Yay for Earthquakes!

Until yesterday, I had nothing new to report, but now I've got some biggies:

1. FIRST EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!
I've been in many earthquakes, but for reasons unknowns, I'm always asleep when they happen. I'm usually napping. I slept through the big SF quake when I was a toddler, slept through the quake felt in Davis my sophomore year, and slept through a quake in wellington in the middle of the night in November 2006. I have a feeling I might be forgetting other quakes, but I guarantee you, I was asleep for those too.

Yesterday afternoon I felt the house rumbling and thought the wind was messing with pressure over a doorway or something. Then the second rumble hit (S-wave) and I remembered what Bekah told me about the LA mag 5.4 EQ she felt at Disneyland and thought "heh, wonder if this is an earthquake, but with my luck I'm sure it's not," then forgot about it until last night. I mentioned the rumble to Colin's dad who went online (dial-up, yuck) and confirmed I had felt a 5.8 centered just south of Lake Taupo (like 250 kms away!) at 80 kms depth! Woohoooooooooooo! Yay for proximity to subduction zones!!!!!!!!

2. Think I got me that job! Don the future boss just called to tell me I could start at 10 AM tomorrow. I'm working at a shop in the mall called Dwight's Great Outdoors. They have 3 shops in the Wellington region. I'm glad the job is in the mall because I can go grocery shopping whenever I like now (Woolworths is in the mall), the organic store is right across the street, Colin can meet me after 9 PM closing on Fridays to go to the movies (also in the mall), and I'm a straight shot down the busline. Yippie! And now I'll have the money to pay for car insurance, petrol, and road user fees, so I can finally buy a car!!! Well, as soon as my money wire comes through (Mom is sending me the contents of my Golden 1 bank account tomorrow). Everything is starting to come together now. Finally. I've been bored out of my mind!

3. Colin got a REAL job!!! He's going to be a research assistant for public health research at Massey University, Wellington campus. He'll be making twice as much as me, and hopefully we'll be able to afford to get our own flat on top of saving for the grad school trips to Sydney and all over the states. :)

4. Shiel (Colin's mom) tried to teach me how to drive a car with a manual transmission the other day. She was great, but I was terrified! My braking instinct was all thrown off and the car would lurch forward to start and scare the crap out of me. So, I scheduled a driving lesson today, and this eccentric driving lady is going to meet me at the community notice board (at the bottom of the drive) in a few hours time. I hope this works. I only have about $3K to spend on a car, and in the low price bracket over here, it's much better to get a manual. Wish me luck.