Ralph Waldo Emerson

The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Flavor of the Month

I’m such a dirty cad. Seriously, looking at the last few posts it was all this mushy, lovey dovey stuff about how Wellington is the coolest place ever—which, yes, it’s awesome, but I’m now…kinda…ready to move on. And it’s not Welly, it’s me. I just hope we can stay friends after this post.

Despite the cool things that are happening, I’m starting to get that familiar itchy feet feeling that tells me to pack it up and keep moving. Do you get it too? It begins gradually; I’ll go through my day and just feel discontent and unsettled. A couple more days will pass and it’s like nothing feels quite right, and then suddenly I realize: the itchy feet syndrome’s back. And the only remedy is to change something—my environs, what I'm doing, whatever, but until I do something nothing feels right. Hence the impending breakup of an otherwise healthy, flourishing relationship with Wellington. Insert sappy music.

Yet at the moment I can’t just throw my stuff in my bag and head off; I now have certain obligations here that I can't give up 1) because people are depending on me and I’d be a total @$$hole if I dropped the ball on them and 2) because Wellington is gonna be a pretty incredible place in the next month (to continue an already overextended metaphor: I’m now using Wellington).

So how to remedy the discontent in the meantime? By planning the next episode of my adventures and work my butt off to fund them! Yup, I’m giving into the man, forgoing the whole “work as it comes” motif and throwing myself at whatever bar will take me for the next month. In the last four weeks I’ve applied for about twenty to thirty really cool jobs, but, surprisingly enough, they want dependable people that are going to be around for a while. So with humility and only the slightest traces of desperation I’m forgoing the attempts at cool gigs like working at a gym, organic cafe or governmental agency and instead focusing on getting Mac’s Brew Bar to hire me: a place where there’s more travelers working than Kiwis and things like “overtime” and “benefits” are all pish-posh and humdrum. That’ll get me right through the month to when my parents come out and whisk Carly Ann and me off to explore the North Island—hurrah! Then they’ll take off, Carly Ann will return to Wellington and I’m thinking I’ll cruise about the Northland and Bay of Islands doing the Joe-average backpacker thing: surfing, hanging out in beach towns, perhaps picking up a filming gig if I can, fruit picking if must and then make my way down, once again, to the South Island for further exploration with a good buddy of mine.

And after that: Asia. I’m dying to go, particularly to Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. I’ll have a solid month and a half before needing to make my way state side, which I know isn’t a whole lot of time but enough to take a Thai kickboxing course, meet up with some NZ travelers who’re going there ahead of me, explore gorgeous places and fully appreciate the ridiculous exchange rate. Soooo….if you have any suggestions on places I really must see while there, lemme know.

Itchy feet thusly abated, I’ll do my best to live in the present moment and enjoy my last few weeks here in Wellington—and be sure to fill you in on the more worthwhile and blog-appropriate details.

No comments: