I thought I’d take a chance and forget about the States

[I started writing this a week ago, but never got around to finishing it...sorry if some of the tenses are off.]

"Why are you moving to New Zealand?" (or perhaps the slightly funnier, at least to the non-Kiwi: "Why are you moving to Australia?") is a question I have been asked more times than I care to count. I am certain I had a much better answer eleven and a half months ago when we started to seriously plan this move...and the question comes so frequently now, that any answer I could provide would undoubtedly sound canned.

If you have some time on your hands, pick up a copy Slipping into Paradise: Why I Love New Zealand. The book is not very good, but in the first few pages the author sums up why we're making this move; or at least why I'm making this move...I am sure Nico is getting asked enough about why she would do something crazy like move halfway around the world by all of you, and does not need to hear it again from me. Anyway, put the book down after the first chapter; except for some very good reasons to not move to Australia, the rest of it is not worth reading.

So why do I want to move to New Zealand? I could easily tell you how the idea got planted in my head: I somehow started getting letters from New Zealand's Department of Labour telling me about a huge pharmacist shortage, a climate identical to that of the west coast of the US (only in reverse), and beach houses for <$200,000 (US). Friends tell me I started talking about moving to New Zealand in 2006, but I really can't remember.

After a vacation/reconnaissance last year, the question that was becoming even harder to answer was: "Why are you not moving to New Zealand?"

Keep reading...maybe I'll have an answer to both questions in the future.

One of the last weekends in the OC

Jazz sextet at the Laguna Coffee Company (drummer and keyboardist are obscured).


There is no beach in Laguna at high tide.


Khanh...caught in a rare moment of not being at work.


Perhaps the Great Park will be a little better the next time we are there.
This would be a better picture if I were not too lazy to photoshop it.


This would be a better picture if it looked more like the first one.

People are less sweaty going

People are less sweaty going in than they are coming out of the Bikram Yoga Studio.

Conversation I've had with my boss at least 20 times over the last 5 years

Me: Boss, It's never easy

Boss: My father says that.

Me: My father says: "Locks are to keep the honest people out".

Boss: That's also true.

I have no idea if he's just playing along with me, or if he never remembers the previous conversation.

10 things I accomplished in the last 10 years...

1) Visited 9 countries; you can read about all of them somewhere on this blog
USA
Canada
Mexico
Switzerland
Germany
France
Jamaica
Italy
New Zealand

2) Learned to sail

3) Taught 200+ people to sail

4) Graduated pharmacy school

5) Became licensed as a pharmacist in two states (and two countries)

6) Worked for the same company for most of the decade (barely, but quite an accomplishement considering how I spent the first 4 years of the decade)

7) Ran 6 marathons

8) Lived in two of the most beautiful places on earth
Newport Beach
Napa Valley

9) Increased net worth from negative $80,000 to...I don't want to say how much, but it's pretty impressive considering where I started the decade (and let's not forget two recessions, one of them Great)

10) Stayed married for another 10 years

Christmas Day Sail

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Views from the balcony





I was going to write a treatise on the difference between Newport Beach (the OC) and Laguna Beach (the Real OC), except I was writing about the actual cities, and just threw the names of TV shows in there for fun...but that made it too confusing. Maybe some other time. For now: there are far, far more transients in Laguna Beach than Newport; it might be that there are not a lot in Laguna, and I am just not used to seeing any.

Empty

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In my sort of haunted house...

I used to own some really cool tapes. Surprisingly, the hardest thing to throw away was the remnants of a drip irrigation system.

We used to have, like 5 plants on the back patio. I was never very good at watering them, so I decided to install said drip irrigation system; you know, save water, give everyone a drip of water an hour and never think about it again; this must have been spring 2008. I never did get the thing to work very well; I could never find the middle ground between gushing water and completely off. After tinkering with it for several months, I gave up around the time our complex was renovated, and removed it.

Finding the box and a bunch of poorly coiled tubing in the garage this morning made me kind of sad. Maybe I'm just longing for the time when I used to have free time on my hands (to waste on things like installing a drip irrigation system). Never thought I'd live here forever, but I never thought time could pass by so quickly.

PS: Cassette tapes: I'll miss you too.

I am a pharmacist