We've now been here for one month. Well, except for the time we spent over Christmas, but let's not be picky, ok? It definitely doesn't feel like we've been here a month (again, let's ignore that time away, ok...I mean, really, stop fixating while I'm making a point). I suppose I don't have a lot of ways to mark time at the moment. I don't have to keep an eye on my calendar. I don't have important dates or times to remember. There isn't anywhere I'm expected to be on any given day now, which is an entirely new and, sometimes, overwhelming concept.
I'm pretty sure that part of the reason why I haven't felt time move along is that I've been fortunate enough to maintain contact with my family and friends through all manner of Internet-enabled communication. My parents and I have been using FaceTime, but also WhatsApp which has allowed us to carry on much like we did when I lived in Canada. I love that we can text each other and respond in our own time. It's free, so you're never second-guessing the cost of sending a text about the weather or something funny or inane. My dad has also been really good about sending photos along of the pets we had to leave behind with them and that's made a huge diffence too....though I do wish I could hug their little furry bodies close and talk gibberish to them (James doesn't respond in quite the same pleased manner when I do that to him...).
28 November 2011
We had a party....the pets are gone
22 November 2011
The home stretch
5 September 2011
100 days, 100 nights
Tomorrow my countdown lurches (much like my stomach), into the double digits. It's alarming how short 100 days actually is when you stop to think.
My stress and concern for Penny has been assuaged. The trip to my parents' house went well enough. Tigg barely noted Penny and there was no bloodshed. I'm going to call that a success. What's more is that Penny loves the house. She's already commandeered spots that are now hers and there's so much carpet. At one point she was dragging herself across the living room purely by claw across the carpet. She was in compete broadloom heaven. That's one little stressor out of the way....now to confront the dozens more waiting in the wings.
It was actually alarming how my mood changed the second we returned to Ottawa. The stress and overwhelming feelings hit me and I was thrown right into the sort of mood where no one wins. I had no idea being in Ottawa and dealing with all of this was destroying me as a person in little ways. To remedy this, I think my only hope is to do as much as possible, as quickly as possible. That can't possibly go poorly, right? *eye roll*
The majority of our weekend was spent with my family helping them plan their European adventure. It was a lot of fun to get caught up in someone else's plans and forget my own. I'll be meeting up with the group of them about mid-trip in Chaziuex, France, where we'll also be spending Christmas this year. I'm looking forward to it all and will likely let that consume me for some time during the bleak English winter.
Chazieux, France
Our packing efforts got off to, what I thought at the time was, a good start. I've since realised one lonely box of yard sale-worthy books does not cut the mustard and a redoubling of efforts is called for on both our parts. I should probably be packing, not blogging right now...
31 August 2011
Bumps in the road
Ok, I've been going back and forth about writing this and have finally decided that this blog is intended to write about our move....and this greatly affects the move. I cant very well continue discussing various aspects of this major change in our life without first addressing this, so I should write. We've had a bit of a bumpy road this past few days with some news we weren't expecting. No, I'm not pregnant...gross.
James' sister is not going to be moving into our house as we had previously arranged. I was panic-stricken at hearing this, though have since channeled my panic into a "get it done now" mentality. Obviously, this requires some context: we own a home in a beautiful part of Ottawa that is hard to get into and therefore we do not want to sell. We were so lucky to get in when we did and the particular factors that made it possible won't come up again. There is also the matter of the entire contents of said home, a perky little Mazda 3 and our cat Penny (yes, Penny Lane....James loves the Beatles in a manner which I can only compare to a bingo lady and her troll dolls). So, we have gone from the comfort of knowing we had to do very minimal packing and no rearranging of the house/car/cat scenario to an entirely diametrically opposed scenario wherein we are emptying the house, selling the car and sending the cat away with the dog.
I know, right? And the app on my iPad indicates that all this must happen in the next 104 days because that's how long it is until we move.
So here's where we stand: this weekend we are going to take the cat and the dog to my parents' house. No, we're not leaving them there yet, but we need to drive the four hours to Oshawa to put our Penny face to face with my Tigger and see how much blood is shed. Tigger is my cat, who lives with my parents and is, from experience, the meanest and toughest cat I've ever met. He adores me and my father and really does detest everyone else. You can only imagine how thrilled I am that we get to send our poor, lazy Penny to the Dove Killer (literally - our neighbourhood dove population rises and falls with his moods....though, I hear he has moved on to bunnies this summer). Here's hoping that by the end of the weekend they're friends because I really can't handle the stress of having Penny live with anyone other than my family at this point.
Then there's the house. Let's just say my little T.S.P. strategy is going to have to become far more aggressive. Americans-at-Black-Friday-door-crasher-sales aggressive. Part of going to visit my folks this weekend is being there to help my mother sort our her basement and spare spaces so that she can make room for our entire house full of stuff. Raw deal for my mom, non? After we have some space cleared, it's a matter of taking everything, packing it away and moving it all to Oshawa.
Good times.
And then, of course, there's the car. Well-maintained, reliable and still in remarkable shape. It's being sold. We don't see the point in parking it for two years and since James' sister won't be needing it (our entire motivation for keeping it with the house), it goes. I'm less shattered about this - I don't even drive. It's just one of those newly added items on our to-do list that I wasn't expecting.
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, I suppose. We're still going and this is just something we have to deal with to make that happen. Besides, how nice will it be to completely pare down our life? In two years when we open those boxes and unpack what we deemed worthy to keep, we're going to have a house limited in clutter.
My biggest anxiety through all of this is the fact that we have to rent our house. I've never rented a property before and, while I know we are hiring a property management firm, I'm still horrified by what prospective tenants could do to the space I have spent three careful years crafting. I'm mentally (and physically) kissing my damask wallpaper goodbye. I can't see what surviving two years of renters and acknowledge that it will not be here when we return. That's the hardest part. Not knowing what will change and what will be worse off through this ordeal.
If I were 30 years older, I'd have adopted my family's newest slogan, "it is what it is" and have said that a thousand times in the last 48 hours. Sigh. It may be, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.