Five nights ago as Maggie and I laid in our car talking before sleep we realized that it was the one year anniversary of our graduation. One year! And what were we doing? We were in our car with the seats back, bundled up in sleeping bags, parked on the darkest cul-de-sac we could find, hoping no one would notice us spending the night there. We were even pulled up as close as we could get to a trailer in front of us, so as to be better hidden within its shadow. It was sure to be the utter opposite of what the University of North Carolina hopes for its bright young graduates. Vagabond girls sporting university sweatshirts and sweatpants (so as to advertise the fine education the preceded the current bout of homelessness,) clean because of stealthily snuck camp ground showers, trying to fall asleep unnoticed by the unsuspecting residents of Picton. But what they don’t know about the situation is that we could not be happier to be there. That we are there laughing and feeling grateful for the many opportunities people have given us. They don’t know that we saw 3 shooting starts within the first 10 minutes of lying there, before the stars disappeared beneath the fog of our breath on the glass. They don’t know that peanut butter and jelly is our favorite food, so eating it every day actually works out pretty well. They don’t know that I couldn’t imagine an alternative course that my life could have taken up until that moment, and that a bed is great, but in the end I’d wouldn’t choose to be anywhere else.

That was five nights ago. Four nights ago we slept in a tent in the middle of downtown Wellington. Tomorrow, Maggie has her first day of work as the new manager of a trendy little store on Cuba St. in downtown Wellington. I know, right?!!? After much self-mockery about how far a year has taken us (sneaky sleeping in our car), we set out on our Wellington job search. Little did we know where two days would take us. Maggie and I have long since learned that we only have to make a plan to have a plan-changing opportunity sneak up on us. Maggie applied for a sales position at this store, and next thing she knew she was the replacement for the manager who is leaving. She is even going to be buying the clothes for the store because they owners "don't have much of a fashion sense." It's incredible. It is just so ridiculous and exciting and amazing. They don't know that Maggie has $33 dollars in her bank account, which is not enough to buy her outfit from the store for the first day of work, but now she has a yearly salary. They don't know that this job means we finally get to fill up our car with gas, which we were waiting to do until we got jobs. She went from an unemployed car-sleeper whose dream job was a checkout girl at New World (grocery store: think Harris Teeter quality) to a big city manager with a career, a car, a house. Whoa. This was def not our decided plan, but it is bigger and better. Maggie will be able to get sponsorship, then residency, ultimately sealing her stay in New Zealand.

What does this mean for us, you might wonder? For us, the not-gay-together-maggie-and-robin couple? It means that really, the end of our New Zealand journey together has come to an end. It is very sad. We spent much of today mourning its loss, along with the loss of Maggie's youth and freedom. We got a few solid hours of crying over each other done today. I don't think we realized the sick depth of our co-dependency until separation became imminent. Since I still have to say my goodbyes to NZ (and Carolyn's and Gilly and Greg's) I still want to go to those places for my final time, even if Mags can't come along. I'm not entirely sure how long I'll stay in Wellington, but I'll just try to save up a little money. I will at the very least be here until Dad visits in early July. Living with Caroline and Eva is perfect. It seems like we have all known everything about each other forever and get weirdly dramatic about everything together. Girlfriends. Gurlfryndz.

Since I started this blog post Eva got home and said she got me a job today. See? You NEVER know what is going to happen! It is at Kapai (think Subway, but salads and healthier and better) where Eva has worked for a few months. It won't be full time, but it will hold me over for the moment. It is fantastic. Plus, one of the stores is in a food court, and some days we will get to work there together. Then, some day when we are career women we can laugh together over cocktails about the days when we worked at that subway for salads in a food court. I'm pumped.

You never, ever know.