Hello friends.
Since I’ve been so crap at returning emails and so much time has passed since I’ve talked to some of you and because I now feel a little overwhelmed at how much I have to catch up on, I thought that I’d send a quick group email with a “what’s up” in Paul and my lives. Consider it a holiday letter, only for Australia Day or Groundhog’s Day or something. The hope is that with this business out of the way, I’ll be much more motivated to respond more personally to the emails some of you have been so good at sending. Thanks for that.
So, on December 2nd Paul and I flew back from Peru to the States to catch up with my family and friends and cuddle my two new little babies, my adorable first nephew, Evan, and my gorgeous little Fairy Goddaughter, Kate. The first week back was great fun, but the second week I sort of fell apart emotionally and this lasted for several weeks. Heck, I’m still a bit of a basketcase, but I’ll get to that. Seriously, I think that I never really let the reality sink in about what moving to Australia truly meant--learning the ropes in a new city/country, having to say goodbyes, having to find a job, having to furnish/remodel a home, and not having any friends of my own. And it all sort of hit me at once. Hard. And I started flaking out on friends, holing up at my parents, and freaking out, and before I knew it, I was loaded up on a plane on my way to my new home. Gulp.
Our flight wasn’t too bad and we had planned a couple of days stop in Sydney to break up the trip, see the city, and visit an old friend of Paul’s. This was a good idea in theory, but not so great in practice. I was still freaking and now very tired, and on top of all this had to smile and try to be nice and normal when we were with Paul’s friend. So instead, I fell apart on the day we put aside to visit the beautiful sites of Sydney. I cried in front of the Opera House, on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in the Botanical Gardens and just about everywhere else we wandered around. I’ll have to revisit Sydney again when I’m not feeling sorry for myself and can appreciate the place.
We arrived in Perth on the 22nd of December and spent the first week or so sleeping on the floor of Paul’s brother’s house and doing lots of holiday family stuff and truly Australian things (sic) like going to baseball games and rodeos. And Paul’s family really is sweet, but holy cow, it was all just an overload. I even found myself getting annoyed with our eleven-year-old twin nieces who I really really adore.
Finally I put my foot down and insisted we start furniture shopping so we could get ourselves in our own place. Thank God there’s an IKEA here. It was the first place that I really felt at home and knew how things work thanks to my days working there in Seattle. I’ve been there five times already with another trip planned next week and it’s 45 minutes from our house. Retail therapy works! Needless to say, our house is starting to look like the dude’s in Fight Club. But it feels like a home at last.
And it’s kept us really busy all January--tearing up carpets and steaming off horrible wall paper, tearing out dead shrubs and learning to prune all the trees that have become incredibly overgrown in the five years Paul’s had tenants living here. And there’s so much work in front of us still (and now that Paul’s started working, most of it falls on me when I feel motivated to do it, that is).
But the real reason nothing much is getting done lately is because we have a new member of our family. His name is Nacho, he’s a Chihuahua, and when he’s not eating all sorts of stuff from the garden that makes him poo blood, he’s really really cute. I’ve already been scolded from the veterinary that he’s displaying some real dominance behaviours that I need to get on top of, but it’s so damn cute to see something that small think that he’s tough shit. I’ll attach a photo or two.
But this stay-at-home mum business is tough. I have a whole new respect for women who have kids and actually manage to stay at home with them without starting to hate them or going crazy. And with human babies you can’t even lock them in a laundry room like I can with my little man.
So let’s see what else . . . I don’t have any friends to speak of yet, though our next-door neighbors are really friendly and like to drink red wine even more than me. . . I don’t have a job yet (so get off my back, already). It turns out to do any real counseling I need to be recredentialed here and call myself a psychologist or something. It sounds a bit complicated and I just don’t have the motivation to tackle that process at the moment, but just yesterday I found two really good job prospects at local universities that I’m qualified for. So I’ll apply for those and cross my fingers real hard.
I think getting out of the house will help me meet people and do me heaps of good at helping me feel a little more competent. (I swear to God that I have never felt so stupid in my life. Learning to drive on the left side of the road was easy--it’s learning how to work out garden hoses, plug-ins, and bank deposit slips that has really got me stumped.)
I should wrap up. We’re headed off to the big Australia Day celebration with supposedly like the best fireworks in the whole world or something. But before I go, I just wanted to let you know how much I miss each of you. You’re getting this email because you are someone who I think of and miss on a near-daily basis, and if I hadn’t let you know before, I think you’re pretty special and feel real lucky to have you as a friend even if you’re a long, long way away at the moment.
Sending lots of love from down under. You have an open-invitation to visit anytime (just bring a paint brush).
And here's a photo of Nacho as a pup because he was the cutest puppy ever!
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