Winter Goings-On
As you can see, I was on a blog strike over Winter. Yeah, a strike. Deliberate.
I started a new job. It's only an 8 month contract but fingers and toes crossed I get the permanent position I just applied for. It's higher stress than cataloguing, but that's not really saying much.
Oohoohooh, the big news since my last blog is that I've had my first performance as a real life comedy improviser. After my improv course ended in June, I graduated into WIT (
Wellington Improv Troupe). I go to training once a week, and this past Wednesday I had my first performance. It was like being thrown into the deep end of
Lake Baikal! But man, listening to a laughing crowd is so awesome, especially when they're laughing at you! (ok, that came out wrong). Hopefully I'll get a few laughs when I try my hand (mic?) at stand-up in a few weeks.
I'll leave you with one of my pics from
yearbookyourself. So librariany!
Watch out America! Chelsea's on the loose!
Well, here I am, back in the good ol' U.S. of A. We're wrapping up the second leg of our four city tour (San Francisco - Miami - Mexico City - Dallas). I don't have the copious notes of what we've done so far, but here's a taster of an upcoming blog that promises to deliver a more meaty description of our adventures.
San FranciscoStatus: Never before visited
Temperature: record high of 97F. I think that's like 30-something in Celsius.
Impression: Freakin' awesome! It really does remind me of Welly. Granted it's way huger (yes that's a word) than Wellington, but I get the same vibe: friendly people, down to earth, water + mountains, hilly walking, hippie-ish. If only Wellington had mexican food on every (and I mean every) corner. I had some of the best frozen margaritas ever at this great restaurant in The Mission. We went to Alcatraz. We drove around north of the city. We were joined by Chris's childhood friend Jim and painted town red (and all the other colours of the rainbow... San Francisco is gay friendly after all). Actually, California courts overturned a ban on gay marriage the day we got there! Pretty cool, I say. We saw some..interesting..stand up comedy and visited the Painted Ladies (those Victorian houses from the opening credits of Full House). I'd go back to SF in a second.
South FloridaStatus: Never before visited (well, Chris has but I haven't)
Temperature: record high of 97F.
Impression: The goal of this leg of our trip was to visit Chris's family, and I'd say we've more than accomplished that goal. We spent most of our time here trying to impress and entertain our 2 1/2 year old niece, Sammy. She's incredibly vocal for her age and capable of spitting out phrases and words you never would expect from such a young kid. She calls vegetables "trees" and will mimic just about anything you say. I managed to get her to say "sophisticated" although it came out more like "spfhshsted". I tried having her mimic the warning signs next to gas pumps that explain the hazards of being careless around gasoline, but she wasn't buying it and instead defaulted back to one of her standard phrases, "these are my [cinde]rella shoes" or "i watched memo [read: nemo]". By the end of the week she had our names down, and I'm sad to think she'll forget all about us soon after we've left.
Hanging with the rest of Chris's family was great too. I can't say I've been too thrilled with all the driving we've had to do, especially when we don't drive much back home in Wellington. Going 20 miles here is no big deal. And when did everyone buy a Hummer?! I've seen so many of them it's hard to believe my eyes.
I promise I'll upload some pictures once we get to Dallas next Wednesday. Until then, keep on keepin' on.
Heatherby Designs!
My friend Heather is sickeningly talented. Her latest venture, a macrophotography notecard business, is no exception. She and I share a love for food. I love to eat it. She loves to photograph it. Please go check out her website,
Heatherby Designs. It's mouth-watering.
Easter was just a bunch of fun and games
Ok, so maybe Jesus wasn't having such a great time on Good Friday, but by Easter Sunday he was partyin' like it was [19]99! And so we did too (sort of). Our friend Andy made the regrettable decision to invite us and our friend Meg along to his parents' bach down in the Marlborough Sounds for a few days of 'relaxing and reading'. I don't think he quite knew what he was in for!
We arrived on Friday, tired from the ferry trip and ready for some good ol' relaxin'. Andy and Chris picked a few hard to reach apples and then we had a bbq.
We discovered a stash of old board games and off we went! The weather was primo and there was a constant flow of chips, chocolate and spirits. Fan-----tastic.
While the weather was less than spectacular on Saturday, the boys decided to invent what is sure to replace soccer as the world's most popular sport: suicidal golf ball attack. Here's a demonstration:
As you can see, there is a fine art to hitting [wiffle, not real] golf balls at each other from point blank range. These guys are true professionals.
On Sunday, we did what everyone does on Easter: we went boating! Chris and I were keen to feel the clean, fresh, New Zealand air against our young, handsome faces. We were also evidently keen to do some extreme sporting. Our failed attempt at knee boarding resulted in Chris's decision to try to ski barefooted (having never tried it before of course). And figuring that was too hard, I opted for the 'just drag me behind the boat for a while' approach.
I know what you're thinking: Chelsea, you could quite possibly ingest gallons of saltwater if you do that! Well, I wish you had told me that earlier.
Here's a pic of Chris before his barefoot skiing attempt. Ever-the-optimist.
So, basically, we had a great time. I'm not sure if Andy's parents will ever let us back in the bach, but we had fun while it lasted!
A cornucopia of random goings on
Hi Team.
Out of BreathI recently quit my gym and thought, "Oh I'll just play soccer to stay fit". Well today at soccer practice I confused the chicken with the egg because I realised that in order to play soccer, you have to be fit. So if anyone has any spare steroids, let me know.
The Final CountdownThe countdown to our trip back to the States has begun. 66 days and counting (though perhaps more importantly, 45 workdays and counting). Chris and I have spent most of our spare time researching vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco and Mexico City. Any suggestions?! So far we've found so many cool places to check out that we're going to have to eat at least 6 meals per day. Not.a.problem.
Bored Rich PeopleCheck
this out. I don't quite understand the intrigue unless vomiting has become fashionable.
Yoohooo over here!
I know I know. There's really no excuse for my lack of updates, but I've got the best excuse ever: Summer! And not just any Summer: warm and sunny Summer! This is good news, but it certainly doesn't lend itself well to blogging unless I want to take my laptop outside. And who has the energy to do that?!
I know you've all been holding your breath since the last time I posted, so I hope you made it through the holidays without keeling over. We spent Christmas outside on the deck having a bbq with our friends. Then over new year we went to Nelson for a little fun in the sun with some of my work friends. We ate fish and chips on the beach and I made my world-famous (self-proclaimed) seven-layer dip (pictured).
I have the memory of a newborn baby (what does that even mean?), so I can't remember what we got up to in January. I think I worked a little bit. Oh there were bbqs. And swimming. And touch rugby started up again. Oh and I've been practicing my clarinet! Brilliant. In a few weeks I'm starting an improv comedy class at the local high school (that offers adult education classes). I'm terrified and excited, in that order.
We've booked our flights back to the States in May for the 1st Annual (Bi-annual? Tri-annual?) ChCh Whistle-Stop Tour o' the U.S.A., where I plan to eat more food in three weeks than anyone has ever eaten in the history of the world, ever. I can't even begin to express my excitement about going to Mexico City. I salivate just thinking about it. So if anyone's going to be in San Francisco, Miami, Dallas or Mexico City in May, let us know where and when and we'll try to meet up.
For now I've got to focus on distracting myself from thinking about the 7K Round the Bays fun run I'm doing in a few weeks. Ahh, that chocolate bar ought to help...
Cricket, Christmas and Chrises Galore!
Cricketer ChrisToday we went to a BBQ at Kilbirnie Park and played a pick-up game of cricket. Chris didn't take long to get the hang of it, although he claims the other guys were making it easy for him since, you know, Yankees are rubbish cricketers!
Christmas in Summer? Eh?I think it's awesome that Christmas is associated with BBQs and being outside (especially hearing about all the snow storms in the States right now). It's great to be able to ride our bikes in December without mittens and earmuffs, like we had to as kids when we got bikes for Christmas. We're having our very first BBQ on Christmas day. Everything feels so topsy-turvy.
Chrises and ChelseasWe went out to Lower Hutt last night to try a vegetarian Chinese restaurant, and there was one other family there eating. They had two little girls (about 8 and 9 years old) named Chris and Chelsea. I'm not kidding! What are the odds?!?!
Well wishes from lil ol' meThat's about it from here. Merry Christmas. Happy Channakuh. Happy Kwanzaa. Happy New Year. Etc. Etc.
