Oh, Really?

Julie says I should write a blog... So I'm writing.
Originally this was going to be the story of our adventures, and trials and tribulations of moving to New Zealand. Not so much a blog as just a history. However it's impossible to tell a story without characters, and a good story has plot and character development. One could document that development through actions, but I'm more a fan of the first person, so I'll go ahead and say I'll continue the trend of sharing my thoughts.
In the last two days I've successfully sold both Julie's and my cars. Anyone that knows us, knows we were pretty willing part with our cars. While both had served us well, they were never quite ours. We both received them as part of hand-me-downs. Julie loved her V6 and options, and I loved the subie's utility which helped facilitate my outdoors resurgence. However the line of emotion ended there. They were good, practical cars.
I was thinking about how practical we were. I have just a bit of materialism, and it seems it bites me most when it comes to automobiles. I started like cars at 14 and just got fascinated by them. I love shiny, loud, faster, good handling, you name it. Yet as both Julie and I have been succeeding at work I'd resisted buying myself a new car, as did she. I've noticed over the past few year of working with more of my peers that I drove one of the roughest and oldest car. Most drove something at least made in the 00's and many bought their car new sometime after college. My friends and even most my family seem to have all upgraded in the last few years. I'd be lieing if I claimed I was never jealous. I've always wondered if I was being too miserly or others were too reckless with their spending. I've come to peace with defining it as a sense of priorities. It'd be unfair to judge others solely one purchase, and my small level of skill with a wrench has allowed me a bit more 'freedom' in my choice of automobiles. So they prioritized peace of mind and a bit of flash. I've prioritized this crazy adventure that starts in only 2 days.
Now both of our cars are sold, both to girls getting their first cars. It's kinda cool and funny in it's own way. I guess it's not too surprising it's not for people our own age. It seems like our cars don't fit 20-30 somethings. Both girls seem very driven and practical. I hope they have their own adventures too.
But enough waxing philosophical about cars.
We fly out in roughly 50 hours, and by and large we're ready. I'm relaxed in someways but I'm still get fits of nerves. The current situation of sold cars and a job for Julie was exactly the plan from the get go. It took some work on both of our parts, but 18 months after we first started talking about it, we're here.

I'm Done

So today was my last day. Scary, but relaxing. Julie is right that we've planned this so much it'll probably be almost boring... almost.
I was suddenly reminded of when I quit Les Schwab. I'd worked there between college & high school and again my Junior & senior years at UW. When I went to leave in Sept 2004 I was 3 months out of school and not having much luck in the job search. Working 50 hours a week busting tires wasn't faciliatating a good effort though. Ultimately I picked up some money doing some political work and ended up at B. At B I moved twice and manged to handily beat inflation/cost of living. B allowed me to learn lots and do things I've always wanted. I wouldn't be an instructor, have gone to whistler/tahoe or proabably started climbing again with out the income, and the boredom. It challenged me mentally and emotionally at times. But it's never been 100% what I needed to be happy, or rounded. The last years have been good and very comfortable. But I've been craving a different meaning to my life. Paychecks and having the yuppie staples are nice. But that's never been who I am. I always be a little punk, a little WT and a little too hyper.
So now here I am. Unemployed, with no near term prospects. I've been here before. I'm starting to grasp it'll all work out in the end

Anniversary Day

I've joked around with Bryce that our impetuous little NZ adventure is so well planned out that it might turn out to be pretty boring. Pretty much everything's in order-- we have every day until our departure planned out. A big surprise came when we found out that my sister and her new husband will be coming from Australia to visit a few weeks before we leave-- luckily we are able to fit them in too :-) The plan is for all of us to go on a Mt. Rainier hike the day before our plane takes off. Hopefully it'll be nice and warm so we get our fill of summer before we plunge back into winter.

One major bump in the road though is the vehicles-- we haven't had one person contact us about the car or the motorcycle. We'll lower the price a bit but there's only so low we'll go for vehicles that work great-- especially if we may be coming back in 7 or so months.

I'm enjoying my last day of work and our 1st anniversary today-- puttering around and making the best chocolate chip cookies EVER. Later tonight Bryce and I will celebrate by walking to Cafe Juanita near our apartments.

Afraid?

The whole New Zealand thing is definately already opening my eyes and we've still got 4.5 weeks.
I actually had someone come out and say they'd be afraid to do it. I've had older people try to talk me out of it, older say go for it, say they're jealous, young say their jealous, and recently I've noticed a couple my age say 'they couldn't do it' and finally one gal came out and admitted she'd be too afraid.
Fear is a funny thing. It's seldom truly rational or we'd never get in cars.

People throw around adrenaline junky, but I think too calously. Most people I know that participate in 'risky' behaviors take tons of steps to reduce risks. Meanwhile we all drive our cars distracted or tired. Climbers spend hours practicing knots and anchor placements that minimize risks, scuba divers triple check their systems, sky divers will patiently arange their chutes.
I think a lot of people that participate either due so to conquer fear, or really just love the activity for the experience. I'm somewhere in between myself. I find I don't like fear or an adrenaline boost. I definately like conquering my fear mostly before I even take a step outdoors.
But that last little bit remains....
I feel like as scramble solo, as take that first hand-hold up the mountain, that first step off the cliff as you rappel, as I eye-ball each speed check going into a snowboard jump, or as I enter the point of no escape on a snowboarding line I've never taken.

To me it's about eliminating the foolish risk, taking all the precautions, thinking out every possible outcome, weighing the good and the bad... and then you've got to jump.

One can't stand on the edge forever. Backing away is embarassing, not even if no-one knows. It's the internal pride.
I wouldn't say I leap for just anything, until yI know how hard I can fall. But I try not to exaggerate the fall in my mind. As we tend to mature and gain experience we take less risk.
Hell we've already outlived our foolish years. Now we can make informed decisions, but too many of us confuse the being informed with being trapped.
Thank goodness my wife is brave enough to do this and encourage me to jump with her. I've always known we were like minded, but I'm realizing how much I can learn as we each push each other.
It's good to be afraid, it means your alive and your aware of risks. But I won't let fear define a life of boredom for me. I'm not afraid of sitting still, one day, but for now I won't be afraid of enjoying the adventure.

If New Zealand means 1 less nice car in my life or one less bedroom on my house... good.

It's beginning to look a lot like... well winter.

Call us crazy, well specifically me.
I love spring, the warmth, the longer days. I've got a four day weekend starting.
Riding the bike(motor), hiking, sitting in sun, drinking in the sun, sleeping... in the sun.
But I noticed a feeling about 2 months ago.
Stronger than ever I felt it.
Nostalgia? Sadness?
I'd walk into a "post ski season sale" and feel.... well in a word, mopey.
I'm always torn as the days get longer and the tempartures wamer, sure I can run/hike/hike/camp/climb more. But what about the snowboarding. Honestly the longer days of April make me feel like post work skiing more than ever and that's when most resorts shut down.
Alas. the restless souls that make up the royal "we" have decided to move to the Southern Hemisphere. I didn't even have to develop this evil genius plan.
"Genius Plan" you ask...
It's May.. um 21st....
The average NW resort has dwindled to a 20-30" base and a 50-80" summit. I've earned my turns at paradise and again soon at hood.
But what does my wistful eyes see when researching NZ season passes. 80cm base (30" for you yanks) and a record early open.
To which I can only respond %)#)$ WHY CAN'T WE LEAVE SOONER?!?
My little understanding of things says things happen for a reason.

So America, see you later.
New Zealand, see you soon, alas not soon enough.Oh, and welcome to the 70 day "season" of snowboarding.

Getting ready to travel

Julie has her Leave of Absence secured
Bryce has gotten his manager to agree to a ~6 month LOA and agree to ask for more if I request it.
We've got our travel gadgetry:
Super cool lap-top with good wireless and a built in web cam
get Skype, we used it tonight to talk/ video-chat with Denise in Saudi and it's super cool! It'll be the most common tool we'll use to reach you.
Unlocked Quad band phone that will take sim cards from anywhere else in the world(except Japan because the don't use GSM, sim card, technology). This will facilitate some phone conversations though we'll probably try to focus on using skype.
Tickets look like they're even cheaper now than they've been. That and our short-term savings looks like it could sustain us for a while even if the job market doesn't pan out.
I'm freaking amped...

Snowboarding, continued

Sunday, Stevens' Forecast: Rain
Well thank goodness for inaccurate forecasts!
I've never had a stellar day at Steven's. Bad timing I guess. This time we had a triple certed(Skiing, Telemark, Snowboarding) level 3 instructor at his home mountain.
Needless to say it was fun. We had to kill 20 minutes to get our lift ticket coupons so we practice on some pvc pipe for freestyle. 50/50s and a couple mediocre FrontSide board-slides.
Third day out of four I ended up in a natural half pipe created by a deep cut creek bed. That right there made the 10$ lift ticket worth it. Then we dropped another run with warning for cliffs through the trees(jeez this weekend was fun and tough!). More chutes/ double diamonds. Some food after 3 hours of leg burning laps on some of the best/hardest terrain at Stevens. Time for some freestyle.
Got our park passes and hit it. Rusty at the pipe. But hit the mid-sized hits cleanly with just straight air. BS 180s off random hips. Need to work on bringing the A tricks to the bigger terrain.
Got some credit on my riding again for fellow instructors. It's nice to here from peers or people I consider better some props. It's been a lot of work over the last 3 years to unlearn and relearn snowboarding on challenging terrain.
Got some good pointers too.
Over all this week I rode thousands of vert, lots of diamonds and double diamonds(WA double) at three major resorts. Did some huge drops, free style, 3 different natural pipes, three different tree routes. It felt great to slay to three resorts in Washington. Some great narrow lines including the middle stretch of Chute.
One of my best weekends or riding, in terms of fun and in terms of quality of my skills. Rode a ton of terrain.
Now time to bring it for the exam.