Winning

You win some you lose some. The man who chose Eden Park to parachute onto during halftime of my first live rugby game did not win. Mostly because his landing landed him with a broken femur. Ouch.

New Zealand Warriors didn't actually win either. Defeated again by the Australian Sea Eagles. I'm sure it would have been a different story completely if they were playing the Land Eagles...maybe next year. Despite NZ not winning it was really fun. If you can't have fun, though, sitting in complimentary box seats on a beautiful Auckland day, where free food and booze are at your finger tips, well then go back to your cave.

I thought for a minute I was at a Burning Man Fundraiser when I saw the live drummers and torches a blaze but nope just a good old fashion League Rugby game. And imagine my surprise when on our way out, one of the hosts gave me the largest and most decorative bouquet of flowers I have ever seen. If I had gotten a sash too I could have stopped at the Miss Auckland 2012 pageant on our way home. I've never received flowers for attending a sporting event, but I told Adam I will expect it from now on.

Other happenings from the past week include a mid-day Oscar party with Adrienne, my other jobless and recently transplanted North American friend, who is fabulous and smart enough to get the fancy movie channel so that on a Wednesday afternoon we could actually watch the Oscars in their entirety, as well as all of the Red Carpet coverage on E. Folks at home might have taken for granted being able to see J-Lo in a played out look, but not me. I was all gratitude that day.

However, the day before I was grateful for other things, like being able to find humor in situations that don't exactly turn out as I had imagined. When I found a certain woman's resume online and reached out to her I was thinking about all the things we seemingly had in common, but my fantasy of meeting my new best friend and professional confidant was soon squashed.

We both came from the US and I shared that my husband had gotten recruited by a company over here which was the impetus for our move. I then asked her what made her move. She simply said "Bush." As in the president.  Alrighty then. Mmm let's see where do I take this conversation now. Is this where we trade makeup secrets and  I ask if she wants to try on my ring? Nope not getting that vibe. Well of course it led to the community shared eco housing development she calls home. This is what I think of as a commune but what do I know. Hey different strokes for different folks. It was actually really interesting to learn about how these things are set up and work. I'm not going to be the one to break it down for you, that's what Google is for, so look it up sometime.

While you can't win 'em all you can win 'em some. And I would proudly like to report that I did win one round of the red hat game in improv class.

Two people wear actual red hats (provided by the instructor - whew!) and the goal is to be the first person to knock the hat off the other person's head. The kicker being that the entire time you are trying to do this you are also engaged in a improv scene with you partner. It's multi tasking at it's finest. I continue to look forward to class every week and am so glad I signed up.

I am also really looking forward to our Milford Track trip. Three weeks from today and we will be hitting the trails!