Ampersand

Tag: Everything

  • As Long As I Stay

    My sisterā€™s wedding was a lot of fun. Her friend made the wedding cake (with an alleged thirty-two pounds of frosting), his brother did all the food, I wore my pinkest and fluffiest dress with my matching pink flip-flops, and we took a walk to the beach as the sun went down, dodging jellyfish as…

  • Home Again

    Iā€™m just waiting for my yoga pants to come out of the dryer and Iā€™ll be all packed upā€”my huge orange suitcase is only half full (including presents!) because I plan to do a lot of shopping while Iā€™m in the States. My flatmate got me a carrot cake to have after dinner tonight and…

  • Or Something

    It goes like this: early alarm, head under the pillow, quick shower where I forget to shave my legs again. Down the stairs, down the street, onto the bus, and eight hours in the office: scribbling on Post-Its, staring at the computer, going to meeting, getting a third cup of tea. Bus again, at least…

  • Antipodean Quotidian

    I guess we were talking about it at work, somehow, during afternoon tea at 3:30 on a Friday when there hasnā€™t been much on except, like, writing email and reading policy papers and wandering around the office, counting the hours. One of us had some popcorn and I had some biscuits and someone else had…

  • All The Goodbyes That Await You

    The days are going by and itā€™s light in the mornings now when you yawn and stumble to the bus stop, and according to the tuis outside your window itā€™s starting to be spring, and the long strange dull winter is almost over now, even if it isnā€™t quite sundress and jandal time. Time stops…

  • Excuses

    I donā€™t want to write: I just want to read books and drink tea and sit in front of the fire. I donā€™t want to write: I get home so late these days. I donā€™t want to write: everything I want to say someone else has already said. I donā€™t want to write: everything I…

  • Gossip

    Crack the top of the crĆØme brulee and get right into it, spooning up the cream and dropping your voices. Well I try not to judge, you say, raising your eyebrows. I always thought there was something off, you murmur, dipping your spoon again. Itā€™s not how I like to do things, of course, but…

  • Thinking Of You

    After work she decides not to go to the store because itā€™s windy and dark and a little colder than sheā€™d expected this morning when she decided to wear her spring jacket instead of her winter coat. Earbuds, bus stop, off at the dairy and a quick walk along the street that looks over the…

  • Matiu/Somes Island

    Weā€™re at an intriguing meteorological stage, right now in Wellington: itā€™s still sort of officially winter in that it can be cold at night and one wants at least two blankets on the bed, but the birds have been singing and the flowers have been blooming and everyone is waking up a little bit from…

  • Second Guessing

    This past Sunday I went for breakfast over at Scopa with an internet acquaintaince with whom Iā€™ve been in touch for a couple of years, off and on. Weā€™d already become Facebook friends and started following each other on Twitter so I was faaaaaaairly sure we were going to get on just fine, but even…

  • Day By Day

    Monday I made some lentil soup with carrots, onions, a whole thing of tomato paste and some leftover frozen corn when I got home from work. I would have liked to put in some celery but celery was SEVEN DOLLARS at Moore Wilson and I was too tired and cold to go over to New…

  • Sleeping In

    Wake up, finally, because the morning lightā€”well, the mid morning lightā€” got in through the curtains. At first you thought your phone was going off on your bedside table but really it was the birds outside in the trees, singing, singing, making you believe the long cold wet winter is almost over and that one…

  • Various Fun Reasons

    Whoo, girl, I really should be in bed right now, snuggled up to my hot water bottle(s) but I always feel a little funny when I leave a super emo post up for more than a couple of days, you know, like it all gets a bit dire with all the big questions and vague…

  • Returned To Sender

    I canā€™t help wondering: what happens to the love, the kind that never gets to the people it was so earnestly meant for? Sometimes thereā€™s a reason and sometimes there isnā€™t: they werenā€™t paying attention or they didnā€™t understand what would be required, or they just plain werenā€™t interested, they just plain didnā€™t want it,…

  • Sunny Weekend

    I donā€™t know about you, but I had a really nice weekend. It was full of pretty people and cute dresses and an interesting documentary and journal-writing at Fidelā€™s and lazy pajama-based mornings and a hubristic party and good talks and yummy hot chocolates and delightful cupcakes and a walk on the beach at Lyall…

  • Hibernating

    Two pairs of socks, in the mornings; a singlet top, merino jersey, fuzzy-collar zip-up sweater and a coat. Scarf and a very cute hat that always gets me compliments, and sometimes the orange chenille gloves I think I got at the Greenlake PCC nine billion years ago. Tights and boots. Three duvets on the bed…

  • Maybe Next Time

    I wanted to write a story about hanging around, about sitting around, about walking around. I wanted to write a story about the stars and the sky and the moon and the trees, and everyone who lived in all of those places. I wanted to write a story about the deep blue sea. I wanted…

  • Skills

    Community transmission of contagious disease being what it is, Iā€™ve been back working on Operation Swine this last week and a half, and I am so totally OVER IT, man Most people at work have been on this thing for like eight weeks now and everyoneā€™s tired and everyoneā€™s tense and everyone has the little…

  • Wish

    I donā€™t know whatā€™s going on lately, whatā€™s in the air or in the water, but itā€™s been a little bit of a rough couple of weeks in my world. Not for me personally, you understand: Iā€™m doing great. Work is settling down, I have some great friends, and I managed to light the fire…

  • The Dance Floor Of My Dreams

    The dance floor of my dreams is big enough to give you plenty of room to show off your moves, small enough so that you donā€™t lose your friends in the crowd, fully wheelchair accessible, and expertly lighted in such a way to bring out your cheekbones. No oneā€™s going to steal your purse, no…

  • Bus Thoughts

    Realize when you get to the bus stop after 2-for-1 pasta night with a friend at the Italian Caffe (you had the gnocchi; from now on, you will always be getting the gnocchi) that you should have gone to the bathroom before you left the restaurantā€”shrug and cross your legs and pull your scarf up…

  • Along The Edge

    Iā€™d been to the house before, a couple of years ago, but I didnā€™t remember where it was and or where I was going. It had been raining or almost raining all day and I would have preferred a ride instead of a walk but if I wanted to get there I had to go…

  • Creating Space,

    Iā€™m on day three of a four-day weekend (we take Easter very seriously in New Zealand, you seeā€”no commercials on TV on Good Friday and you canā€™t buy alcohol in the stores on Easter Sunday) and I donā€™t know what it says about me that all last week I was looking forward not to an…

  • Nights

    Nights I dreamed so hard I tore the sheets off the bed. Nights I looked at the clock and waited for the dinner to be over. Nights I spent online shopping for the perfect pair of knee-high boots. Nights I spent listening to the Disintegration album and writing made-up Sassy magazine interviews with my future…

  • Expertise

    I ought to be getting ready to run down the road and get on a bus to go to a little party in town; instead I am sitting on my couch with a terrible headache and a queasy tummy, miserably sipping Lady Grey tea and trying to enjoy the last smidge of sunset before I…

  • Shake Your Tailfeather

    Alice and Chiara walk down the street to the Te Papa fruit market, gossiping about everyone they know on the way. Alice [gossiping]: This whole sexual tension thing is getting really annoying. I think that just shagging and getting it over with is the way forward. Chiara [totally gossiping]: People always say that but it…

  • The American Thing, Again

    Last night I got an email from New Zealand Immigration saying that theyā€™ve done the first stage of my residency application and needed some extra information about my job to continue on. This was pretty exciting because a) the information they wanted was really easy to get and I had it in the mail this…

  • Round

    My last name means ā€œround,ā€ it literally means ā€œround,ā€ and usually what I say is ha ha my ancestors clearly really loved pasta and sometimes I pat my behind with a proud little sort of a pat and then sometimes I wink, or get close to winking and then I grin and then we move…

  • Body And Mind

    Even though I started my new job last week, this past one was the first full-forty-hour week Iā€™ve worked since

  • Anything Other Than Temporary

    Iā€™m pretty glad I didnā€™t update last night after moving my stuff (which at this point in time consists of two stuffed-to-the-brim bags that barely made it into checked luggage and some very pretty bedding I got at the half-off sale at Briscoeā€™s last week) from my dear friend Aliceā€™s house in Mt. Victoria to…

  • Learning To Drive

    Although I had a couple of opportunities to do so, I actually never drove on the right side of the car and/or left side of the road the first time I was over here, almost two years. I bummed rides or walked or bussed or trained everywhere and that actually worked out very well for…

  • Anti-Climactic

    Today I woke up late because I was up talking with Alice until three in the morning, drank some tea, had lunch at the Italian cafĆ© with my friend Julie, submitted my New Zealand residency application, went to Farmerā€™s for moisturizer, and stopped at New World to pick up ginger nuts on the way back…

  • Almost Done With The Waiting

    Okay! Well! Hi! Iā€™m in California now, up ridiculously early because the paltry East Coast/West Coast time change is affecting me way more than it usually does, writing this from a bed at the ABL, where I arrived yesterday after a couple of days in New York. Iā€™ve got all day today in Sunnyvale and…

  • One Last Bike Ride

    I went for a last bike ride to the Quiet Gardens yesterday afternoon, after spending most of the afternoon sorting and folding and packing all my stuff. I get on the plane to New York in a few hours but it still seems so unreal. All week people have been asking me if Iā€™m excited…

  • Supposed To Be Packing

    Iā€™m supposed to be packing but I had to make dinner and I had to ride the bike to the Quiet Gardens to take pictures of ibis and sandhill cranes, I had to drink tea, I had to read a book I borrowed from my sister. Iā€™m supposed to be packing but I got a…

  • Not The Same But Similar

    ā€œItā€™s not going to be the same,ā€ my sweet friend Giulia wrote to me today in chat, ā€œbut it will be similar.ā€ Ten days before I leave Miami, sixteen days before I get on the plane to Auckland, and youā€™d think Iā€™d be consumed by details, youā€™d think Iā€™d be all about my lists and…

  • What I Learned In 2008

    Long-distance friendship and short-distance friendship are both very good and very different. When dealing with immigration, thereā€™s always a document you forgot, or a form you didnā€™t sign, or a paper you didnā€™t copy in triplicate. Just try to space out your heart attacks. Vote! And, you know, give a damn about politics. If you…

  • Its Own Level Of Tiredness

    I took the bike over to the Quiet Gardens today, just to get out of the house for a while, and brought my book and my paper journal with me. I amused myself for a while counting the iguanas (ten) and monitor lizards (three) and sandhill cranes (three) and egrets (three or four) and ibis…

  • Christmas Or Otherwise

    Since itā€™s been a few years since I had Christmas at home itā€™s nice to see that all my wee familyā€™s non-tradition traditions have held up so nicely. We donā€™t make a big deal out of the holidays but itā€™s still nice to do nice stuff together. This morning my sister and her partner came…

  • A Few More Weeks To Go

    This time next month, with all due consideration of time changes and the International Date Line, Iā€™ll have just got into Wellington from San Francisco. Iā€™ll have a couple of weeks before I start work–a couple of weeks to hug all my friends and to see if I recall how to get around the city,…

  • Contingency

    The last week or so, I guess, after I had to resubmit the visa, I was just starting to allow the concept of not going back to Wellington to lick at the edges of my brain, quickly and cautiously, nervously. After yet another paperwork-related mistake last Wednesday that involved panicked calls to the New Zealand…