many reasons to be jazzed on life right now, but for the sake of time, i will only share two here:

1. GENDERLESS STRANGERS! here's the explanation: while traveling this past year, there would be many, many days where i would come across a word in speech or literature i didn't know. since i didn't have access to dictionary.com, i decided to invest in a used American Heritage Dictionary purchased from the main street of richmond, nelson, new zealand near carolyn's house. in said dictionary i found a random address for some person in washington state named "gil." being a big fan of sending and receiving mail, i wrote gil a letter in april sending warm wishes and stranger hellos from me. carolyn, thomas, robin, and i each developed our own version of who and what gender gil may be. thomas even had a dream that gil was a he and that he was stalking me. what's interesting here is that if anything, i'm stalking gil. anyway, flash forward six months to a few days ago - i get a package and letter from gil! gil wrote me back explaining why he/she (still no insight into gil's gender, although the handwriting suggests male and no hint of sociopath tendencies) was in new zealand and included a book that changed his life! gil will clearly be getting a reply. thank you, gil!

2. FACELESS STRANGERS! a few nights ago with a time stamp of at least 1:30 am, caroline, eva, and i were downstairs in our wellington house girltalking (how do we still have things to talk about?!) as we do, and i saw a young man walk through our back yard and start to climb over our fence into the neighbor's garden. in the capitals of most nations, this would incite some level of fear. in the capital of sweet little new zealand, however, incidents like these are met with "meh" and mild curiosity. [mom and dad: don't worry, my neighborhood is very safe. this is merely an anecdote.] ha! wonder what he was doing?! gil?

let's all raise our glasses to strangers! don't have a glass? make a little cup shape with your hand. that will do.

love,
maggie

p.s. robin put up new pictures, some of which are from the cook islands! enjoy!