Act II, Scene 1: The newlyweds arrive

MONDAY - Carlin & Kristen arrived to spend the next 2 weeks with us. On their first night in NZ, we took them for a drive to the neighbourhood beach and on the way back, I gave Carlin his first driving lesson for driving on the left. It always sounds scarier than it is; people usually get the hang of it within a few days. He did fine.

TUESDAY - Curt and I had to go to work today so we sent the intrepid travellers off to explore Auckland on their own. They even put gas in my car and did the grocery shopping! I think I'm going to like having them around.

That evening, we took them to One Tree Hill for a great view of Auckland from sea to sea. New Zealand is so narrow at this spot that you can see both east and west coasts. Kristen especially liked the sheep who eat the grass on One Tree Hill (instead of using lawnmowers). We stopped at a fence and tried to entice a sheep near us, but it wasn't interested.

Back at the house, they played Scrabble while I marked papers. Curt won the Scrabble game, of course. Poor Kristen didn't realise she was marrying into a ruthless Scrabble family.

WEDNESDAY - Carlin & Kristen came to my school today for morning teatime to meet my colleagues. Then they went to Newmarket to shop (it's the ritzy shopping area), and finally they met Curt for a picnic lunch. He took them to Winter Garden, a beautiful setting in the the huge domain (park) near his office.

I've been feeling a little lost at work concerning my English class, not knowing what they did while I was gone, or what I'm supposed to be teaching them now that I'm back. Since I only teach one class, I'm often out of the loop. Well today, I got a bombshell. The head of the English Dept came to the library to see me and asked how I was doing. "You do know that reports (report cards) are due tomorrow morning, don't you?" What? I had no idea. Somehow, I thought Dec 6 was the due date for reports. Oh my. I started entering scores right away, but knew it would take me HOURS.

On top of that, I got a call from the HR guy at my school. I had applied for a job as a Social Studies teacher on Monday, and they wanted to interview me. This was good news ... but the interview was the following day, and I had to prepare a sample lesson plan. It looked like I was going to be up all night.

I would've preferred to skip choir practice and work on my reports, but Carlin was coming to practice a song with the choir so I felt I should be there. I was the one who got him roped into this in the first place. The poor guy. His own mother had talked him into performing with the choir on viola while he was here on his honeymoon. I am shameless. In my defence, I was imagining a simple hymn where he could just pick out a nice harmony line, but our director chose a longer and far more complicated song which Carlin would have to practice. (The choir was going to need lots of practice, too) At least Carlin and Kristen got to meet some of the choir folk who have been so good to us, and they were all pleased to hear him play.

Back at the house, I was madly writing reports while Carlin and Kristen played a "friendly game" of Scrabble (read: not always friendly). Eventually, everyone went to bed except me. I stayed up till 1:00 a.m. finishing stupid reports, and preparing for my job interview the next day. At least I wouldn't have to go to work the following day. I was taking it off because it was American Thanksgiving. I'd been hoping to do some sightseeing with Carlin and Kristen, but instead I would be going to a job interview ... and shopping and cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

THURSDAY (THANKSGIVING) -
Prepared a few dishes for the Thanksgiving feast that morning before I went to the job interview at 11:00. It seemed to go pretty well. I think it was more than a courtesy interview, at least. They were impressed with the student work samples I brought, including the packet of instructions all laid out for the kids - timeline, grading rubric, parent signature, etc. They liked my IT skills, too. Fingers crossed.

On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store for more turkey day supplies, but still couldn't find pumpkin pie or Durkee's French Fried Onion Rings, a necessary ingredient for the traditional Green Bean Casserole (Carlin's favourite). Eventually found a recipe to make my own french fried onion rings which was amazingly easy! As for pumpkin pie ... I decided to skip it. I don't even like pumpkin pie so I wasn't inclined to make one from scratch. Sent Carlin and Kristen to the store to buy an alternative dessert. They wisely chose something chocolate.

Made the usual turkey, stuffing, etc. but added a bit of Kiwi culture by using kumara as the sweet potato dish. When Curt got home, he started the tates and gravy. Mmmm. My favourite part. Kristen and Carlin put extra leaves in the dining room table, for we had invited our neighbours over for an authentic American Thanksgiving.

Our neighbours, Bruce and Annette and their two boys Sam (8) and Nick (6) arrived in time for some traditional pre-dinner Thanksgiving colouring: Carlin taught the boys how to make an outline of their hand and turn it into a turkey. They were suitably impressed and created some masterpieces of their own. Sam was also impressed when Carlin played a few songs on the piano for him. Sam had recently started taking piano lessons, and it was fun for him to see how years of practice could pay off. He even fetched some of his music and played for us. Sam and Nick also kept busy playing with our giant tub of Legos. It was nice to see that little boys of this generation are still enthralled with Legos, like my boys were. We explained the background of the Thanksgiving holiday to everyone, how the Pilgrims would've all starved to death their first year without help from the Indians, etc. And of course, we ate too much. But it sure was good.

After dinner, we all needed to go for a walk and burn off some of those calories, so Bruce and Annette grabbed their dog and we all went to a nearby parkland. Carlin threw the tennis ball for the dog, a golden retriever who reminded us of Duffy, the dog he'd grown up with. The little boys chased each other and ran off steam, while the adults enjoyed the conversation and the serene setting. It was a perfect way to end a lovely day.

Last year, we didn't do anything on Thanksgiving; it was just another day at work for us. So this year it was nice to have Carlin and Kristen here, and it was a prefect excuse to put on a big Thanksgiving dinner. And inviting our friends to be a part of our American holiday made it even more special.

FRIDAY - Went to work at 7:30 and got a call from the HR guy at 8:00 offerring me the Social Studies job! The Humanities Dept loved me, apparently. I was applying for a part-time position, but they wanted to know if I would take the full-time position instead. I had been hoping to teach part-time and still work in the library part-time, but had recently found out that I wouldn't be allowed to, unfortunately. After agonising indecision, I eventually decided to teach part-time: 4 classes of Social Studies and 1 class of English. But no more library, which was sad. Initially, I was a little angry that I wasn't allowed to stay in the library part-time, but I had to remind myself of all the recent whistleblower drama I had been caught up in. I was being given an opportunity to get away from that craziness and into a higher-paying job. I should be happy! Plus it felt so good that someone wanted me. 

Meanwhile, back to reality: It was getting close to the end of the school year and there were lots of special events around the school. Somehow, an English teacher forgot to come teach her class in the library 6th period. Her girls were all there, but there was no teacher. Yikes. Barbara and I did our best to manage the orphan class and run the library simultaneously. In addition, our library boss had been home sick most of the week and was not at school to teach her class, also 6th period. Unfortunately, she forgot to tell the appropriate person to secure a reliever (substitute teacher). About 20 minutes into the period, we got a frantic call at the library. Where was the Library Manager who was supposed to be teaching her class? Do we know what her class was meant to be doing? Where is the video they should be watching? So I hustled the video up to the classroom, only to find absolute pandemonium: One girl had covered her face with stickers (and couldn't see) and had two pairs of pink knickers on her head. Yes, underpants. The rest of the class was - as you can imagine - out of control. Good Lord. I removed the knicker-headed girl from the room, did my best I'm-really-mad-and-I-mean-it voice to settle the class, and turned on the movie, Romeo and Juliet. At least the knickers were clean.

At home that night I had heaps to report : the job offer, 2 unattended classes, and the girl with knickers on her head. Carlin and Kristen had heaps to report, too: They'd taken the train downtown all by themselves, shopped at the outdoor market, took the ferry to Devonport, and had fish & chips for lunch.

Carlin and I had an important conversation later that night. We stayed up late (too late) talking about my feelings that I was "losing him." Part of my sadness came from the fact that he and Kristen would be living in Phoenix, 1200 miles away from Bellingham where all our family gatherings would be. Whenever Curt and I fly back to America, Bellingham would be the logical destination ... but Carlin wouldn't be there. I hardly had any right to blame him, though because we're the ones who moved 7,000 miles away to the other side of the world. Still.  It's hard to let go, I guess.

Intermission

Intermission lasted 48 hours:

We returned home to Auckland at 6 a.m. Saturday morning, did heaps of laundry, and took quite a few naps. Beautiful, sunny day. Good to be home.

Went to church Sunday morning and sang in the choir. Everyone was glad to see us. Then took another nap.

Monday morning - had to go back to work. It was good to see my little friends who hang out in the library every morning. They call themselves the "library slaves." They fight over who gets to feed the fish, plus I've taught them to fill up the copy machines with paper, collect books from the returns slot, and turn on the search station computers. They are my groupies. Well, they were positively ecstatic to see I had returned. They RAN in and nearly knocked me down with their big hugs. It's nice to be loved. My class was equally happy to see me again. They stood up and cheered when I entered the classroom.

I left work early to pick up Carlin and Kristen at the airport! They'd been in Fiji for their honeymoon for a week, and were now going to spend 2 weeks with us.

Intermission was over.

Anticipation

I've always hated it when people start out by saying, "I'm sorry I haven't written in so long..." but I'm tempted to say it myself this time. I haven't written a blog in 3 months(!) and it's not because I was lacking things to write about. On the contrary, it's been quite eventful around here.

First, the anticipation: We're leaving in a few hours to catch a plane to America to attend Carlin's wedding! We'll be gone for 2 weeks, including a short stop in Las Vegas, a week in Phoenix where the wedding will be held, and a side trip to the Grand Canyon with the boys after the wedding. It'll be great! Unfortunately, my brain left about a week before the actual trip began, and last week at work I: forgot my keys on Monday, forgot my glasses on Tuesday, forgot my lunchbag on Wednesday, and finally LOST my keys for good on Thursday. Obviously, I need a vacation. I promise to write blogs all about our trip when we get back because I'm sure there will be lots to tell.

Now a snapshot of everything that's been going on during the last 3 months:
• I'm teaching one class of Year 7 English this term. Yea! I love it. The girls are sweeties. Am scheduled to teach at least one class next year, and I'm trying to get more than that.

• Big excitement at work trying to catch a thief who was stealing money from the library. Secret cameras, night vision, bait, sensors, etc. This sort of thing is pretty thrilling in a librarian's world. We feel like we're on CSI. The plan worked. Our money (mostly overdue fines) is safe again.


• Even grander drama at work involving a less-than-glowing performance review, and the resulting backlash at those who submitted the aforementioned less-than-glowing comments. Different people are in emotional meltdown on different days. There's too much friction everywhere and we're caught in the middle of it. I'm too old for all this drama. Vow to find someplace sane to work. Start applying and interviewing for other jobs, as are 75% of my co-workers.

• Went to Melbourne for 4 days in September for Curt's birthday. Vow to write some blogs about that, too. Curt did some sketches, and we went to museums, beaches, gardens, markets, etc. Excellent trip. I definitely needed a break at that point (see above) so it was especially good.

• Spent about 6 weeks catching up on the family photo albums, which were 10 years behind. It was fun to go through all the old pictures and re-live our travels, but it's sure a big job. Feels so good to have it done finally! Vow not to let it get so far behind next time. Can remember making that vow last time ... about 10 years ago.

• Curt painted/redecorated the guest bedroom (formerly purple!) in anticipation of Carlin & Kristen visiting us after their wedding and after a honeymoon in Fiji.


• New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks play in the World Cup and the entire country is obsessed, getting up at 4:00 a.m. to watch the games taking place halfway around the world. Inexplicably and possibly unforgivably, the All Blacks lose in the quarter-finals, and the whole nation goes into mass mourning mode.

• Went to see the musical "We will Rock You" based on songs by Queen. The pulsing bass line, vibrating the floor, takes me back a few decades. Good fun.

• Spent lots of time planning for the wedding: I had to find a mother-of-the-groom dress (I'm not much of a shopper) and fancy shoes (I'm a sensible shoes-type). I had to get hotel rooms reserved, car rented, and show tickets purchased (Las Vegas). I made a spreadsheet (well actually it's more of a matrix) of who's arriving when ... and who's staying where ... and who's doing what. It's a masterpiece. Most importantly, I identified all the locations of Mrs Fields Cookies stores in Las Vegas and Phoenix. I'm ready to go.

So. Maybe you can see why I haven't written in a while. I vow not to get so far behind this time. Really.

Harry Potter Week at our library

Yes, we're suffering from Potter Mania here in New Zealand, too.

The final book in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" went on sale Saturday, 21 July at 11:00 a.m. which is midnight in London. Buying the book at 11 in the morning is serendipitously convenient for Kiwi kids because they don't have to stay up all night reading it like UK and US kids who get their books at midnight. However, there were still some NZ teenagers who got in line the night before and stayed up all night on the footpaths outside Auckland's bookstores. Other Potter fans were in line bright and early, wearing various wizard costumes, glasses, and jagged scars on their foreheads.

I was less impatient, waiting until 3:00 in the afternoon to go to the bookshop, and I didn't have to wait in line at all. There was still a huge pyramid of books available. It was fascinating to watch shoppers approach the mountain of books, pick one up, surreptitiously flip to the last page, try to figure out who died, then guiltily look around to see if anyone caught them peeking. I shouldn't complain, though, for I did the exact same thing.

When I got home, I read the last chapter first (Spoiler Alert: Harry lives), then I started at the beginning. Some people are shocked when I admit that I - a LIBRARIAN - often read the ending ahead of time. I've done this for decades, and I don't think it reduces my enjoyment of a book. In fact, I enjoy it more because I like to see the path that the author takes me on as I journey through the plot to the ending. I also like to read magazines from back to front. But that's just me.

When I got to work Monday morning, many of the Potterheads had already finished it (I told them I'd read the first 8 chapters, plus the last chapter), and others were still working on it. It's an amazing and heartening sight to see groups of girls sitting around all reading the same thick, red book. My fellow librarian Lucy outdid herself with a new Harry Potter bulletin board, including twinkling lights and a broomstick flying overhead. I displayed my 6 American Harry Potter books, which all have different covers (here's US#6 vs. UK#6). And one book even has a different title! The first book was originally published in UK as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" but the US publishers thought that "Philosopher" would sound too geeky to American kids so they changed it to "... Sorcerer's Stone." Who knew.

Leilani, our Library Prefect (that means she's the girl in charge of the library's student helpers) planned an exciting week of Harry Potter activities:

Monday: Harry Potter food for sale during lunch. I made Dragon Droppings (chocolate & oatmeal no-bake cookies). My colleague Lara brought Luna's loony chocolate (it was yellow and green). Students brought chocolate frogs, cups of gummy worms, etc. It was a big hit.

Tuesday: Leilani designed 5 Harry Potter pins to sell for $3 each. At our school, the girls all wear uniforms so there are limited opportunities to express your individuality. The only thing allowed is lapel pins. The more pins you have, the cooler you are. You earn pins by being on a sports team, or being in a musical group, or being a student librarian. etc. The girls covet pins. Some of the older girls have about 50 pins on their blazer, and this is a sign of status. Leilani had 100 Harry Potter pins made AND THEY WERE SOLD OUT BY 11:00. So she called the badge-making company and ordered another 100 for tomorrow.

Wednesday: Potter fanatics are in the library at 7:30 asking "Do you have more badges for sale?" "When will the Harry Potter badges be here?" The new pins arrive at about 8:00 and cause a stampede. Leilani arranges to order more, including a new design.

Thursday: There was a Harry Potter debate today at lunchtime. Some of the girls on the school debate team had agreed to debate whether Neville or Harry makes a better hero. The girls representing Neville did a gallant job, arguing that he doesn't get distracted by girls like Harry does, he kept Dumbledore's Army going when Harry dropped out of school, he was the one who cut off the head of the snake, and he was much better in Herbology. But the Harry Potter team won, arguing that he was better looking (like a hero should be), he was the first to learn how to do a Patronus, he was an outstanding Seeker in Quidditch, etc. Harry was the obvious winner. But it was quite entertaining. The Little Theatre was packed with over a hundred girls watching the debate.

Friday: This was the day of the Harry Potter quiz, which had been generating excitement all week. There were 20 teams of 4 girls each, and even a teacher team, including me! The teacher team (The Mighty Muggles) managed to get 32 out of 60 questions right, only because we eavesdropped on the teams around us, peeked at their papers as they wrote, offerred high marks in exchange for correct answers, and flattered the judges repeatedly on the answer sheets. Alas, it didn't help. These little Pottermaniacs knew WAY more than us. The winning team got 59 out of 60 answers correct! Our best excuse is this: We read the early Harry Potter books a decade ago, and have read HUNDREDS of books since then. Plus we're old and our memory is shot. The quiz was fun, though.

PS - I finally finished HP#7 Thursday night. It ended just the way I expected it to.

Whooping it up at the Librarian Conference in Wellington

After a prolonged debate, it was finally decided that I would get to attend the School Librarian Association of New Zealand (SLANZA) conference in Wellington. At first, my colleagues and I assumed that the boss would go. Then she didn't want to go. Since it looked like nobody was going (and there was money in the budget), I told her that I was interested in attending ... but I was the employee with the least seniority, so she needed to offer it to Lara, Barbara, and Lucy first. Eventually it was decided that Lucy and I would BOTH go, which I never imagined would happen. We hurriedly reserved flights, booked a hotel, and registered for the conference before anyone could change their minds.

The big adventure began with me having to get up at 4:30 to get to the airport by 5:30 for a 6:00 flight. I am NOT good at getting up early. I am SO not a morning person, and I reminded Lucy of that repeatedly throughout the day. On the other hand, I could hardly believe that you only needed to check in 30 minutes early for an NZ flight! It's great living in a small country that isn't hyper-sensitive about security and terrorists. Curiously, Lucy and I were not seated together, but that's OK because I probably wouldn't have been very good company at that hour of the morning anyway.

Once we landed in Wellington (1.5 hours later), Lucy escorted me into the Koru Club, Air New Zealand's first-class lounge. Lucy's husband is a more-than-frequent flyer and he's a gazillion-mile member of the Koru Club or something like that. Anyway, Lucy gets access too, so she suggested that we go there for free breakfast. I'm all over that idea. It was my first time in a first class lounge and now I know what I've been missing all these years: cushy armchairs, hundreds of free newspapers, unlimited free food and drinks, fancy restrooms ... the works. I ate some really good muesli (granola) with yogurt and was tempted to find out which brand they serve because it was the best muesli I'd ever had in NZ. Mmm mmm. Alas, we had to get to the hotel before I could gorge myself further.

We took a taxi to the hotel, dropped off our bags, and walked to the high school where the conference was being held. We arrived just in time for the powhiri, a traditional Maori welcome ceremony. After the keynote speaker, it was time for morning tea: scones. Then we headed off to our first session. I went to a session on copyright laws in NZ (I know it sounds boring, but it's stuff I need to know) while Lucy learned about new IT developments in libraries. Then it was time for lunch: mini quiche and tarts. There was another session, then afternoon tea: muffins. Don't you love this country! After our 3rd session, there was even wine and cheese. They sure fed us a lot.

Like most conferences, some sessions were better than others. One frustrating presenter told us how to use an online database, but didn't even let us log on and try it ourselves. We just sat there in the computer lab and watched him do it. Ugh. The same is true of the different speakers; some were fascinating, some were funny, and some were boring. I still like going to conferences, however. There's things to learn, and new products to see, and inspiring speakers. Either I get great ideas for what I'd like to do differently, or I get validation that I'm doing some things well already.

My favourite speakers are usually the authors. In May, I went to the Auckland Writers and Readers Conference and got to hear about 25 different authors speak in various sessions. Joanne Harris (Chocolat) was wry, and Lionel Shriver (We Need to Talk About Kevin) was appropriately intense. Joy Cowley, an NZ children's author, told about her childhood when she always read a book while walking, and even read a book while riding her bike! (then she crashed into a parked car). I know it's nerdy, but I like to hear authors speak. At this conference, there was an entertaining speech by author Kate DeGoldi, and also Apirana Taylor, a poet who played various flute-like instruments as part of his poetry performance.

Often, the best part of a conference is the vendor tables with all their exhibits. I know they're just trying to sell me something, but they give away so many freebies that I don't mind stopping to talk to them. Lucy and I ended up with a shoulder bag full of pencils, pens, rulers, bookmarks, posters, hats, jelly beans, books, reading lamp, calculator, and notepads - besides the product information. We made a haul.

The conference ended early on the second day so the participants would have time to enjoy Wellington. You'll never guess where Lucy and I ended up - the Wellington City Library. We tried shopping, and even went into a store or two but then decided to see what the city library was like and ended up staying there the rest of the afternoon. We were interested in how they displayed their books, what kind of signage they used ("Dewey Love Non-Fiction? Dewey Ever!"), and the names of the various sections (Nostalgia Collection = classics). Lucy even took a few pictures, which brought a supervisor over who asked what we were doing. When we explained that we were school librarians admiring their set-up, she was really nice and said she was happy to answer our questions. (In America we would have been questioned to see if we were making plans for a terrorist attack) We browsed their shelves until we got bored and then started walking back. We're such library geeks. In our defence, we did go to a Belgian pub for dinner, which sounds much more happening than it was. I better skip the part about dancing on the tables and picking up cute (younger) guys in case our husbands read this. No, seriously.

The truth is that I'd been sneezing and blowing my nose all day so I took some antihistamine back at the hotel and fell asleep while Lucy was still watching CSI. Sharing a hotel room was not a problem for us, but I'd asked Curt if he ever shared hotel rooms with other guys when he went on site visits and he said No Way!. Apparently sharing a room is a girl thing.

On the last morning, the alarm went off as scheduled. I hate alarms. I hate getting up. At home, Curt gets up first, takes a shower and turns on the heater in the bathroom (this way it's nice and toasty when it's my turn). When he comes out, he gets dressed and starts to make the bed ... except I'm still in it. He folds up the duvet. Brrrr. Finally, he has to "hug" me, then sit me up, then stand me up (still hugging), and finally send me to the now toasty bathroom. It's our tradition. In the Wellington hotel room, I didn't have anyone to drag me out of bed. I explained the routine to Lucy, but she refused to perform Curt's duties. Anyway, I had to get out of bed all by myself and I performed admirably. Lucy threatened to tell Curt that my whole routine is fake, and that I'm perfectly capable of getting out of bed by myself. Uh oh.

On this particular morning, Lucy turned on the TV to watch the replay of the America's Cup race that took place in Valencia at about 2:00 in the morning. We didn't care enough about the race to stay up and watch it live (although lots of Kiwis did) but we wanted to know the outcome so we watched the replay. At this point, the New Zealand boat was down 4-2, and the Swiss boat only needed one more race to win overall. When we turned it on, the Swiss boat was ahead. It looked like it would be all over for the Kiwis. But no. Something happened to the Swiss boat ... they were losing ground ... the Kiwis passed them! It looked like the Kiwis might win after all. The Kiwi boat kept gaining ground (do they call it gaining ground or is it gaining water?) and had a comfortable lead as they neared the finish line. But apparently the Kiwis had a penalty against them from an earlier infringement. This meant they'd have to make the boat do a pirouette! So just before the finish line, they cranked it hard to the right (starboard? port?) and the boat turned in a tight circle. Unfortunately, this allowed the Swiss boat to catch up and pass them BY ONE SECOND. The Swiss boat won the America's Cup.

That was a pretty exciting finish, considering I don't even care about this sport. But boy, the rest of New Zealand sure cares. The whole country would be in mourning after this. If it's any consolation, most of the crew members on the Swiss boat were poached from New Zealand (but everyone here considers them traitors). I guess New Zealanders dominate the crews on pretty much all the boats. Sailing is HUGE in NZ. One more thing - why does Switzerland have a boat when there's not even any oceans in that country???

Today's date was July 4th, which doesn't mean anything in NZ, but would be a big holiday in the US. Since Wellington is the nation's capital - and the location of the American Embassy, I wondered if there would be some sort of 4th of July celebration there to mark the occasion. Coincidentally, the US Ambassador is from Portland, but he was appointed as a reward for his service to G. W. Bush as campaign finance chairman or something. So he probably wouldn't be amused but my explanation of why we moved to New Zealand. I guess it's just as well I didn't try to attend anything at the embassy.

Back at the conference, we had one more speaker, morning tea, another sessions, lunch, one last session, and a closing panel. Done. Our flight wasn't until 7:00 so we had some time to kill. No, we did not go to the Wellington City Library this time. We went to Borders Books. Which is almost as pathetic, I guess. For dinner, Lucy proposed that we go to the airport early and have free dinner in the Koru Club. Sounds like a plan. I got to gorge myself one last time before we flew home. This time, Lucy and I were seated together and we debriefed: good conference, lots of loot. We can't wait to share all our new ideas with our colleagues. Lucy said she'd make a Power Point of the pictures she took. I told her to remember to remove the picture of the cute guys that we picked up at the pub, or our fellow librarians might think we had too much fun.

Getting Paid to Shop

Let me start out by saying that I love this job. Curt calls it my "easy job." Every morning when we head out the door, he says, "Have a good day at your Easy Job." It's a great job. Here are some of the things that I love to do:

ORGANISE - I love to catalogue books. After all, cataloguing is really a form of organising the books electronically. For non-fiction, I get to decide where the book belongs in the Dewey decimal system (like 940.93). For fiction books, I decide which subject headings it belongs in, such as SURVIVAL and ADVENTURE and ALASKA-FICTION.

PROCESSING (which is pronounced proe-cessing) - Besides a bar code, each book gets covered, a label on its spine, etc. I also put "Tattle Tape" in each book which will make the security system beep if someone tries to take the book out of the library without checking it out. I like the name of the product - Tattle Tape - which is really what it's called, made by 3M.

COMPUTER - I like working on the computer all day, cataloguing or issuing books. I also like to help troubleshoot for the library's computer lab, the girls' laptops, the printer network, and even the copy machine. When a class is starting a new research project (pronounced proe-ject), they also come in for a lesson with me and I get to show them how to access the electronic resources.

TALK ABOUT BOOKS - Every 7th, 8th, and 9th grade class comes to the library once a week for a period of silent reading. It's my job to recommend books and to help them find something good. So I show them my crate of "favourites" and briefly describe each one. As the girls listen, I can see them getting excited. When I'm finished talking, I quickly move out of the way because the girls stampede me and my crate of books, trying to grab a certain one. It always makes me feel popular. I think they like my recommendations.

MAKING LISTS - This has always been a favourite of mine. In this job, I get paid to make lists of books about espionage, books about dragons, books about adoption, etc. (These lists help girls choose books) Even better are the lists I make of books we should buy. I get to read librarian magazines full of book reviews, and decide which ones we should buy.

READ - Besides reading librarian magazines, sometimes I get to sit and read with the silent reading classes. The teachers are supposed to sit with them, but if something comes up, they beg me apologetically to please take over. As if it was a hardship to sit there and read!

Well, you can probably see why I like this job so much.
And it gets even better:

Last Friday, I didn't feel like working. Maybe I had Friday-itis or something. So I was belly-aching a little. "I don't feel like working today."
My colleagues imediately went into solution mode. "How about cataloguing? You love to catalogue."
"Nah."
"How about making a book list?"
"Nah."
"Boy there must be something really wrong with you if you don't even want to catalogue or make lists! I know what you can do - you should go shopping at the bookstore."
Suddenly my spirits perked up. They want me to go shopping for books ... spending someone else's money. Perfect. I gathered the lists of lost books that needed to be replaced, worn-out books that needed to be replaced, and a few new books we'd been wanting to add to our collection. I was instructed to get anything else that looks good. (It sure helps that I work for a wealthy private school!)

I decided to bring Lucy along to help me shop. I might have too many books to carry. We also realised that we might have to stop for coffee and a muffin in order to validate our parking. Honest.
Two hours later, we returned with $800 worth of books. And muffins for the colleagues we left behind.
We got back just in time for lunch break.
I love this job!
And just think, I'll get to catalogue all the new books next!

Back to Work

The summer holidays are over, and school has started up again. I'm back at work. It's weird to have this all happening in February instead of September. I may never get used to it.

Being away from work for 2 months over the summer meant that I forgot my passwords (There are 3 different ones for various library systems). I couldn't remember my morning routine at work as I open the library, turn on the lights, turn on the computers, etc. Every morning I seem to forget something different. I even forgot to feed the fish.

One bit of excitement for the library staff was a box of chocolate given to us by an English teacher. This assortment was the expensive kind and even came with a diagram showing which shape represented which flavour. I love those. We 4 librarians decided to each eat one chocolate every day. Since it was the inaugural day of the box, though, I proposed that we each eat two this time. Lucy seconded the seconds. We ate two. At the end of lunchtime, Barbara sealed the box with a label and wrote her signature across it, to try to make sure I didn't eat any more. (I arrive at the library every morning at 7:30 and am all by myself for the first 90 minutes so I could - in theory - eat extras during that time and nobody would be the wiser.) Still, I couldn't believe they didn't trust me! I told Lara and Lucy what she'd done and said, "Can you believe it?" They responded, "Yes." When I got home that night, I told Curt what Barbara had done. "Can you believe it?" "Yes."

Later that week, I encountered a good example of the British influence on New Zealand society. We were discussing the news that Prince Harry was going to serve in Iraq. They were all worried about him and concerned for his safety. I said, "He's just the second son. They'll still have William." Well, that elicited a horrified response from everyone which included loud gasps and statements such as, "You're so American!" They said it good-naturedly, and clearly kidding me, but there's an element of truth there. Of course, they went on to explain that it's commonly believed that Prince Harry's real father is James Hewitt, with whom Diana was having an affair. Apparently Hewitt is a redhead and so is Harry and most people believe that Charles isn't Harry's real father. This was all news to me.

Another example that happened this week was when Lara was trying to describe a certain student: "She has dark hair cut in a bob." Nobody knew who she was talking about yet. "And she looks very British." Suddenly EVERYONE knew who she meant. What does one look like if one "looks British"? Apparently, it means one has pale skin. Looking British is not a description that we would use in America, but everyone here certainly knew what it meant!

I also learned 2 more pronunciations this week:
• Mocha is pronounced mock-a, not moke-a. I told Curt to make a note of that for the next time he orders a coffee.
• Furore is the NZ spelling for furor, and is pronounced fyer-or-ee. I'd seen the spelling but didn't realise it was pronounced differently until I head someone on the radio say it. I learn something new every day.

It's nice to be back in New Zealand where my brain is constantly stimulated by Kiwi pronunciations, words, and culture. When describing this aspect of living abroad to an old friend in Bellingham, she pointed out that most people would find so much newness exhausting. But no, I still find it exhilarating.

Christmas letter 2006

As you are unwrapping your gifts on Christmas morning, we will be celebrating our one-year anniversary of immigrating to New Zealand. As expected, it’s been a grand adventure:

We arrived last year on Christmas Day and spent the next month or so finding a place to live, buying cars (for driving on the other side of the road) and appliances (with funny-looking plugs), and job-hunting for Curt.

He quickly got a job as a hydropower engineer, which has been an easy-peasey transition from his work in the hydro industry in Oregon. He's still a dam engineer. He likes it. He visits lots of dam job sites and coordinates things with the dam contractors. Really. He also likes to ride his bike to work every day, as long as he doesn’t get a puncture. He eventually resorted to bullet-proof (Kevlar) tyres. Really.

My first job as an intermediate school teacher turned out to be a major dog’s breakfast (if you can’t imagine what this phrase might mean, you’ll find the definition in the next paragraph). For instance, one day a student got angry and chucked a chair through the window and broke it (the window, not the chair). I was absolutely gob-smacked. Well, that job was making me miserable so now I have a different job as a school librarian at a posh private high school for girls. (On a side note, I never imagined myself surrounded by 1500 females, having lived with 2 brothers, then a husband and 4 sons!) Being a librarian is everything I love - books, organising, bulletin board displays, students who want to read, no grading papers and no report cards. It's a dream job. It was a struggle to leave teaching behind, though, and I may still go back to it someday. For now, I'm loving the freedom and the time that comes with NOT being a teacher, which allows me to explore and enjoy New Zealand more.

Throughout the year, we’ve tried to do some traveling around New Zealand and so far we have seen the national capital building (called the Beehive), giant kauri trees, endangered kiwi birds, stinky sulphur geysers in an active volcano area, Maori cultural performances, museums, concerts, bookstores, oodles of sheep, and tonnes of beaches. We’ve learned about ANZAC Day and Guy Fawkes Day, rugby and cricket (well … not so much about cricket). We’ve eaten pavlova (a dessert) and kumara (a sweet potato). We still manage to muck up the pronunciation of both Kiwi/English and Maori words, but we have figured out that taxes are called rates and the mailman is called a postie. We also know that wop-wops is any remote area out in the middle of nowhere, and a dog’s breakfast means a real mess. Living in a different country on the other side of the world is an exhilarating experience, constantly learning new and exciting things.

In July, we went back to visit the familiar world of Bellingham. My dad had suffered a stroke (plus 3 more since then) and I stayed for 2 weeks. For now, he’s unbelievably frail but still hanging on. My mom is a saint and is (of course) coping extraordinarily well with some assistance from hospice care, and from Austin & Nolan who both live in town and help devotedly. In addition, my brother and his family have recently moved back to Bellingham so for the most part, everything is sussed (taken care of).

While we were in Bellingham, we got to see all 4 boys and loads of old friends, which was nice. Nolan graduates from WWU in March, and he & his girlfriend will be coming to stay with us in New Zealand for 2 months. Carlin graduates from Multnomah Bible College in May and is coming out for a while. Boone started the engineering program at UW in the fall, but may change his plans and come to NZ for a while, too. That’s fine with us; we like having them around. The only one who doesn’t have immediate plans to visit is Austin, who is content in Bellingham with a good job and a long-term girlfriend.

We also bought a house in September (so we’d have room for the boys to visit) and are all moved in. We were in a small rental house before, so it feels good to be more permanently shifted; to finally unpack everything and to get sorted. (Amazingly, nothing in the container was broken when it was shipped across the ocean.) Even better, we have a real address this year so everyone can post Christmas cards to us!

Meanwhile, we found a nice church home and joined the choir and have made heaps of friends. Last weekend was our church’s big Messiah sing-along: two hundred people singing Halleluiah Chorus + soloists from the opera company + a trumpeter = a flash event. It is a little strange here to have all the Christmas music and Christmas sales going on while it's 75º out and everybody's shopping in jandals (flip-flops). But I’m not complaining.

Curt’s company closes down their entire office for 2 weeks at Christmas time, and my school will be closed for summer holiday by then, so we're flying across the ditch to Sydney Australia for a week. Christmas in Sydney will be pretty cool (actually it'll be pretty hot, but you know what I mean), especially the New Year’s Eve fireworks from the Harbour Bridge.

So while you’re toasting each other with champagne on New Year’s Eve, think of us toasting each other with champagne overlooking the Sydney Opera House. Even though we’ll actually be in Australia at the time, we’ll still be toasting our new life in New Zealand. Ultimately, it’s turned out to be a brilliant year. Cheers!

General Update: work, house, death

Things are going well in spite of the imminent death of my father back in America.

My job is so perfect that it's hard to believe that I get paid to do this all day. Curt calls it my EASY job as in "Have a nice day at your EASY job!" My colleagues are still exceptional. I recently attended a workshop on New Zealand historical fiction, which was really helpful for me because I know lots about US historical fiction, but nothing about NZ historical fiction. Many of the titles were books that my fellow librarians grew up reading – and I am missing that background experience. So now I have loads more books on my nightstand that I want to read.

I am in charge of giving book talks to every English class that comes in for their silent reading period. All I have to do is open my mouth and the students know where I'm from. But they seem to listen attentively because they like my accent. It's funny ... I wish I could speak more Kiwi-ish and they wish they could speak more American-ish.

It is finals week at my school so the girls are studying really hard and really quietly but the library has been packed. Besides every chair and every couch being occupied, there have been girls on the floor between the shelves and in the corners. The library is a popular place!

The school is closed for three weeks between terms (Sept 16-Oct 9) but the library stays open so I still work for part of that time. It'll be a nice opportunity to get some big projects done without interruption.

In addition, Curt and I will be moving to our new house between terms so in theory I should be packing boxes right now. Ha. We started house-hunting a few weeks ago and quickly found one we like. It's a little bigger, and newer than our current rental house. Curt's looking forward to having his own yard to putter in and a jungle of potted plants on the deck. And we'll have 2 spare bedrooms and will be ready for guests soon! We are scheduled to move in Sept 30.

Amid all this, there's a constant reminder that I may be going back to America at any time. My dad is weaker and frailer but he's quite a fighter, and about the time we think he's ready to go, he rallies again. My brother and sister-in-law from Kansas City are taking turns flying back and forth to Bellingham every week to be with my mom. They're doing such a good job that it's going to make me and my other brother look bad. Oh well. I lived in the same town as my parents for 22 years (and even lived next door to them for 15 years!) so I feel like I did a pretty good job looking after my parents, too.

I'm very thankful that I went back to see them in July while Dad was still somewhat alert. At least I had a chance to say goodbye. At this point we're just waiting for the phone call from my mom telling us that he's died. I feel like I should be more emotional about his impending death, but he's been so frail since the stroke five years ago that his death is not unexpected. I guess we've all had plenty of time to prepare ourselves for it. Perhaps the emotions will hit me later.

Megan