2000
Age 12. In Grade 6, my final year of primary school. I remember I had a major crush on a guy in my class. Getting ready to head off to high school. Killing Heidi were (and still are) my favourite band. Started really getting involved with computers and webdesign.

2001
Age 13. My first year of high school. Felt awkward and out-of-place. Met some beautiful people, and some mean ones too. Discovered my real love for webdesign and got stuck into it. Had many high school crushes. Met my best friend (at the time), Sarah. Started wearing makeup. Achieved high grades and was awarded an Outstanding Academic Achievement award.

2002
Age 14. Barely remember it, but this is the year I started dance classes at school and fell in love with it. Discovered more friends and made my first male best friend. Got my site hosted for the very first time. Started learning how to use FTP. Achieved high grades and was awarded an Outstanding Academic Achievement award.

2003
Age 15. Fell madly in love with a guy I met online, only to be dumped and told he’d been cheating on me. In the interim, fell for another guy online (Michael) and met him in November. Lost the ‘V-Plates’. High school musical production, great fun and awesome experience. Achieved high grades and was awarded an Outstanding Academic Achievement award, along with three subject awards for Social Science, Dance and Media Studies. Passed Learner’s Permit test and started driving lessons with my mum and dad.

2004
Age 16. Final year of high school. Many trips back and forth to Melbourne to see Michael. Entered the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge with my dance class, and came fourth out of about 20 schools. Grades dropped a bit, enough to miss out on the OAA award for the fourth time. Didn’t care; was in love.

2005
Age 17. First year of college (Year 11). Had a ball this year – great classes, more relaxed learning atmosphere. Studied English, Maths, Psychology & Sociology, Environmental Science and Religion & Philosophy. Hated Enviro Science, and quit. Went to Vanuatu in September for Michael’s sister’s wedding. LOVED IT. Decided to move to Melbourne at the end of the year to be with Michael.

2006
Age 18. Living with Michael and his mum & stepdad. Enjoyed it, but a lot of tension at times. Studied Year 12 via distance education but gave up. Started looking for work. Got my first proper job with a government initiative for apprentices. Loved it. Bought Inspirata.org. First nephew arrived, Jonah. Got engaged on New Year’s Eve.

2007
Age 19. Continued working. Moved into our own apartment in April. Enjoyed the freedom but it was expensive. Got our first pet, Layla. Got my first and second tattoos.

2008
Age 20. Got another kitty to keep Layla company, and called him Hendrix. Went to my first arena concert to see Ozzy Osbourne. Came out of the broom closet. By June, decided we’d had enough of paying an exorbatant amount of rent and decided to move back to Tasmania. Got my third (and kind of fourth) tattoos. Packed up and left in August. Moved in with Mum & Dad to get us on our feet. Michael got a job at a printer cartridge store. I continued looking for work.

2009
Age 21. Huge party for my 21st, with friends coming down from Melbourne. Layla passed away. Cried. A lot. Moved into a rental. Bought Terri.nu Had two job interviews in May, and accepted one position as Legal Secretary. Started living a little, since we now had two incomes. Decided to get married with 5 months to plan. Married in November.

2010
Age 22. Managed to hold down my job for 12 months +. Lost a close family member to suicide. Moved out of the rental and bought our own house. Became DIY-lover. Resced Delilah. Continuing to work. Michael’s best mate got married. And … ?

Anyway, onto brighter topics. I went shopping yesterday, since I had two $50 gift cards for Kmart (well, one for $50, one for $43.95 since I spent some of it) and bought:

• Hot pink eyeliner
• White eyeliner
• Maybelline’s Define-A-Lash in Waterproof
• Blusher/Bronzer
• Four eyeshadows
• Eyeshadow palette

I also bought ‘Twilight’ – no, I haven’t read it already, so I’ve been desperately avoiding spoilers online. I’ve done pretty well so far, since I only know that it’s about a chick who meets this guy who’s a vampire. That’s all I know. I started reading it last night, and am up to Chapter 3 (they’re long chapters, aren’t they?!). I’m enjoying it so far, but it’s not ‘must-read’ to me just yet, or something I’d be recommending to people yet. Obviously, because I’m only up to Chapter 3.

Then today, I went out and bought a perfume (just a cheapy that states it’s comparable to Britney Spears’ Curious perfume), cat food, hair mousse, a lip gloss and some choccies and a card for Michael, since I didn’t give him anything for Valentine’s Day. I had Subway for lunch, which was good – nice to have something that tastes healthy.

As for my site, Inspirata hasn’t seen a lot of love really, so I did a little revamping around the place, adding some more subpages, separating stuff out a little more. Happy so far.

Aanndd I need to work on my other sites more. GeekWitch.org has not seen ANY love for a while, which is a shame because I love that site, and TasPagans, don’t even get me started there. I think I jumped into that project with too much hope that it would really take off. If we haven’t got a lot of traffic by the end of March, I reckon I’ll just redirect the URL to the Tas Pagan Alliance site. Make things easier.

Anyway, that’s enough for now.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’ll probably know this already, but here goes (and I’m bound to cry while I write this so bear with me).
Layla was continuing to not eat this morning, nor was she interested in drinking any water. I got more worried, so I went around to the Vet’s (only 2-3 minute walk) and spoke to my vet, who offered some more of the laxative she’d given Layla before, to see if she was constipated again.
I brought this home and gave Layla a dose pretty much straight away. And she immediately threw it up. I thought maybe I did it too fast, gave it an hour or so, and tried again. She threw it up again. By this time, our electrician had come around and needed access to the cat’s room, so I took them both into our bedroom and she sat in a dark corner. I gave her some water by syringe, but eventually that, too, came up.
I was getting really upset by this point, so I called the vet and booked her in. I took her around there, and our usual vet had taken off for the day, so I had another vet look at her. This new vet, Lorraine, said she was very underweight and very dehydrated (two things I knew, as it was obvious; she wasn’t eating or drinking). She suggested putting her on an IV overnight then running some tests for her blood and to check her kidneys, to ensure they’re functioning properly. She broke my heart when she said, “If there is kidney failure, there’s not much we can do”. I managed to maintain composed while Layla was put back into her carry crate and the vet took her through to the back where the animals are. I left some contact details, walked home, and as soon as I stepped in the door I burst into tears. My mum gave me a hug, and I then went back to my room where Hendrix was and cuddled him for a while whilst bawling my eyes out. It is so heartbreaking for me to see my baby so skinny and knowing I can’t do anything about it except leave her with the vet. I know the vet’s is the best place for her right now, but I just hate being without her; she’s like a child to me and I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to her. And goddamnit for this happening so close to one of the biggest celebrations of my life.

I hope she’s going to be ok. Like I said, I don’t know what I’d do without her. Some people might say it’s so stupid, it’s just a cat, but she’s such a huge part of my life.
My dad was a heartless ass tonight at dinner – I was upset, obviously, and he says something like, “Well, we all have to face the fact that everything dies”. I said, “Erm, she’s not dead yet, you insensitive bastard”, and then he says “Well, no, but she’s not well is she?”, and again (for the 5784759724th time today) burst into tears and stormed out. I was so mad – how the hell could he be so mean, when he knows how much I love her.

Anyway, I’m hoping for good news tomorrow when I call the vet’s to check in on her. I really would prefer me calling them, instead of them calling me – if they call me, it can’t be good news.

The only good thing out of today was the fact I got my new mobile phone, my birthday present from Michael – it’s really cute and I’ll take photos of it when my Flickr account is back in order. Everything else today has gone haywire; I’ve jammed my finger, ripped skin off my thumb, stubbed my toes – everything imaginable has gone wrong today. I hope tomorrow is better (although it’s Friday 13th – maybe it won’t go so well).

I’m such a lame-o in regards to my last entry – I can’t believe I completely forgot to publish it; I was pretty tired last night (went to bed a couple of hours before my normal bedtime). I don’t know what it is, but I’ve just been so tired. I have to get as much sleep as possible this week, too, because it’s my 21st BIRTHDAY ON SATURDAY and I don’t want to be tired for that

I cooked shepherd’s pie (well, technically cottage pie since it was beef, not lamb) for dinner and it was yummo – I can’t post pics of it yet because my Flickr account is currently inaccessible (I accidently deleted my account before switching my Flickr over to my new Yahoo account), so I’m waiting on Yahoo to get back to me to help me. I should email them again and ask them to get a wriggle on.

So that’s about it for today – don’t want to bore you with useless dribble and I don’t have much more to say anyways, so adios

I’ve had a further growing concern for my Layla-puss, who’s become increasingly skinnier and skinnier. I make sure I sit with her while she eats, so I can see how much she has and ensure Hendrix doesn’t butt in to eat her food as well as her own, but she’s still not putting on the weight. I hope it’s just something to do with her still adjusting to her environment and not anything serious. Besides, when she last went to the vet, the vet said she was a happy, healthy cat. So *shrugs* iono.

I’ve had a bad food day today as well; I had a baked potato with corn and cream cheese sauce for lunch, and KFC for dinner. Not good – no wonder I’m not losing the pounds. I got down to 101.3kg on Friday, and then today I’m back up to 103kg, so I don’t know what’s going on there – hopefully it’s just fluid retention or something like that.

I had a kind-of productive night last night – managed to submit my second article to The Pagan Activist, and put up a new layout at the site for the Proud Pagan Podcasters. There was a bit of a tiff over there about a flash media player just ‘disappearing’, even though I didn’t touch the plugin that takes care of flash modules, so I don’t know, it’s all sorted out now and I guess that’s all that matters.

Things are coming along for the party – after yesterday’s effort (removing three trailer-loads of dirt and rubble from the backyard), today was a total chillax day, but I’m sure we’ll be getting straight back into it again tomorrow. There’s a little painting to do, the toilet to go in in the laundry, some electrical work (the plumber and electrician are coming tomorrow morning) and just general tidy-up and setup. By the way, most of this stuff was going to happen at some point anyway – we didn’t just call the electrician and plumber to put these things in just for the party! – but it was a good motivational tool to get stuff down around here.

So that’s about it – got to leave something to talk about tomorrow, I suppose! NaBloPoMo is working out for me so far!

Layla’s continuing to do well – I think she’s cleared her system and she’s eating well again, which is fabulous because I was so worried about her. She’s quite content now. As is Hendrix, who’s just loving cuddling up to anyone warm he can get to (oh, and blowflies are his new favourite play toy *eye roll*).

We’ve been cleaning out the old laundry to start lining it and putting tiles down – from what I’m picturing, it’s going to look amazing when we’re done, but it’s just a matter of getting it done. The old lady who lived in this house prior obviously never cleaned because the base of the laundry basin’s cupboard is almost completely rusted through, and there’s a whole lot of cobwebs and weird growth. Completely disgusting, so luckily Mum is getting a new basin for in there, and there’ll be a toilet in there as well (handy for my big 21st birthday in February!).

Speaking of my 21st, I’ve invited over 100 people! I’ll probably have maybe 70-80 of them actually come – most of them family – since a lot of my friends are in Melbourne and therefore would have to fly down, an expense they probably can’t afford. But I’ve definitely told them that I won’t be upset if they can’t make it, because I understand what it’s like to want to do something but not be able to afford it – happens to me all the time. But I’m looking forward to it either way – I plan to drink (a lot) and have heaps of fun.

Michael and I are going out for dinner tonight – no special occasion, just thought it was about time that we went back to one of our fave restaurants, this little Mexican place in town. I love their food and right now, while I’m on this weight-loss plan, I’m craving something a little fattier than usual! We’re also looking at booking tickets to go and see Ross Noble next week, hopefully it’s in the budget because he’s HILARIOUS and I just love his comedy.

Anyway, I think that’s about enough dribble for your ears today!

But I can’t do that, even though I should be able to, being my fucking birthday.  But instead, I get to sit at work, maybe eat some cake, then come home to a messy house that I’ll have to clean before I even think about inviting anyone over for the weekend (not that anyone would come).

I hate to sound like such a jerk, but every birthday before this I’ve had a big shindig, and this year, the year I turn old, I get nothing.

Oh well.  There’s always next year.

In other news, Hendrix is fitting in well.  Layla has stopped hissing at him so that’s good, she’s now tolerating him a little more.  Also, my term deposit reached maturity yesterday, and was automatically renewed so I had to spend half an hour on the phone to St George asking them to close my term deposit account, so that should be happening today.  And with the money, I’m going to buy a Dell Inspiron 1525 in Flamingo Pink, so that I have a lappy to do my school work on.

What’s that?  I hear you saying, “But Terri, you don’t go to school!”

Well guess what, bitches – I’m going back.  I need to complete Year 12, it will just look better on my resume.  So I’m doing it part-time, a split full-time course.  So 2 subjects this year, 3 next year, as well as work.  And the laptop is going to be easier because it means I can sprawl out on the loungeroom floor with my books and stuff and have the room to put everything.  I love my desk, and it is kind of big, but because I already have so much shit on it, it’ll be difficult to fit any sort of books or papers on.  Oh, and for those of you who thought I did have a laptop already, you’re right, but it took a shit on me.  I tried reinstalling Windows and from what I can gather from researching on the ‘net, it appears that it’s a bung hard-drive.  So YAY.  But I should be able to order the Dell later today.

Anyway, that’s enough from me, I’m sure you’re bored.  Later!

Introducing… HENDRIX!, originally uploaded by Terri H.

Here’s our new addition, Hendrix. He is absolutely adorable. Almost 5 months old, and running around like a crazed antelope. Needless to say, Layla isn’t too impressed at the moment (neither would you be if someone walked into your house and said “I’m living here with you now, kthx!”), but I’m hoping she’ll warm to him and become a sort of mother to him.
I’ll take better photos when he’s calmed down a bit, it’s hard to get a good shot of him at the moment when he’s still looking around and discovering new things.