July 27, November 11, Addictions, and Evan Wylde

1. Felt emotionally and spiritually confused.

Because for my reading-of-an-old-post activity today, I ended up with the July 27, 2011 post titled "Tracey, Michelle, Twitchy, and Rabbits"

This might be one of the biggest coincidence-destiny stories of my life. 

Well, no. Maybe it's not. I'm not sure.

Anyway, what happened on the day is this. I found a blog post mentioning my blog. It was from a blogger named Twitchy. She found my blog via one of her blogging friends—Michelle. Twitchy went to my blog and looked at some of my photos. There she saw her real-life friend Tracey. 

To add weirdness to the story, there's the way I met Michelle. We met at the Darling Harbour playground the first time my family visited Sydney. We liked each other but felt too shy and awkward to exchange numbers. Then a day or two later, we ran into each other again at a totally different playground. It's like we were destined to meet and become friends.

And I remember on July 27, 2011 I felt that it was all destiny—that something in the universe was wanting these four women to be friends. We were brought together for something magical.

I never became friends with Twitchy. 

I hardly talk to Michelle anymore.

I dream often about Tracey and her family, but we rarely talk.

Am I meant to be lifelong friends with these people? Is our bond so strong that we have that type of friendship where we can not talk for years and still call what we have a friendship?

Are we NOT really friends anymore. Did destiny bring us together but for only a short time?

Are we supposed to be friends? Is that what destiny wanted, but I failed because I'm really bad at the whole friendship thing. I'm pretty good at making friends. I'm horrible at keeping them.  

Or maybe it's just random coincidences; and the universe doesn't give a crap.  I actually have a hard time believing that, but other people might like that option.

The other idea is that destiny brought us together but not necessarily for friendship. We might be stepping stones for each other on a path towards something else. 

2. Told myself that it might not even be for me. Maybe it's about Michelle and Tracey. Maybe my whole purpose was to bring them together. Or it could be about Twitchy.

I don't know. 

3. Wanted to say I meant my whole purpose in this particular situation. I don't imagine the purpose of my whole existence was to bring Tracey and Michelle together.

4. Hoped my whole Australia obsession, though, wasn't all for the purpose of bringing Tracey and Michelle together. That would be a bit of a let-down. UNLESS...it was hugely important for Tracey to be led to Michelle. Maybe their kids will get married and the offspring is going to save the world. OR maybe the kid is going to start the pandemic that kills off humanity and saves the planet.  

4. Wanted to add that there are other things with the story.

Like dates. July 27 is significant to me in my personal Australia-obsession weird story.

So then I was thinking what about TODAY'S date.  I knew it wasn't July. I'm not that lost in time.  I look down and see it's November 11, which is very significant in Australia history.

5. Tried to remember what happened on November 11. 

I remember The Dismissal, of course.  I also think it's a remembrance day, but I don't think it's specific to Australia. ???  Some famous Australian music star committed suicide. I'm not sure which one, though. Was it Stevie Plunder? But crap. Now I can't remember what music group he's from. If it's The Whitlams, that's pretty dark.

I feel there's something else, though.

6. Googled. 

7. Saw from Lord Wiki that Stevie Plunder is from The Whitlams, but didn't die on November 11. He died in January.

8. Found an article about Australia and November 11. 

First of all, today is Remembrance Day. Well, sort of. It's Remembrance day in the Northern Hemisphere, at least. For Australia, it's already past.  

Ned Kelly was hanged on November 11, about thirty-eight years before the war, that gave us Remembrance Day, happened. 

Ned Kelly is one of the most famous Australians, and so is Gough Whitlam...
 who had his biggest historical event on November 11. 

9. Learned from the article that November 11 is the day that the infamous Aboriginal Protection Act came into play. 

10. Confused about Burke and Willis stuff.

The article says it was November 11 when a rescue team was sent out to search for the remains of Burke and Willis.

Lord Wiki, though, says November 11 is the day that Burke and Willis first came to Cooper Creek.

11. Looked at the Victoria State Library website. They agree with Lord Wiki. Though they say it was Burke that arrived at Cooper Creek. I'm not sure about Willis. 

12. Continued to wonder about the musician who died on November 11.

Or maybe my imagination made that up.  

13. Saw from this website that Yasser Arafat died on November 11. I don't think he has a strong connection to Australia, but I thought that was interesting.  

14. Saw that Belinda Emmett, an Australian actress died on November 11, 2006. I didn't remember who she was at first, but then it came to me. She died from breast cancer. I think she was married to Rove McManus.

Oh! And I think she was on Neighbours, maybe? 

15. Saw that Belinda Emmett was on Home and Away, not Neighbours. She played Rebecca Fisher. I'm guessing that's Donald's daughter.  

16. Did not find any rock stars on November 11. Maybe I confused the Whitlam thing. The Whitlam music group had tragic deaths, and then, because of their band name, I connected The Dismissal date to it all.  

17. Went to prepare our history lesson for today, and saw that we're on the Crash Course History #11.

#11 on November 11.

18. Figured I will spend the day reading way too much into things.

19. Came across the date November 11, 1807 while looking up something from the video.  

It was some kind of Order (rule) thing from Britain—forbidding trade with the French.  

20. Didn't look at the news this morning like I usually do.

I'm afraid there will be something too awful and/or too weird.

Well, and also I'm kind of behind schedule.

I'll look later.

21. Started to watch an episode of The Secret Life of Us, that aired not on July 27 or November 11 but just plain old January 27.  

22. Saw that Simon (David Tredinnick) might actually have a storyline in this episode. It's about his hair. He's getting it done at the hairstylist place.

23. Gained insight from Kelly (Deborah Mailman). She talks about addictions and wonders if maybe they choose us rather than us choosing them. This made me think about my idea of Australia being on my destiny path rather than me simply choosing to be obsessed with Australia.

But is a passion for something, or someone, an addiction? That's what I wondered. 

Then, on the show, Kelly realized her declaration of never being addicted to something was wrong. She's addicted to her current love interest, Frank (Rhys Muldoon). 

Yeah. I guess love is like an addiction. And our passions and obsessions are addictions as well.

I think it's an interesting question. Are our addictions, whether good or bad, chosen by us, or are they chosen by the universe? 

Or God. 

Or the alien overlord.   

24. Recognized an actress on The Secret Life of Us.

I looked on IMDb and saw that her name is Nadine Garner.  What I know her from is City Homicide.

25. Looked at the news.

There's nothing too earth-shattering.

An Aussie flew a jetpack around the Statue of Liberty.  

And a drunk man climbed the Mexico Pavilion at Disney World. 

26. Saw that today is Veteran's Day in the US.

Now I feel really stupid.

I knew it was around this time but thought it was one of those holidays that was observed on Mondays.

So we have Remembrance Day too. We just have a different name for it.

Well, sort of. According to Lord Wiki, Remembrance Day and Armistice Day were observed in the US, Australia, and other countries to commemorate World War I.  Then eventually the US changed their Armistice Day to Veteran's Day with the purpose of honoring all veterans.

27.  Saw that maybe other countries also extend the memorializing to soldiers who died in wars that were not World War I. 

28. Saw bunnies mentioned in our Crash Course biology video today.  This is another thing to connect to the July 27, 2011 post. Because in that, I mention The Runaway Bunny.

Really. Yeah. My brain is connecting all kinds of crazy thing. I'm feeling kind of mental—like that movie with Jim Carrey I never saw.

That's it called?

Something with a number.

29. Found the movie. It's The Number 23.

30. Hoped that I don't end up insane.

31. Thought that the episode of The Secret Life of Us, I've been watching, does a very good job of capturing the feelings of having a crush and waiting for the phone to ring.

Do people these days wait for a phone call, or do they usually wait for a text?

32. Started watching another episode of The Secret Life of Us.

33. Saw the Secret Life of Us having a The-Mindy-Project moment.

One of the running gags on The Mindy Project is it seems like Mindy is doing a voice-over narration. Then it ends up she's actually blabbing on and on to another person.  

On The Secret Life of Us, Kelly (Deborah Mailman) often narrates the episodes. In this one, she goes on a spiel about stages of life. It seems like her typical narration. Then we see she's actually reading her paper to Frank (Rhys Muldoon).

34. Wanted to note that The Secret Life of Us wouldn't have known they were having a The-Mindy-Project moment, because The Mindy Project didn't exist yet.

35. Imagined that Mindy and Kelly would get along very well. They're both very romantic. Though I think Mindy is much more into popular culture. She's also more superficial.

Maybe they wouldn't get along.

Well, at least they could watch romantic movies together.

And they could take turns doing voice-over monologues. 

36. Saw that Nicholas Bell is on this episode.

I like him.

37. Saw that this was Samuel Johnson's last episode.

Finding that out actually made me feel sad.

I guess I was more attached to Evan than I imagined.

38. Thought that the song they played in his gone-scene might have made me extra emotional.

I'm not sure what the song was. It sounds like the instrumental beginning of a song I know.

What's driving me nuts is I can't figure out what the song is. It would help if I knew the lyrics.

39. Felt that the song was in The Walking Dead. But that doesn't seem right to me.

Lyrics words floating in my head: Message, for the, made of.....

See, yeah. That doesn't help much.

40. Remembered another bit: Are you going?

It kind of sounds like Peter, Paul, and Mary. Or maybe the Seekers? Something like that. 

41. Got the idea that if I go insane, it's not going to be about the number-coincidence thing.

I'm going to go insane trying to figure out this song!

42. Figured out the song!!!

It's "The Last Thing on My Mind".  

And The Seekers sing one of the covers. 

I think it is the song they played on The Secret Life of Us, because the lyrics strongly fit the situation of Kelly having to say goodbye to Evan as a roommate.

Are you going away with no word of farewell, 
Will there be not a trace left behind? 
I could have loved you better, didn't mean to be unkind.
 You know that was the last thing on my mind. 
You've got reasons a-plenty for going 
This I know, this I know
 For the weeds have been steadily growing. 
Please don't go, please don't go.

Though Evan did say farewell. And he left a trace or two behind.

43. Read my Michelle, Tracey, Twitchy story while proofreading and now it doesn't seem so odd.

I mean it seems much less exciting to me.

If I think about it, it's probably common to have these types of coincidences.

You find someone on the Internet, and then learn they know someone that you know.

As they say, it's a small world.

Especially when you have the Internet.

44. Felt emotionally and spiritually confused.




Please check out my online novel The Dead are Online!