Dear number 19

Wow! I can't believe I'm actually saying goodbye and moving on. It's been 3 years, in fact, this weekend....the very one that I'm using to move out.....it will be exactly 3 years since i moved in.

It's been an eventful 3 years, I won't lie. Filled with happy and sad times, but finally, after 3 years it's time for me to move on. You've seen many funny things, tears, moments of hysterical laughter, quite a few boys, many friends, many prayers, a friend committing suicide and many memories.

I will never forget what i was going through back when I moved in. The hasty departure from my previous place of residence and the many tears shed during those first couple of weeks. But then you started holding me close in your brick arms, pulling me into your heart and making me part of your character. After a while even the brute and I got along fine and she loved me in her strange way:)

Your owners have become like my second set of grandparents. They gave me love and support and looked after me when I was sick. They got worried when they didn't see me for long periods of time and never once complained about the fact that I'm out until all hours of the early morning. And the male owner killed more than one gigantic ninja spider who was out to get me:)

I'm very sorry bout the bathroom door which got a tiny little bit chowed by my dog when i was looking after her while the parental unit was in the States....but you know...these things happen:) It is with a heavy heart that I say farewell to you, my dwelling place. But at the same time I'm super excited about the new place, and about the things to come. I hope your new occupant and you will get along as well as the two of us did:) oh, and just so by the way....I'd appreciate it if you could keep all the spiders here....I'd prefer not to let them accompany me to my new home.....for obvious reasons.

Love
Ruby
xxxxxx
P.S. I've included some random snapshots for you to remember me and our fun times by:)
When i just moved into the house during my housewarming:)


The Brute! trust me....she's scary scary scary!!!!!!!!

Fun times with braais by the pool:)

Alcohol was not something we had a shortage of

Sleepy time! ok, so it's a posed sleepy time....who cares:) Hands up everybody that love my shoesies in this one :)

Dear Muso

Happy happy birthday honeypie!!!!!!! I hope you have an amazing day and that the year ahead is a happy and blessed one:) I hope you find what you're looking for and reach some of those goals.

The two of us have been through so many things. Ups and downs and happy times and fights. We even shared a house for 2 and a half years shortly after i came to live in Joburg. Those were happy and carefree days:) You were there for me after the accident...giving me love and support and helping where you can.

Your heart is good, your faith pure and your passion for your music something incredible to experience. So here's to you love....happy birthday!

Love
Ruby
xxxxxxx

Dear Chamber

Happy happy happy birthday my darling best friend!!! I hope you have an absolutely incredible day and that the year ahead will be filled with love and happiness and blessings and laughter and good memories.

We've been through so much in the last 9 years. Lots of good laughs and tears and good times and bad times...but all in all the past 9 years have been amazing. I love you so much and I wish i could have joined you today in celebrating this big day:/ But i hope to see you soon my chamber.
Lots of love
Ruby
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Jess and Sproutsmom

I saw this little gem on both of your blogs(sproutsmom & Jessica) and thought it was a lovely idea:)
The whole idea is to have this list of 99 things you could have done and to put the ones you have done in bold....so here goes:)

1.) Started your own blog
2.) Slept under the stars
3.) Played in a band
4.) Visited Hawaii
5.) Watched a meteor shower
6.) Given more than you can afford to charity
7.) Been to DisneyWorld
8.) Climbed a mountain
9.) Held a praying mantis
10.) Sang a solo
11.) Bunjee jumped
12.) Visited Paris
13.) Watched a lightning storm
14.) Taught yourself an art from scratch
15.) Adopted a child(I adopted a child in africa to support financially...does that count???)
16.) Had food poisoning
17.) Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18.) Grown your own veggies
19.) Seen the Mona Lisa at the Louvre
20.) Slept on an overnight train
21.) Had a pillowfight
22.) Hitch hiked
23.) Taken a sick day when you’re not sick
24.) Made a snow fort
25.) Held a lamb
26.) Ran a marathon
27.) Went skinny dipping
28.) Rode in a gondola in Venice
29.) Witnessed total eclipse
30.) Seen a sunrise or sunset
31.) Hit a home run
32.) Been on a cruise
33.) Seen Niagara Falls in person
34.) Visited the birthplace/home of your ancestors
35.) Seen an Amish country
36.) Taught yourself a new language
37.) Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38.) Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39.) Gone rock climbing
40.) Seen Michelangelo’s David in person
41.) Sung karaoke
42.) Seen Old Faithful erupt
43.) Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44.) Visited Africa
45.) Walked on a beach by moonlight
46.) Taken a ride in an ambulance
47.) Had your portrait painted
48.) Gone deep sea fishing
49.) Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower
50.) Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
51.) kissed in the rain
52.) played in the mud
53.) Gone to a drive-in theater
54.) Been in a movie
55.) visited the Great Wall of China
56.) Started a business(does my roaring hotdog and fudge business i had in school count?)
57.) Taken a martial arts class
58.) visited Russia
59.) worked at a soup kitchen
60.) sold Girl Scout cookies
61.) gone whale watching
62.) gotten flowers for no reason
63.) donated blood, platelets, or plasma
64.) Gone sky diving
65.) Visited Nazi concentration camp
66.) Bounced a check
67.) Flown in a helicopter
68.) Saved a childhood toy
69.) visited the Lincoln Memorial
70.) eaten caviar
71.) pieced a quilt
72.) stood in Times Square
73.) toured the Everglades
74.) been fired from a job
75.) seen the changing of the guards in London
76.) Broken a bone
77.) Been a passenger on a motorcycle
78.) seen the Grand Canyon in person
79.) Published a book
80.) Visited the Vatican
81.) bought a brand new car
82.) visited Jerusalem
83.) had your picture in the paper
84.) Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
85.) visited the White House
86.) Killed and prepared an animal for eating
87.) Had chickenpox
88.) Saved someone’s life
89.) Sat on a jury
90.) met someone famous
91.) joined a book club
92.) got a tattoo
93.) had a baby
94.) Seen the Alamo in person
95.) Swam in the Great Salt Lake
96.) Been involved in a law suit
97.) owned a cell phone
98.) Been stung by a bee
99.) Swam in the Black Sea

47 and 2 maybe's out of 99...not too bad me thinks:) So much more in life that i want to accomplish, and most of them aren't even on this list. I can't wait to see what the future holds:)

Love
Ruby
XXXXX

Dear future prince charming

I hope this letter finds you well and also well on your way to me *nudge nudge wink wink*. It's just a little bit of guideline for that point in time when you finally do pitch up. I'm by no means perfect and like everybody else around me i have my good points, my strengths, my weaknesses and my issues. But I'd like to believe that I'm generally a good and caring person. Here are a couple things i'd like you to remember and take into consideration:

1. I'm a very affectionate person...I hope this won't be a problem (PDA and stuff)
2. Dancing is my happy place:) I don't expect you to love dancing, but it would help:)
3. I hate peas! Don't try to make me eat them, don't chew them in my ear so i can hear them
popping
4. One of my best friends happen to be a boy person and i love him very much. Accept this
and deal with it...my friendship with him is not up for discussion.
5. I have an irrational fear of spiders. Please note....irrational. Don't try and convince me that
they can't hurt me, or that I weigh more than them, or that i'm like a million times bigger
than them...also, laughing at me when i freak out doesn't help. Just be my knight in
shining armor....kill it, give me a hug and a kiss and move on.
6. Being a very affectionate person means i'm also affectionate with my friends, and i tend to
have little nicknames for everyone....extreme jealousy is better left at the door....slight, none
overbearing jealousy that you can fully control is sweet tho
7. I don't believe in the silent treatment...issues need to be dealt with as and when they arise
8. I cry when i get really really angry...pls don't think i'm trying to break down your defences
or black mail you when this happens.
9. Looks can be deceiving....i love camping...like serious pitch a tent and sleeping bag type stuff
10. My studies are important to me...not more important than you, but i am passionate about
what i do, and i'd appreciate it if you respected that.
11. I'm very close to my parents and my brother, and generally family means the world to me
12. My faith is an important part of who I am and i'm not willing to compromise it
13. I love cuddling and snuggling...i hope this is acceptable
14. Music forms an important part of my day to day life. It has a tremendous effect on my mood
and my day to day life. Important people and things in my life seem to be marked by songs
rather than anything else.
15. My heart is well guarded, and initially you might have trouble getting in......the walls around
it is quite high, but when i do fall in love i do so unconditionally and passionately.

My intention is not to scare you away or make you think twice, but the way i see it.....if you're going to be part of my life there are certain things I might as well let you know before hand. If you can't see yourself coping with them, then maybe you're not my Prince Charming after all.

I can't wait to meet you:)

Love
Ruby
xxxx

Dear Big Brother

The last couple of days I've been missing you so much..so much more than I normally do. True, i haven't seen you in ages, but this is different...i painfully miss you.

I need to talk to you face to face, this skype, IM and e-mail nonsense just doesn't cut it anymore. I need a hug, actually, i need plenty of hugs and a kiss on the forehead. I can't wait to see you again. I hope the two of you and Charlie, the dog, are well and that love and happiness rules everyday.

I love you
Ruby
xxxxx

Dear Jessica

I saw this little gem on your blog not so long ago and I thought I'd give it a bash too:) It's called 102 random facts, and it'll probably take me forever to do...but i might as well start somewhere:)

1. I have weirdly coloured eyes, consisting of 2 different shades of green and brown
2. I have more scars than most of the boy people i know
3. I'm surrounded by a 'force field of weird' ...weird things happen to and around me
4. Last year my feet got burnt by acid due to the fact that new shoes i bought were laced with
acidic powder...i suffered...a lot....
5. The first time i flew was when i went to my brother's wedding in the states
6. Dancing, music, singing and acting puts me in my happy place
7. I love salsa
8. Even though i hate pictures being taken of me, I love pictures and i have a small fortune
of them
9. My taste in music is widespread and weird, and i mostly like non-commercial music
10. My head is filled with general knowledge and random facts
11. I'm a really really really bad liar
12. As it turns out the meaning of my name fits my personality perfectly...my dad chose well
13. I have a nickname for both my boy best friend and my girl best friend and i rarely
call them by their real names
14. I use terms of endearment when addressing people, this often gets me into trouble
15. I don't trust easily
16. Very few people have experienced the deep inner parts of my heart and personality
17. I'm good with teenagers....especially the difficult ones
18. Apart from black, which isn't really a colour,my favourite colours are olive green, orange and
dark red wine red
19. My birthstone is a Ruby
20. I was named dux learner in both primary and high school...
21. I obtained both my degrees cum laude
22. I'm remarkably resilient
23. I'm very much a 'touch' person
24. I gesture a lot with my hands when I'm talking
25. I get frustrated when typing a story on the laptop cause i can't use my hands to explain
to the person reading the e-mail or skype message exactly how serious it is
26. A very close friend gave me a diamond and 18ct white gold bracelet for my birthday. and no,
he didn't want anything from me...he's gay:)
27. I love camping
28. That being said, i also love luxury
29. I love love love love love love reading
30. I don't fall in love easily
31. I'm very much a mind over matter person
32. I'm mostly extremely practical
33. I'm afraid of heights
34. I'm petrified of spiders...but i think most of you know this already:)
35. I love shoes.... :)
36. I love shopping for baby clothes and shoes..just ask my friends who have babies
37. I'm easily bored by people
38. I broke my arm when i was 5 because my mom drove over it...it was an accident, i fell
in front of the car...my mom was hysterical, i thought the little blood patterns on my arm
made by the wheel was awesome
39. My right big toe is slightly smaller than the left because they had to cut a piece of it out
when i was in high school
40. I love picnics
41. I love Dr. Pepper soft drink
42. I totally adore M&M's
43. I have a thing about stationary
44. I believe that post-its is the greatest invention ever
45. I'm slightly allergic to yeast, so i eat very little bread
46. I touch type
47. I'm the eternal optimist
48. Generally I'm way too hard on myself and i find it hard to give myself a break
49. I write short stories and poetry
50. I was a USN and SAB promo girl when i was a student
51. I organised two proper rock concerts while I was at uni and considered become an events
manager or band manager or concert manager because of it
52. I was once told that I'd probably be the 1st female president of our country*snort*
53. I talk....a LOT!
54. I have naturally long and very black eyelashes
55. I'm super calm in times of crises and only freak out after every thing's been taken care of
56. Lemon sorbet is my favourite
57. I generally get a 'feeling' about people when i meet them...99% of the time that feeling
is spot on
58. I have a severe and incurable case of foot in mouth disease...I've learned to live with this
59. In May my parents will celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary...they are still very much
in love and totally adorable
60. I believe that if i can be half as happy in my marriage as my parents, my husband and I'll
be superly happily married
61. I see the good in people around me and find it hard to believe that not all people are good
62. People take advantage of me because of 61
63. I once broke into a barn, with a boy, on a farm where we were having a party and almost
crashed the tractor....we didn't get caught
64. I'm won over by small gestures and gifts rather than extravagance
65. I love my iPhone :)
66. I haven't met my prince charming yet
67. I'm extremely flexible
68. I love earrings ;)
69. I have a t-shirt that says '68' on the front and 'you owe me 1' on the back
70. I'm currently doing my masters degree in forensic accounting.....because i love solving
puzzles and i can't wait to outsmart all those really clever white-collar criminals
71. I'm blessed enough to have an amazing relationship with both my parents
72. I'm slightly ADD
73. When i was younger i was extremely OCD...these days I'm much better and i only have
slight OCD tendencies
74. A guy once hit me in the face with his fist....it was an accident...2 boys were fighting and i
stupidly tried to stop them...i was 16
75. My dad nearly killed both of the above mentioned boys
76. I've broken my nose more than once
77. I'm a complete insomniac
78. I was born on the 7th of the 7th :)
79. I was offered a contract as a photographic model when i went to pick up my portfolio pics
i had taken for fun
80. I've been withing 5m of a fully grown crocodile out in the wild...nothing between us
81. I have very tiny hands with longish fingers
82. I love doing pilates
83. I have this thing for fire
84. I'm scared to death of the dentist
85. I'm not really all that fond of doctors either
86. I love swords and knives, and i hope to one day own a proper samurai sword
87. I really love teaching people things if they are willing to learn
88. My uni lecturers told me i didn't have the lack of personality for the course I'm studying
89. I love wine
90. My favourite shooter is Patrone!
91. I make memory books
92. I have a little memory box in my head for each of the people who are very important to me.
In there i store all my favourite memories of them
93. I can't stand liars and lies
94. I'm not a jealous person
95. A friend of mine hanged himself earlier this year, sort of at my house...for a while there i
didn't think i was gonna cope
96. I suspect i may be addicted to Philadelphia cheese
97. I suffer from extreme tension headaches on a daily basis due to the damage caused to my
spine when i had my car accident
98. I HATE peas.....like honestly i hate them!
99. I have weak lungs and have a tendency to develop bronchitis within minutes
100. I'm considering going skydiving
101. After my friend died in a bungee jumping accident last year I'll never even consider it
102. I can't believe i got to 102 without frying my brain:)

Love

Ruby
xxxxx

Dear Vo-duh-com

*sigh* I don't even know where to begin with this letter. I'm so frustrated, and irritated and actually just completely ticked off with you guys.

At the end of January, you guys deducted more than double what my bill would have been from my account. When i queried it i was placated with some obscure story, which I accepted for the pure and simple reason that i wanted to keep my sanity. After speaking to a multitude of people at customer care who all insisted that this was MY problem and that I should sort it out despite it being YOUR mistake.

Then, at the end of last month you guys had the cheek to deduct an even BIGGER amount off my account. I had a teeny tiny little heart attack! I spoke to 3 different people working in your customer care department, each one being more stupid than the last. I finally snapped. I told the 4th girl that answered that i do not want to speak to her, i want to speak to a manager. She wouldn't budge, and had the audacity to call me rude, blegh, but she finally put me through to a manager after i asked her if she really wanted to take responsibility for this problem.

Now, i have 2 different accounts with you guys. The one is a 3G data card contract. I pay a fixed amount every month for a certain amount of data and then i pay a special rate for any extra data i use. The second is my iPhone contract. These two contracts are completely separate...2 different invoices, 2 different sim cards, 2 different pin numbers. The only place they become integrated is with my debit order, as I've arranged to have only one debit order for both accounts. My accounts with vodacom have been running this way for the past 2 years without any problems.

According to what your manager told me.....my 3G sim card has been inactive the last 3 months. Complete rubbish as i use it every day. So what happens is, not only do i pay my standard contract amount for my 3G, which i according to you don't use, you then take the full amount of data used on that sim card and charge it as out of bundle rate data on my iPhone!!!! So i pay the contract amount for nothing and you charge me ridiculous rates for data i used on a different sim card???? The really ridiculous part is that you've been sending sms' to my data card sim card to tell me how much of my data bundle I've used, and you've been sending sms' to my iPhone to tell me how much of my iPhone data bundle I've used, neither of which have been exceeded.

So when i instructed the manager to make sure that the problem gets fixed, he tells me that in order to sort it out they'll need to perform a data audit of some kind. But there is a catch....there is a charge involved...which I'll have to pay...so let me get this straight. You guys messed up royally and I have to pay for you to fix it? You guys already owe me a crapload of money!

So please, just fix the problem. I hate having to always fight with people. You'd think that if you were nice to people they'd at least try to help you, but no, as it turns out you need to be rude in order to get people to do what's right. It sucks.

Please take note that i will not be letting this go. I expect this problem to be sorted out, and soon. No more nice Ruby...i can play hard ball too you know.

Regards

Angry Ruby

Dear 2010

Let's face it...my year got off to a pretty rocky start. But looking at it as a whole, it hasn't been a bad year, or should i say, a bad 2 months. I've learned a lot, I've grown, I've met new people, I've done new things....all in all...not bad at all.

So here is a list of what I've learned so far:
- Life doesn't always work out the way we plan it..but when you make the best of what you've
got, life can be pretty awesome ;)
- some goodbye's are more painful than others
- I'm a lot stronger than i give myself credit for.....
- Tears aren't always a bad thing...sometimes they are crucial to the healing process
- i know a lot of amazing people who supported me more than could humanely be expected
of them in a time where i thought my world was crashing down around me
- Saying goodbye properly is important
- seeing a dead person is not a pleasant experience....ever...I'll be avoiding that in the future
- tell the people you love that you love them as often as possible...it's important
- Friends can be found in the most unlikely places
- sometimes it's better to cut your losses and move on
- don't be so scared of getting hurt that you don't let people into your most deepest of heart
places. You miss a lot of life experiences this way
- Best friends are the shit! #thatisall
- our capacity to love never ceases to amaze me
- it's ok to not be strong sometimes....that's what friends are for
- I have an incredible boss...and no, he doesn't read my blog, so I'm NOT trying to score
points here
- Sometimes dressing up pretty and getting a compliment can light up your life
- Learning to accept a heartfelt and honest compliment is a lesson everybody should learn
and apply
- surround yourself with the people that make you happy and excited about life
- Live passionately
- Most importantly i think I've learned that i have a pretty amazing life, with really awesome
friends and an even more incredible family....life is good :)

I look forward to the rest of the year. The things I'm gonna do and the people I'm gonna meet. *lifts glass* so here's to you 2010....now go and be fabulous!

Love

Ruby
xxxxx