i have completed two, yes TWO, weeks of work as the manager of Marocka. lots of things in life feel different working a full time job. for one, weekends mean something significant nowadays. for the past nine months, weekends only mean that the library is closed and if we are at carolyn's, then wayne comes home. now weekends are the brightest stars of life. that's not true. but kind of.

i am learning heaps and am challenged every day, not by the job itself, but all the small things that go into running a business. today on my lunch hour (ha! i have a lunch hour now!) i met a prospective jeweler and perused last week's sales. it all still feels as if this is a huge joke, but it seems to be less and less funny as the joke has no sight in end.

in other and much more incredible news, i only recently learned what a theremin is, and it has blown my mind. the theremin, the world's first electronic instrument and the ONLY instrument that is played without being touched, was invented in 1919 by russian inventor leon theremin. i watched four seeming nerds play the electronic gem of their choice in covering gnarls barkley's "crazy." it literally took my breath away seeing it for the first time. now it's twenty minutes later and i haven't stopped learning about this thing. AWESOME.

yesterday i had to take time off of work to go to the optometrist, only to learn that i have a) been technically night blind for a few years and b) have an astigmatism! i ordered glasses yesterday, and i get them in two weeks! I AM VERY EXCITED FOR THE GIFT OF SIGHT to be a new and improved gift of sight! whoopie!

love,
maggie

i don't want to be someone who overuses the word "crazy," but things have gone crazy. let me paint you a picture of the last few days.

tuesday: robin and i sleep in our car waiting to get the ferry to wellington among the mice that cohabitate our 1988 toyota carona.

wednesday: robin and i shell out 15 big bucks to sleep on a patch of dirt in downtown wellington, waiting to sneak attack live in caroline and eva's house.

thursday: robin and i walk around wellington handing our resumes.

friday: i get an interview at Marocka (i don't know why my premature allegiance to this store makes me want to capitalize it), a small VERY FANCY clothing boutique in downtown wellington.

saturday: i meet the new owners of Marocka who hire me, offer me a year long salary, tell me about my paid vacation time, and offer to sponsor me for my new zealand residency.

sunday (today): robin and i tearfully come to terms with the fact that my fun, flippant, no-money life has come to an end. the remainder of our new zealand lives will be different and not entirely as fun. i go shopping for terribly expensive "work" clothes. what?

monday (tomorrow): i start work as the manager of Marocka. not entirely knowing what i am doing, but excited about getting to spend another year in new zealand.

amazing where a week can take you.

what's crazy (see? there it is.) is that my mom is in honduras, so she doesn't even know yet that it looks like i will be missing thanksgiving 2010 for the third year in a row. don't get me wrong, i still have thanksgivings. they have just taken place in ghana and new zealand.

i was a little freaked out about how quickly this all happened and didn't feel like i had time to mourn the loss of jobless-kid-maggie, until carolyn, who i had emailed with on saturday night about new job, called to calm me and robin down. she's good like that.

i am so lucky to know that even if robin has to leave new zealand for a while in september and i am left behind (in the rapture) in this amazing country, i have families here that love me. the first email carolyn sent last night said "this is great news because now you can spend christmas with us again!" i am lucky.

so. bottom line. in seventeen short hours i will be the manager and clothes buyer of Marocka in wellington. come check us out. i have no clue our hours.

oh silly life, you are a fickle beast. just like me!

love,
maggie

robin and i are in wellington living at caroline and eva's house! it feels sooooooo good to be here even though we are all sharing beds right now because we are overlapping with laura, the woman who owns the house and whose room we will soon inhabit. we are furiously (not so furiously) applying for jobs to make a little money, honey. and there are people like us applying for jobs EVERYWHERE! it's a bit daunting because most people don't have a visa that expires in four months like ours do. we will hope for a job so that we can stay with caro and eva until the end of june, but if not, we have two wonderful new zealand families who want us to come live with them for the winter. grateful.

this may be the most important news of my new zealand life: i was happily given my all-time favorite song by caro and eva. oh, please, stop everything right now and listen to it! better yet, watch Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes perform "Home" on youtube filmed live at KRCW. better better yet, here's the link for it. do it now and watch with goosebumps, as i did, how alive living can be.

happie!

love,
maggie

one more thing, this is a picture of ron mckenzie, the most inspiring 82 AND A HALF year old, on the beach beside gilly and greg's house on the north island.

i miss ron.

hi, ron!

love,
maggie

can someone explain these to me? i saw a woman wearing a pair of them again today, and their prevalence in new zealand has started to be a bit unsettling. are these a big thing in the US right now? why, god, why would it make sense to slide one's tiny toes into foot gloves - that you wear outside? i understand that i carry little clout regarding fashion footwear, as i have proudly been a sponsor and supporter of the bogan movement while in new zealand, but still. what?

in other news, robin and i finished our "jobs" cleaning a hostel in exchange for accommodation on wednesday and are leaving queenstown tomorrow with a brief stop in dundein to spend a night with emily shine and then up the coast through kaikoura to catch the ferry on tuesday back to wellington on the north island! oh! right. so, after a two week investigation into the queenstown job market, we have realized that well, there is none unless you can be here for the full winter ski and snowboard season which ends in october. our visas only allow us to be here until september, so most employers are not excited to hire travelers for only a brief period. SO! caroline and eva who we visited for a week and a half at the beginning of april suggested that we come live with them for the winter! AND DUH WE ARE SO EXCITED TO DO SO! the four of us living together was such fun, and i am eagerly anticipating our reunion. so yes. want to come visit? we'll be in wellington.

if you have been reading robin's blog, you would know that we were thinking about shaving our heads for $1000 cash. this has become a non-issue recently as we are not still going to be on the south island when the head shaving would commence. in light of this change, i mostly feel like a baby fairy who was agonizing over this "huge" decision. i will, though, since i will not actually be faced with the decision, go ahead and say that YES I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE DONE IT. but maybe not. who knows. i suppose if i were really excited to do it and if i had the courage to, i would really look like tom lentz's daughter right now. but instead, my head is warm and my hair ego is intact.

love,
maggie

wow, wow, in a big way. this blog has been on the bottom of my list to keep up with, by no fault of its own. other things have taken precedent in life recently. things like: hand picking grapes for a few weeks while staying at carolyn's house, finding new and exciting ways to make fun of thomas for having a broken nose (in a hard-core sense, though, because he broke it during his first rugby game and CONTINUED PLAYING. what?), making plans for our winter months, changing plans for our winter months, living in queenstown on the waterfront AS IT FLOODED. things like that.

one thing i noticed today about new zealand, and should you ever come to visit i am certain you will too, is that a big chunk of new zealand's economy must operate on the movement of traffic cones. i don't think i have ever, i mean EVER, driven for more than a day here where i was not instructed where to turn or what is off limits by traffic cones. nine out of ten times, these cones are accompanied by a group of construction men who methodically move the cones back and forth six or so inches every few minutes. perhaps the US should take a page from new zealand's book and begin implementing the cone-employment stage of development. they've only got a 6% rate of unemployment, and from what i understand, that's saying something nowadays.

in other news, robin and i will be leaving queenstown sometime this week and our always incredibly tentative plan is to head to dunedin for a hot minute to see emily shine for a night or two, maybe shave our heads for $1000 cash if timing works out, drive up to picton where we will get a ferry to the north island to move in with caroline and eva for two months! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT LIVING WITH CARO AND EVA AGAIN. after our entirely successful hangzone week together at the beginning of april, we have been craving one another's company since then, and this is the best way for the four of us to reunite. robin and i need to get jobs in wellington while we are there, too. the headshaving bit should have tipped you off.

i am still learning so much while being in new zealand. i am learning how difficult it is to let go of a future path that i had (sort of) planned for myself upon realizing i want something entirely different. choosing a new direction seems to be hard, no matter how much i want to head that way.

sorry about the bad posting! my may 2nd resolution is to be better about it! ha! no one keeps may 2nd resolutions!

love,
maggie