Ordinary moments in his ordinary life

So I started this blog post, oh, like a week and a half ago. And my life has changed a bit since then, but I typed and typed through part of our X-Men marathon (side note: my muscle memory tried to type "X-Files" there because I am a geek), so I might as well post it. The day I wrote this, I'd been at the lake I decided that a Fun Thing To Do would be to post about what my days are generally like. Because, you know, I don't have a hell of a lot to report on and My Daily Life is probably an OK subject.

So! An Average Day in New Zealand For Kate:
Get up, time dependent on when I need to be at work. If it's Monday or Tuesday, it's my day off and so I sleep as late as I can (barring 2 weeks ago Monday, when I got up at 9:45 because we were set to skydive at 11am. And last Monday, when I agreed to work). If it's Wednesday or Thursday, I need to be there around 9/9:30. Friday and Saturday are 11am days. And Sunday is 8:30am.
Get dressed/etc, eat breakfast. Breakfast tends to be yogurt and muesli. For a while I was out of muesli, I made wholegrain toast with peanut butter and banana, but for some reason even though that is a healthy, healthy breakfast, I would run out of energy like 3 hours into my day. Which is not an option in my job. So we're back to muesli and yogurt. Fruit if I have the time/...fruit. And coffee, naturally. I have also learned that, if you're going to be on your feet serving food for anywhere between 3 and 9 hours straight, you don't skip breakfast. Today I had some oatmeal that Tom gave me when he moved out, because I am out of muesli and I didn't want to go to Pak 'N Save.
Work! It's busy with breakfast people between like 9 and 10:30. Then there's usually a lull (this disappears if it is raining) before the lunch crowd pulls in from 12:30-2. Then there is the Time of Waiting To Be Told You Can Go. This time sucks. The time drags, there's usually very few people and all sorts of catch-up to do and it sucks. I can usually go somewhere between 2:30 and 4. Hopefully the earlier end of that. And then I get a break! If it's early enough, I can actually do something with my day, which is exciting. The past few days have been so freaking hot that I've pretty much left work, come home, gotten changed, and made a beeline for the lake. Swimming here is incredible. The lake is like the perfect temperature. Not too cold, but cool enough to be unbelievably refreshing. It's so good, especially after working and then walking home and then walking there.
Then it's back to work, as lately if I'm working, I'm working a split shift. It's pretty uncool, but I need the money. And what with many of my friends having recently left Taupo, spending all of my time earning money is not a bad plan. We'll see. Working at night is more annoying. There are more options to the dinner menu, the place is more popular, etc. Also, because I hate whining, I don't whine, and the whining behavior tends to be rewarded. So I'm usually one of the last to leave (tonight I closed, which was fine because we get paid time and a half on public holidays such as Waitangi Day, today, so I might as well earn that if I have to close). I can leave anywhere between 9:30 and midnight.
After work, I walk home (occasionally getting a ride) and enjoy the stars, which are so bright here. I can see the Southern Cross, although I didn't know this until about a week ago when we were at the hot pools and someone pointed it out. I can also see Orion, which is like the one constellation I actually know. I'm pretty sure I could see the Milky Way the other night. It's just gorgeous.

Anyway, that's about it. Up, work, break, work, sleep. Days off include, generally, shopping or swimming or lazing about. We've been renting loads of movies lately, which has been superfun, but post-X-Men marathon (which was unlike our Bourne movies marathon in that I was not the only one there by the end, AND we made it through ALL THREE except we didn't finish the third because at that point we were very tired. But we made it to the major battle scene. I hadn't realized that Ellen Page had such a large role in the films. But that might be because the last time I saw it, I didn't know who Ellen Page was and also I don't much care for the younger mutants. Like, whatever, you have teenaged drama, Rogue. Can we get back to Magneto now?), I forgot about the movies (other than when we watched Thank You For Smoking and House, Season 3) and they were a day late returned and I don't know what the penalty is for that, so I don't want to go back there anytime soon.

For those of you who don't have Twitter, I saw a weta (I'd stick in a link, but I don't want to traumatize all of you who click on it when you see the scary bug there, so I'll just tell you it's a scary bug and leave it to you to google/wikipedia that for yourselves) in my bathroom the other night and freaked out. I wrote a pretty damn funny note and stuck it on the door to the bathroom about how the door was closed because of the very scary bug in there, and we can either send someone in to kill it, or keep the door closed until I move out. There was an illustration, which I may have taken some artistic license with, as wetas do not have fangs. That I know of. Then I got Simon to come upstairs and he put it under a glass and took it outside. Kiwis really like wetas because they're, like really old. They're dinosaurs, they say. The wetas are dinosaurs, the Kiwis say. Wetas can't talk, so far as I know. Anyway, the weta was removed from the bathroom, I had my first run-in with a popular New Zealand creature, and only one person other than me read my hilarious note.

Today when I got off of work, Sabina was like, "Let's get lunch!" because she, Helen, andI all finished at the same time. We were going to go somewhere without a surcharge, but as there was no such place around, we just went to Dixie's anyway and were troublesome customers. I ordered a bowl of fries, then finished and went next door and got ice cream, then hung out for a long time with friendly coworkers, then went home and had a muffin that one flatmate had made and a slice of carrot cake that another had made. What I'm saying is, I should probably start some sort of diet tomorrow. But I swear, I was totally peer-pressured into that carrot cake. Also, a cat wandered into my room and I was like, "Cat? You do not live here" and I went downstairs and Jo was like, "Oh, you met Bumblebee." "...Who is Bumblebee?" "The cat! She started visiting one day and now she's around a lot." I may not have mentioned that there are a bunch of strays in the neighborhood. They keep to the shadows, mostly, and stare at me a lot, which makes me think they are trying to surprise-attack me. But now we've let one into our home and given it a cute nickname and I pet it when it meowed its way into my room. What I'm saying is, I probably have rabies.

Anyway. Grace sends me messages about being worried when I don't update, then signs off so that I have to update to reassure her. She's crafty! I've been able to talk to quite a few people recently, which has made me very happy, as I miss many of you.

I'm going to Christchurch soon, for a minivisit that is probably too expensive for me (even though it's pretty damn cheap, honestly), in order to have a Joyous Reunion with Lisa. Prepare to be very jealous of me.

Also, I thought a nice addition to the entry about my everyday life would be some photos of my beautiful home that I totally took when I moved in, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I swear, I will soon. In the next couple of days, there, I've set a deadline.

Anyway, I have work in the morning (well, at 11), so I'm going to go to sleep now. Dear Family: as much as I love hearing from you, it would be awesome if I didn't wake up to the Gmail message notification noise tomorrow. EIGHT TIMES. Tomorrow is Saturday for me, but it's Friday for you. Isn't that freaky?