A Different Kind of Southern: Auckland in the Springtime

Greetings from beautiful New Zealand! Spring has sprung in the Southern Hemisphere and we are now heading into summer. I have just entered my 3rd trimester (woot woot!) and Hazel is going to be 2 next month. Where does the time go? And to boot, this week marks my 3 (gasp!) year anniversary in Auckland. Holy guacamole.

Thankfully I've been blessed with another good pregnancy. Of course it's not without its hormone surges, back aches, and high level of ice cream consumption. I am growing another human for goodness sake and it can't live on lettuce alone. As much as life continues on as normal, pregnancy does change things.

We had bought concert tickets a while ago for a show at Town Hall, a venue I was looking forward to checking out, not to mention the great seats we had and the 8pm show start time. But then I got an email which might as well have been titled: Pregnant Woman's Worst Nightmare because it said 1. the location had been changed to a standing room only venue and 2. the artist wasn't coming on until 10:15pm. What were they going to tell me next, bathrooms were an additional charge, off sight and port a potty inspired?

It took me about 24 hours of trying to convince myself that I could make this fun and that I wasn't dead yet just pregnant before I was on the phone pleading my case with Ticketmaster - "Please don't make me do this! This is not what I signed up for! I can't be that far from my bed after 9 at night!" Of course all this translated in a warm, but professional I mean business sort of way. When the door to the concert closes, one to your couch opens. Shockingly Ticketmaster had mercy on my pregnant soul and refunded us our money.

Good thing since I recently paid $2.50 for a lime. A single lime. You would have thought at that price it would at least come with a Corona. Three years in and I still get sticker shock periodically. Good thing my American friend Alicia came over from Melbourne to visit me back in October. We could reminisce in person about our days in college and what it was like to pay a normal price for produce. Alicia and I have been friends for years and since she now lives in the Southern Hemisphere we are one of each others only friends that really can just come over for a weekend, something you treasure being this far away. It was awesome to have her here.

In other news, I've been volunteering with an organization called Thrive, co-facilitating a teen mother's group out in Henderson. Ever since having Hazel, single parents and teen parents have been heavy on my mind and heart. It was quite a small group and seeing these young girls with their babies was quite inspiring. And unexpectedly, made me really excited for our own 2nd one because man they are so little and so cute and getting to cuddle newborns once a week is pretty sweet.

It was an interesting experience and nice to do something semi-professional. When I was pregnant with Hazel I knew my life would change, but only in an abstract way because you can't really know to what extent until you go through it. So this time I'm aware of some of the changes coming my way and feel a sense of urgency to live life to the fullest, minus late night concerts of course. My vision for my current life does not include what happened to me last week though.

Picture it. Auckland 2014. It's a rainy Monday morning and Hazel and I are heading to her little gym class (Olympics 2036 watch out!) and I grab my raincoat as I head out. Now I haven't worn this coat in forever, but it was hanging up in my closet which indicated to me a level of ready to wearness that I don't expect from the pile on my floor where I usually get most of my clothes from. So I put the raincoat on and head out. We get to class and after putting my bag down I take the hood down and raincoat off, but still feel something on my head. Strange I think so I reach up so investigate this phantom hood and from the top of my head I pull off a pair of underwear. I wish I made this story up for entertainment purposes only, but alas this is my actual life. I urge you, please check your raincoat for underwear so that you too don't end up a victim like me.

When I'm not embarrassing myself in public, this is what else we've been up to the past few months. Since my life revolves around my child the following will be copious pictures of her.

Ooh first I almost forgot - Halloween. Kiwis forgot it permanently up until a few years ago. It's really just taking off here so everyone that is our age didn't grown up trick or treating. Now those people have kids and it's starting to become more popular so they are trying to figure out what this holiday is all about. We didn't see any pumpkins or house decorations, just a handful of people dressed up.

I really wasn't expecting anyone, so much so that when two teenage-ish boys came to the door in grim reaper masks I was certain death truly was knocking and it was my time to go. I quickly recovered and thankfully had some mini Snickers on hand to throw their way.

We ended up taking Hazel to a few houses in our neighborhood and I gotta say she loved it, but what's not to love about strangers and candy? And Strangers with Candy (1999-2000) for that matter, I mean how great is Amy Sedaris. Maybe I'll be Jerri Blank one year. Anyway, back to our life lately...

Butterfly Creek: