Wednesday, June 22, 2011

New Post in a New City

Hiya from Toronto!

We (Mike, Mr. Moseby Wiskers, and the U-Haul) arrived in Toronto late Saturday evening. After a 16 hour drive, for the second time in less than 2 months, we made it here in one piece. I started my new job on Monday. It is a pretty sweet job, but it is really specific, and not easy to explain. Basically I work for the secret service. Jokes! What I am actually doing is cool to me, but probably boring to everyone else!

Toronto on the other hand is super cool but I haven't had that much time to enjoy the city. Sunday was a sleep in day, and hanging out with my family, since we are staying at my Uncle's house until we find an apartment. We had a nice BBQ outside on Sunday evening and there wasn't even SMOG! The weather has been fantab!

Then on Monday I started working, and Monday night we went to view some apartments in North York (by Mike's school) with our Realtor, yes I said Realtor. In TO the real estate market is so crazy fast you need a Realtor to handle making the arrangements to view apartments and whatnot. It is also free or almost free for the renters, the landlord pays the fees.

Anyhoo, we didn't really see any nice ones Monday, so our Realtor convinced us that we should live downtown, because the apartments are so new, and there is so much to do, and the commute would be about the same for Mike and less for me! So last night we went and saw a billion units, and we made an offer on one of them! (More on that later).

It hasn't really hit me that we have moved to Toronto, but I don't think it really will. I think I am just going to get used to my new life here! I am super pumped to get an apartment, and get all settled. The past 2 months have been super chaotic and has involved a lot of packing and living out of suitcases. It will be nice to just get into normal life mode again!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Wrong Side of the Bed

Today I woke up and immediately felt grumpy. I have no idea why, but I am going to blame the weather. It is raining and dark and stormy. Gross. It is so weird how weather effects people's moods. On days like this I always just want to cuddle up and read a book or watch a movie. But I have to run errands this afternoon, then tutor, and then go to a Mary Kay thing (which should be fun, it is a fashion show where a local store is showing how to take 9 basic items and make a whole bunch of outfits with them..how this has to do with Mary Kay I am not sure).

I think to I am starting to get a wee bit stressed with all the loose ends I have to tie up before I leave. I sent a lot of e-mails in the past 2 days, so hopefully everything will get straightened out before I go! I really don't have that much to do, but when you wake up grumpy, everything seems like a BFD.

On a happier note, I put my schedule for next week into google calender (side bar..google everything rocks my world, just discovered google reader and now I am adding many blogs to it!). It is great to be able to have a schedule again! My typical day includes getting up at 6:30 (not too bad) and going to work, then going to the gym then coming home around 8:00. I am going to have to be organized to pack my lunch and snacks but I am super excited just to have some routine in my life!

Ok, time to get up on the right side of the bed, and try to stay happy today :D!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Moving, Packing, Listing

I threw out a pair of shoes today. A pair of flipflops to be exact. They literally fell apart. I also went through all my stuff on the weekend, and donated 2.5 garbage bags and threw out another 3. I also got to throw out some of my old notes for example my humanities requirement from 2nd year where I took History: Early Modern England...pretty sure I won`t need those some day soon. I figured since now I have actually got my degree I can probably throw out some of the "good memories."  I keep thinking that every bag I get rid of now is one that I don't have to A: Pack and B: Unpack when I get to Toronto.

Speaking of which, I have started making a list of fun things I can do once I move to TO. 
1. Going to Canada's Wonderland...like every day, I am seriously considering buying a season pass
2. Enjoying the Corso Italia Festival as it is my 2nd weekend in the City (and is around the block from my Uncle and Aunt's house, where I will be crashing until I find an apartment)
3. Finding an apartment and moving in, and buying things for the apartment! Yay IKEA and Homesense
4. Going up to my family's cottage (2hr North of TO) to enjoy the lake! 
5. Hanging out with Toronto Family and Friends
6. Exploring the city as a non-tourist.(Kensington Market is up on my list, I will need to replace the Halifax Market!)
7. Not tutoring. 
8. Enjoying my new job!
9. Blogging about new things
10. Cooking and exercising in a new city (see my other bloggity blog for all that business). 

At the same time I am trying not to be sad about leaving the East Coast. 90% of the time I am ready for this new adventure (BF and Cat in tow) and about 10% of the time it hits me that this isn't just a fun short term trip. It is for realz. 

Things I will miss about Halifax and the Maritimes
1. My Bathurst famjam and my Halifax famjam
2. My friends!
3. The kids I tutor
4. The Halifax nightlife, specifically trivia nights
5. The beach/salt air
6. Not being 40+ all summer
7. No 401
8. General east coast lifestyle (ie not rushing to catch a subway that comes every 2 mins)
9. Donairs, not that I eat them a lot, but they are delicious. Along the same line I am going to miss Alexandria's and Darrell's for noms as well. 
10. No smog

I am starting the trek in a week. In between now and then I have a bunch of people to hang out with, a trip to Moncton, 12 hours of tutoring, some family dinners, and packing. Time is going to fly by!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Good Smaritans

I have been wanting to write about this for a while now, but got distracted by life.

The other week I was at Starbucks on the corner of Spring Garden and Queen. A girl came running in and fled to the bathroom. I thought she seemed pretty frazzled. Then she came out in a panic and asked the cashier (barista?) if he had seen someone leave with a wallet and a cellphone from the bathroom. Being the keen overhearer as I am I pieced together that she had forgotten her wallet and cellphone in the bathroom about 3 minutes earlier and then left Starbucks. The cashier calmly looked at her and said "Oh someone turned them in, we have them in our safe." The girl then exclaimed to her boyfriend that she couldn't believe that someone returned them, and then she even checked her wallet and all the money was in there.

Obviously the girl wasn't from the Maritimes. I think for the most part Haligonians are pretty honest people. I think that if most people I know found a wallet and cellphone in a semi public bathroom they would try to return it. I read somewhere once that a study was done to prove which country and cities are the most honest. The study peeps placed 100 wallets per city and monitored how many were returned. Apparently my memory is super good because it was in a 2001 Reader's Digest article as I just googled. At the bottom of the page shows the Canadian cities. Moncton was the best (100%), with charlottetown in 2nd (80%). Halifax was lower than I expected (50%).

Regardless, I was touched at how happy this girl was that she found her wallet because of an act of kindness from a stranger.

Another act of kindness...
Later last week, the Mike was driving around my new car (ooo I got a new car!) he didn't realize the lights had to be turned on. We are both used to driving cars with automatic lights. A car started following us, and as we pulled over to let out one of our friends, the driver of the car stopped, came over to our car and warned us that the lights weren't on! Thank you stranger!