Dearly Beloveds

Dear The World,

Today I leave both the Southern and the Eastern Hemispheres. It has been about 5 months since I've lived in the Past, and today I will fly out at 2:50pm, travel for approx. 20 hours (I've got a stopover in Aukland and LA) and arrive in Sacramento BEFORE I left, at about 2:30 THE SAME DAY.
Isn't the world wacky?

Oh Joy.

I am totally out of Antarctica clothes and back into Kai clothes, which means I am back into at least 2 different patterns and 2 different colors of stripes. I have a bug around my neck and black lace scarf on my head. I feel better, and ready to face this massive trek of forced-air and flourescent lights. I have a bitchin steam-punk sci-fi book (which I've read before, bu that's ok) to read, and a Nalgene full of tea. My backpack is the only thing that says "Antactica" on it, which is sort of amazing.

Off Ice

Sore muscles.
Quick flight, back to CHCH, with friends.
Night. Night and smells of flowers and cut grass, went to the arboretum and the house of ferns, gardens of roses.
Hiked today, kilometres, and saw turquoise milky ocean stretching out on all sides. Sheep. Lambs.
Ate hot steamy greasy delicious Thai food.
Tired, and sore and sunshine and ginger beer.
Campervans and mangoes and throwing fruit peels into the sea.
Laughing and ewating sausage and espresso with cream on top.
Lyttelton, Wunderbar, and The Volcano Cafe.
Lying in the grass and walking barefoot.
Farmers markets, ice cream and children.
Trying to save money. Failing.
More tattoos to post soon.

We swam in the ocean in our various innapropriate clothes and underwear. Someone stepped on a crab.
About a week and a half left before we leave for Spring (from the end of summer here).

And also......

Snow Snow Snow

And suddenly it was winter again.

I was blinded by the snow today, a thick white that had suddenly covered everything while I sat indoors, in the dry warm warehouse on my last day of work. I expected what has been weighing on my eyes for the past months since summer arrived; dry dusty roads, neverending sun and grit in the air from the forklifts and tractors and heavy equipment.

It's gotten steadily colder and colder, just in time for Vessel, which was last week. I worked those days with a crew that grew close and that was very fun. For once I was without a micromanaging boss, and that was a different and fun experience. I think Mike is funny and I am very fond of him, but we have extremely different perceptions of the world and ourselves in it.

Being out in the wind and freezing cold for 12 hours a day was intense. I was basically a person with a Sharpie, our Pickle driver was pro and did not need me to spot him, so I just wrote a number on each box that we unpacked from the Milvans. Over and over. In wind that sucks the water out of your skin. I got dehydrated and frostnip on my fingers, which is reversible, but I still have strange lumpy bits on the tips.

Last weekend was a lovely break. I was demolished on Saturday so I stayed home and did NOTHING. I was beyond tired and beyond hurting. That meant two days off in a row! Vessel takes it's toll and lot's of Supply folk went down hard. My dear Denise hurt her back and she has been out 2 days. I summoned my strength and went out on Saturday night because Mykle's band (!!!) was playing their first and only show. It was truly epic, and so Richard and I smeared ourselves and everyone in the vicinity with fake blood and generally acted out.

(Except for last week) I have been doing two tattoos a week. It's going wonderfully, but I am running out of needles and some other supplies (that aren't essential, just handy). I am getting a bit faster, I think. But I am SUCH a perfectionist. It's amazing how nonchalant people are about tattoo placement. I think they look in the mirror, see the design on them in stencil form, and has been envisioning it SO MUCH in their heads that they immediately think it looks right.
This is also making me very wealthy ($30/40 bucks per hour, my friend!). I will be able to buy my own equipment with the money I have made tattooing, and that is tremendously exciting. I am so inspired, it's ridiculous. I have grand dreams about wanting to reinvent tattooing to fit my own style of artwork and tattooing masterpieces! I send photos of all my tattoos to Jess and she says things like "I knew you were a natural!" EEEEEeeeeeeee!

I shouldn't talk about it so much, I'm afraid of jinxing myself.



So OTHER exciting news is that today was my last day of work.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!