Learning to Line Dry My Laundry (And other Wellingtonian Tales)

Good evening friends.

I do hope you'll forgive the delay, I have such a hard time keeping a detailed document of everything that happens to me... it's simply just the actual getting myself to do the writing that gets in the way. And I'm a week behind in the updation in my own documentation. (Rhymes are yummy.)Insert the angst, frustration, and fear about stunting my own creative genius and I'll never amount to my full potential and die a nameless unremarkable no one, blah, blah, blah. Moving on.

Speaking of moving on, I've been doing a lot of that. Not in the metaphorical "growth" definition of the word, but the literal meaning... I've been doing a hella lot of moving. Where did we leave off? It doesn't really matter, actually, because I'm really just going to talk about today...

Some cool things about Petone (pronounced Petohnee):
1. Mountains all around.
2. A Salvation Army Store.
3. A Public Artesian water tap--it just sits outside, and people come and fill jugs, bottles, etc... totally eco-friendly and healthy to boot. Well done P-town.

Oh my gosh I'm living in another Ptown.
That's weird.
Well, trust me, Petone is nothing like Peoria.

So yes, I'm in Petone. I'm flatting (aka living with two other people in a small house) inexpensively with two nice ladies (one of which told me she wanted to take me out to the pub for drinks and introduce me to the Petone lads... how shall I break it to her? It may not be worth it...) and my room is small, but cozy. I made it much cozier, too. I have a shelving unit, a single bed, and I rigged my sheetliner into a laundry bag... I hang my jewelry from a sort of wall/coat hanger thing, and I use the chair in my room as a desk to hold me computer. I've put up my pictures of family and friends in my windows--that way it doesn't damage the paint on the walls--and today I bought a pillow! It's the little things.

For those of you just tuning in, I moved to Petone (aka Lower Hutt, Wellington) because I got a job as a Group Leader for an after school program, which is cool. I've worked there two days, and so far I like it. The kids are great--and rather funny. Today we had the final installment in a fuseball tournament--we had two finalists, Toby and Melissa. We really went all out, or well, Adam did, one of the other Group Leaders in charge. He arranged the chairs around the fuseball table like an arena, and played music like "We are the Champions" and "We will rock you" after each goal. Melissa completely beat Toby, something like 17 to 9... and although I was cheering for Melissa (we sistahs gotta stick togethah) I felt bad for Toby who got rather upset, but his sister was there to comfort him. They are a sweet brother sister team. It made me miss my brother. I love you Stephen. :)

Other tales of note... I purchased some books today--alas! I shouldn't have done it, but they called to me loudly and sweetly, like bloody sirens. But now I have reading material, and since I'm a wee bit lonely, it's a good thing.

I've got some inner angst over my writing--why am I not writing like I used to in high school and blah blah blahdity blah...

Oh! The title story!
Two things New Zealand does not have (in general):
1. Central heating. (Grrrr... or really, brrrr.)
2. Drying Machines/Dryers.

Here in NZ, and especially in Windy Wellington, people hang their clothes on CLOTHES LINES. Yesterday morning I was doing this and was swearing under my breath and the primitive nature of it--though to be honest, I know that it's a more environmentally sound option. But it's a bit of a hassle, really. It takes almost two days for things to dry completely, things fall to the ground, you can run out of clothes pins... it's truly bizarre. Anyway... the point is, that when I got up and wanted to get dressed today, I quickly realized that ALL of my clothes were on the line, and that they were all wet. Still.

I couldn't wear yesterdays clothes to work now, could I?

So, I went to the Salvation Army store and bought a new outfit. As I was paying for it, I looked at the lady and said, "Strange question--but look, I don't mean to go all homeless on you, but can I buy these and then, um, change into them?" She said certainly, and I changed in the fitting room, chuckling to myself at the absurdity that is my current life.

Well, I think that's all for now. I'm going to go read... although I should be writing... my memories will slip through the cracks of time if I don't record them... angst!

Aw, shove it, self.
I'm reading.

Peace mates!