!). I guess I'm allowed to pass it to 5 other bloggers if I post 5 facts about myself.

1. I'm insomniac. The reason that I bring this up first is because it is freakin' 2 in the morning when I type these words. It frustrates me for I know that I have to get up at 5 o'clock and my eyes hurt from uninterrupted eye-page full of letters contact  for a few hours. Now I'm watching some movies. I want to rewatch Doctor Who 5 but something's not working so now I feel only like watching romantic comedies. I watched The Confessions of a Shopaholic (Lord save my soul, I hope college people don't google future students' blogs) and I'm starting Letters To Juliet (edit: why do I even watch those films if I know they're utter crap? ah, right, those happy endings... I just can't help it). I also watched "Bananas" by Woody Allen. I definitely recommend it, but I warn you that it will leave you feeling bitter.

There's actually loads to do in the middle of the night. LIke, clean the apartment, study, plan a trip, respond to all the e-mails, bake cookies for tomorrow morning, paint nails and such. BUT I feel like a burnt tire.

2. My hair color is in fact actually by nature red. That's the question I get asked the most so I respond. I understand why. My hair is just inherently weird.

3. In my childhood I missed out on video games. At some point I played the Sims but that was long before there was any news about later editions. Basically I was so obsessed with Harry Potter that I wanted to play the Sims Abracadabra, not because I was necessarily a fan of games but because it had this one magical word in it. I pretty much played only that in my entire life. I deleted it from my computer when I had so many charms saved that it was eating up all my little Toshiba 1998 laptop's memory. Believe it or not, but being a huge nerd I was never a gamer, I didn't even play Harry Potter games (not until last month when my friend and I got back from the premiere and were so pumped that we couldn't sleep, so we played Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and I was really excited. But then I got tired of that anyway, so no.) Nerd. But ain't got the littlest gamer's bone in my body.

4. People say that all the flight attendants have this issue with smiling - or not being able to stop smiling. Well, it's not only the thing with the flight attendants. Ballerinas have that too. Since I was a little child I performed on stage, my very first part was a bird in "Cinderella".  And they always told us to keep smiling, no matter what happens, if someone from the audience comes up on the stage (I swear, that happened once. It was a child, but still it was hilarious), if a dancer falls or faints, if a fire breaks up in the theater. Do not stop dancing. Do not stop smiling. Do not smile privately. Do not smile to particular people in the audience or to dancers. Stage it, damn it, stage that smile, Nela.
I guess that shaped me to be who I am right now, I don't stop smiling. I smile while I cry. I smile and laugh hysterically when someone close dies. Many people find this offensive or inappropriate. It's my way of dealing with life.

5. I just spent one of the most wonderful weekends! On Friday I met up with my friends from school and we had a coffee at my place. Then I had a Bible meeting with my brothers and sisters in Christ which lasted till 1 AM. I woke up at 3 AM to catch a train to Warsaw for the YouStars live meet up event. Unfortunately my poor vocabulary lacks the appropriate words to express how awesome this was. Let me just say: !@#$%^&*()_+!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's how awesome it was. I got to hang out with Kristina, Meghan, Cat, Will, Kate, Greg, Jimmy and a ton of terrific Polish people. All the YouTubers talked about their vlogging experience, Jimmy performed, we had some time to just chat and get to know everybody over some drinks and music. The next day the American guests had to complete the Urban Challenge which was about finding places and checking off if the particular challenge was completed. At some point I joined Cat, Will and Kristina who gave up racing for the pleasures of sightseeing and getting the proper and relaxed Warsaw experience. And so, we grabbed our ice-cream and enjoyed the pleasures of souvenir shopping, visiting churches (Will) and grabbing zebras flying in the air (Cat). Then I headed back to the club, but unfortunately I didn't have much time to stay at the after party for I had to catch my train. You can read more on Kristina's blog . Let me just say that it was one of the must fun-packed weekends I've ever had.


And so, I'm giving the award to 5 more people:
1. My lovely friend Skye - a nerdfighter and an aspiring writer who's blogging more frequently than I am.
2. Another lovely friend Julie - she's starting a job in PARIS next semester so she'll have a ton of awesome french stories to tell.
3. Lovely Melinda is lovely - maybe you know her as lifein2011. It's too bad she doesn't write as frequently as she used to... (a subtle suggestion, Melinda :)
4. Aifowy - she is a Polish blogger, but you don't really have to understand the language as what she mainly does is fashion. She posts awesome pictures and even I'm not that much into fashion, looking up the pictures on her blog is a mere pleasure for me.
5.Aimee is attempting BEDA this August so check her out because she's doing great.

Song of the day : High on You - Jimmy Wong

People say nothing changes when you turn 18.

My motivation is like a product approaching its expiration date in your fridge. You know you have to use it quickly, entirely and effectively, but you just can't look at all the food you bought because you thought you'd consume it all. And of course you were wrong. Oh, how wrong were I thinking I could deal with all the items I packed into my shopping cart. Out of this madness I didn't make it for our YPO anniversary with my friends. But all the pantsers, if you are reading this, I'll make it up to you next week, I promise. I'll have something absolutely awesome!!!

In the spirit of our anniversary, I took a close-up look upon those past six months. And you know, I can definitely say that they changed my life as quickly and as strikingly as it never had happened before. It's not only because I gained great new friends that, oh my goodness, finally "get it" and that I got involved in a whole bunch of new fun  internet projects, but the fact that those two factors accompanied my lifetime milestone (how I missed those cliches in my blog) is somewhat significant. Let's make a list then. Just because we like listing, don't we?

1. I got baptized. Even though I was a converted christian before and I believed it would be just a symbol of confessing my faith and showing that I in fact do give everything to Christ, it was so much more. It was a life-changing day, it was indeed not only a token but I real baptism in Holy Spirit and a clear and definite declaration. Jesus is my number one. Period.

2. I noticed a really bizarre change in myself. I think it's the Holy Spirit's business because there is literally no way I could get like that and we all now that our God hates chaos. I, insert first and last name, actually started to care about cleaning. Before I was a typical hamstering creature that amassed every bus ticket, cardboard box or peanut butter jar (they really do come in handy sometimes) in the abyss of my attic and my garage (also, every other drawer). Now I turned into this Anthea Turner - type of person. It really really does scare me. I started my campaign to chuck every useless item in my house, so you're welcome if you can't fit stuff in yours. Because my house is 28 bags of rubbish emptier. And since I work a lot I usually do it all at night. For example, three days ago I couldn't sleep anymore and so this brilliant idea to clean the medicine drawer at 4 AM popped up in my mind. Well, this adventure ended up in my cat being literally drugged as a result of rolling in all of the expired herbal teas I had had and me having to lock her up in another room. But then she started meowing so hard because she's a drug-addict and, I swear, she woke up the whole street.

3. So future, hum? 6 months ago I would be freaking out at the mere sound of this word, now I know certain things for sure. First, don't care too much, because caffeine isn't that great in abuse and you might lose your hair. Second, you can do whatever you like to do, you just have to believe (Hillary Duff reference again, I am truly shamefaced). I couldn't believe I would get back to ballet and (after dancing 8 hours a day for a week) decided it was possible to get back to ballet school. Which I'm in fact in the process of doing.  Third, I think I finally know what I want to do with my life,or at least I have some alternative. So that's reassuring. Huh, a breath of relief, and we can start brain-cracking over something else. For example...

4. You know, 18 is that time when you come across some crucial decisions and have to stop for a while and just think these life-and-death issues through. For example, I finally found some time to contemplate the problems of the names for my children. Not that I'm planning anything. You just have to have a plan B.
 So here I go: Elizabeth, Esther, Edgar. Don't be hatin'. I've no idea what's the thing with the E.

5. I got over one thing of mine. That's one thing forward.

6. I met a  life-changing friend. The one who sets your priorities in order. The one who can make you cry again and who make you feel grateful for everything. And the one with whom you can eat tomato soup in abuse. Every freakin' day.

7. My dear friends from YPO. I rarely say this, because I don't want to go sentimental (that's not true, I'm just to busy to make it every Monday. Or ANY Monday. This has been a sad time for Mondays...) but I really appreciate how similar and how different we are. I really appreciate the difference of age and how I don't feel it at all. And I love you.

8. Oh well. That's the season. The universities started spamming my mailbox. The University of Washington sent me their brochure and since then I've been super pumped about Seattle. So who knows? Just give me that 38 K $ and I'm gonna be okay.

I have so much more, but some of them I don't want to share and some of them I don't remember and in addition, the sun hurts my eyes. So I should get going. One more thing - this week is gonna be awesome, so I wish you'd have fun during your weeks as well. I'm a bit sad I'm not BEDA-ing this month but I'm gathering my strengths for NaNoWriMo. I hope I can make it this year, so at least I'll try to write a bit more frequently. That's about it.

Song of the day: Niech Krolestwo Twe (Sorry, I doubt I ever inserted any Polish christian song? :)