short happy list

Here are three things that give me supreme joy!

• Walking down the path to my old place on Mount Victoria at night.

• Hanging up laundry at my new place in the morning.

• This afternoon.

My old room was in my friends Rob and Miriam’s home in Haitaitai, this gorgeous place that overlooked the bay. It was right on the side of the hill, and had these big windows so that the view from one entire side of the house was just mountain and clouds. The interior of the place had this ‘homemade airship’ aesthetic, all simple rope-based gadgetry and such and I loved it. To get to the house, you’d jump off the main road to this tiny footpath, that winded down the hill. Walking to the house after a late night was my absolute favorite thing. There was essentially no lights, you could just navigate by memory and moonlight trusting your feet when you reached each bend. Rob had installed these solar-powered footlights in different colors along the path, but it was random when they worked. Not in a bad way, just a good surprise. So I’d walk home through big fern trees in the quiet dark night, knowing there was a warm bed and sparkly water waiting for me, and suddenly 3 feet of my path would light up in a soft purple and fade away again and I just adored it.

We’ve moved to Newtown now, to our friend Mikey’s room in a flat on another hill (Wellington is all hills). Outside the front door, and up another little hill, is a homemade clotheline with big chunky wooden beams holding rows of taut nylon. To get to it you have to walk this crooked stone path, with moss and bright grass breaking through the stones, and the lines are above two garden beds all protected by mesh through the winter. When you’re up up there, you feel at the very top of the world, like nothing exists but this patch of tamed hillside, but then you turn your head and can see all of Newtown below you, and the single wind turbine on the hill opposite turning with its calming grace. And basically every time I hang up clothes, I feel like I’m in the end credits of a sweet anime, a sketched out chibi Zach enjoying a looping domestic moment.

This afternoon I am going to my friend Anthony’s house to play El Grande with him, Annika, and Rosie (not trying to brag, but two other friends of mine). Then after, Angelica and I will eat enchiladas that Angelica made and then go to a Space observatory to watch twin-powered dream pop. It’s just a good couple of sentences.

That’s all! I like the sweet home life, I think, and am happy to have it here. And now, you can enjoy some sweet dreampop of Womb too!

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