My Summer In Kaitaia Is O.V.A.H. Finished. Burrito

My summer is over again for another year.

I feel like I have posted on this blog more this summer than last, but I don't know if I actually have, and let's be honest, I am too lazy to check if that actually is the case. And I'm hoping whoever you are who's reading this isn't so hung up on facts that you're going to go check... Haha nah I'm only kidding you can if you really want to... :-P

So my Summer. Well. It's always interesting/a challenge.

When I first left Dunedin back in November I was SOOOO EXCITED to come home. I'd been having a hard time and I just wanted to get away from everyone and everything and just be by myself. I find that if I don't get alone time things can get very bad very fast. Plus I was missing my dogs a lot and my Dad had been telling me that Sheba wasn't doing well so I was very anxious to get back before anything happened to her.
This time before I wen't back I even managed to keep the exact date of my return a secret from my Dad. He continually asked when I'd be back, and I told him I was coming home a week later than I actually would be.
He didn't suspect a thing!!!!
I told my Mum and my brother that I wanted to surprise my Dad so they didn't say anything.
Then when I walked in the house on the 2nd of November, my Dad had absolutely no idea.
I just walked into the lounge and greeted him with the usual: "Oh herro" that we use whenever he phones me.
It was SO AWESOME! He just stared at me and asked what the heck I was doing there. HAHAHA! Priceless.

Anyway so that was one of my highlights of this Summer. It was also cool to go to my friend Briar's 21st and  to catch up with people on my epic journey back down south. I really enjoyed Film Project and hanging out with all the super cool people I met there too. I wasn't 100% thrilled to come back to Kaitaia after Film Project but I have really tried to make the best of it. While most of my days have been long and uneventful and leave me feeling somewhat depressed, there have been others that have been tons of fun and make me realise how blessed I am.

I cannot stress enough how much I have loved spending time with the dogs. They are so amazing and it sucks that I only get a few months with them a year. There have been many intrepid journeys to various parts on the farm, and I wouldn't trade those moments for anything. It has been fun getting to help my Mum out with stuff on the farm as well, talking about trees and plants with her, and just spending time with her in a way that means we don't have to talk a whole lot. When we are out planting trees or cutting down Chinese Privet, we are just focusing on the task at hand. She doesn't try to get any information out of me or interrogate me about boys or anything, she just lets me tell her stuff if I want to. I think that's a good way to be.

My family bonds through watching TV shows and movies so it has been good to watch a couple movies with them. We watched Johnny English 2 the other night, which I had already seen but the moment I saw it I knew that I wanted to watch it with my Dad because I figured he would really enjoy it. And he did! Moments like that are what I want my Summer to be about.

I have had a few... heated discussions with my Dad about things. He is starting to get sick of me now (he actually said that, even though I already knew), so it's good that I am going back to Dunedin. I think in future I should spend less than two months at home, unless I can get out more.
I think the reason my Dad and I blow up at each other is because we are really similar, and I know just what to say to make him even more angry. Poking the bear, perhaps? Hehe... He says he won't miss me but I know he's lying.
My mum says she is going to miss me a lot, but like I've said, its understandable for her to feel that way because I'm the only one who is interested in helping her. I'll miss her too though, she's so funny.

It's kind of weird that my Summer is over now. I didn't do a number of things that I wanted to.
I only wrote four songs, and compared with the quality of the seven I wrote last Summer I think I could have done better, but oh well. It's not like I didn't try!

I also wanted to get some painting done, but I never got around to it.
I painted the deck... But that doesn't count.

I spent most of my time alone. Playing guitar at least two hours a day. But I would like to give a shout-out to all the people who made an effort to make plans and hang out with me: Floris, Joella, Mariana, Lizaan, Emil, James, Chloe and Keron. You guys really made my days so much happier. I'll also give a mention to those who I hung out with in social settings, like Ruth G, Aroha, Jon-Paul, Lara, Roseanne and Jo-Ann. I really appreciate you guys :-)

I feel like this is a farewell speech or something. Hahahaha.

And also, I would also just like to thank the people who kept in contact with me over the course of this Summer. You know who you are. Without you I feel like I really would have drowned in a black pit of despair.. there were a few times where I thought I was going to :-P Am I being over-dramatic? Potentially. BUT MAYBE I'M NOT!

Tomorrow I will be back in Dunedin and starting my fourth and potentially final year of study at University. AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! Should be a very fun-filled year.

I am conflicted about leaving though.
My Dad told me that he is going to put Sheba down after I leave so that really really sucks. I don't even want to think about it. I don't think that information has even really sunk in. I try to consider it, and it just doesn't get through to me. I mean, it's a pretty awful thing. I have known Sheba for the better part of 12 years. How can my Dad just decide that he is going to end her life? Ugh, it's soooooo sucky. But anyway, I could write a whole blog entry about that.


As I conclude this very long blog entry, I would also just like to thank you for reading. I don't know why anyone would but I feel very blessed to have people interested in what I have to say. So cheers! I hope I have somehow made it worth your while :)

Until next time, have a good one!

Recovery

Ok so initially my plan was to write a blog entry EVERY SINGLE DAY of my recovery post-Wisdom Teeth Surgery, but after it took me about two hours to write that account of the surgery day, I decided against it.

I'd also just like to apologise if this doesn't make any sense, I have been on drugs a lot and it seems that my punctuation and grammatical skills have suffered a lot, so if you see typos, just attribute them to the fact that I'm still kinda out of it.

It has been exactly a week now since the day I had my teeth savagely ripped out of my mouth.. Hahaha! I'm just kidding, it really wasn't that bad.
I think in my head I thought it was going to be really terrible and traumatic, but I was so pumped full of drugs that it really wasn't too stressful at all.

Anyway so the week that followed was very interesting.
It has been a very LONG week. That's for sure.
I can't believe its only been seven days since the surgery, it feels like much longer.

I kinda pride myself on being totally honest in these blogs of mine, so I'm going to be honest, I have been in pain every day for the last week. Varying degrees, but its pain all the same. Luckily I had a very large supply of painkillers at my disposal, so I made the most of them. I turned into what could be deemed as a constant pill-popper, but I needed to do it! Its not as if I took pills when I didn't need them.

It was like a chronic pain, and when it got too intense I would just take some pills. I was on strong stuff, pills with codeine in them, but the day after my surgery I took some and then threw up so I decided not to take them anymore. It was the first time I had thrown up sober since I was about eight years old so it was upsetting for me... Hahaha that sounds really bad, but if you've read my blog before then you'd know that I have a drinking problem. Throwing up when you're drunk isn't so bad... Anyway, I am going on a tangent now.

My point is: Yes, it has been painful. Yes, the drugs really do help. But the other thing I realised, as I'd lie in my bed after eleven or twelve hours of sleep, is that the pain I was feeling wasn't the worst I'd ever felt. Its going to sound super emo, but this week has honestly not been the worst week of my life as some people told me it would be. And the pain I've been feeling hasn't been as bad as some of the other things I've been through.

I don't even think this experience makes my Top Five "worst weeks ever". So I hope that is comforting to some people. As long as you are subject to feeling alone and depressed like I am, I think you'll get through the Wisdom Teeth surgery + recovery no sweat! (As long as you have enough paracetamol/ibuprofen to last you a week) :-P Hahaha!

The worst thing about all this is that I haven't been able to do the following because it caused me soooo much pain:

• Talk
• Smile
• Laugh
• Sing

What is my life if I'm not doing one of the above?!?!?!?! For one thing, singing is like my favourite thing to do in the entire world. Secondly, I find almost EVERYTHING funny, so not laughing was something I failed at pretty fast. And every time I laughed, my swollen face would really hurt, and the more I'd laugh the more it'd hurt. I went to church and was filled with the joy of the Lord, needless to say, I was in a lot of pain by the time I got home. Going to church was a mistake, hahahaha. I'm just kidding, I just should have tried not to laugh so much and maybe taken some drugs before I went.

Speaking of LAUGHTER- my friend Floris came to see me the day after the surgery and he brought me some peacock feathers and made a comically large pen out of one of them and we quoted Anchorman and I laughed way too much. I coloured this part so Floris will see it and feel special. Thanks for coming to see me, dude! I appreciated it, though I didn't appreciate you seeing my swollen chipmunk face and making me laugh so much and hence be in a lot of pain. :-P

I couldn't manage to go a whole week without singing, I'd still do it, but I'd just try and be more careful about it. I'd try singing softly.. It kind of worked..

Now that the swelling is completely gone, I can laugh and talk and carry on with only a little pain, THANK GOODNESS!

I spent my days watching One Tree Hill (well I've been watching it all Summer so not much change there.) I have 6 Seasons! I am on the seventh and final disk of the 6th Season today. Its all going to be over. I find it quite sad, but I'm heading back to Dunedin in a week so I guess its good timing. I have also been watching movies, but not nearly as many as you'd expect.

Oh yeah, I almost fainted a couple times during this past week as well, which was pretty hilarious (See, I even find the thought of almost fainting funny!). And I have this hole in the back of my mouth where food gets stuck, its soooooo funny! I clean it out with this syringe and find food, its so disgusting but kind of amusing. I tell my mum what I find, I don't think she appreciates it but its funny so I keep doing it :-D

I've been living off mainly food in liquid form, I try not to eat food that required too much chewing because I don't want anything to get stuck in that hole. But it happens anyway so that's pretty lame. Brushing my teeth is also really hard, and it takes me twice as long! Did I ever mention that pretty early on in my recovery I brushed one of the stitches out of my mouth??! And I was being really gentle as well... Stupid stitches. I got them taken out today so that's good. Now I just have to wait for that annoying food-catching hole to close up.

I am sad that I am leaving Kaitaia in a week. I took the dogs out for a walk today on the farm and it made me feel very melancholic about the whole thing. I'm going to miss my doggies :( Mum seems pretty upset that I'm leaving as well, so that's kinda nice. Its nice to be missed! I think its mainly because I'm the only one who ever helps her with stuff, in the house and on the farm. Ah well, she will manage. It just sucks that by the time I visit Kaitaia again, Sheba won't be around anymore. I think that's the reason I don't want to leave just yet..

BUT ANYWAY! This entry seems like a bunch of rambling. Hopefully it has been helpful to those of you who are going to get your wisdom teeth out one of these days. I think its just the cool thing to do when you're 21. That's what I've heard anyway.

Thanks for reading this! You're a STAR!!!! Have a great day :)