This and That

What with one thing and another things are happening around here. My list of Blogs to follow is growing at an almost alarming rate. Keeping up is getting a little rough and yet whenever I think I'm going to go through the list and cull I just can't do it.

I'll be honest, I don't religiously follow all of the blogs on my list, I'm loyal to about a dozen or so and I drop into the others on a semi regular basis. They all have something to offer be it a laugh out loud comment or a heart rending description of a perfect moment. I try not to be a lurker, but in the case of some of the more popular Blogs I notice that I'm a little more shy and less likely to comment.

It's funny how personality traits tend to cross over into the digital realm. I'm painfully shy in person. I don't know where the shyness comes from but I'm sure that my emotional state of mind has a heavy hand in it, I tend to stand back in social situations, I become unable to gauge how to act, and interact in groups of people I do not know well so parties are painful for me and the first year or so in a new school was always uncomfortable for me growing up. Moving anywhere is a sure way to get me to crawl back into my shell. I'm reading Sense and Sensibility right now and one of the characters makes a comment about how shyness is an indicator of self worth (at least I think that's where I read it) and I have to say that it makes sense.

It's the same for me in any sort of web based community. I tend to do more lurking than interacting at first. I'm working on that though. The hurdle of stepping forward is a little less daunting when it's in the virtual as opposed to the day to day. And watching how my daughter easily welcomes new people into her life each day is a pretty good example to follow. So I'm putting myself out there.

And so we come to the part of the post where I tell you what's been happening around here .

Last Friday was Etsy Day, I revisited some of my favourite artists and then went on to read some of the posts about Etsy Day that were on my dashboard. One of these posts had a contest in honour of the big media blitz. This particular blog; Stacey Winters is full of the most glowing photographic entries. My hands itch to pick up the camera and go out and shoot when I visit and I covet the quality of light she manages to capture. the prize for her Etsy Day draw was a package of goodies from her shop and I was one of the winners.

I'm so excited to have won and I can't wait to see what's in my package. I'll be posting pictures here when it gets here.

I've been toying with the idea of doing a give-away myself. I've held off on the idea (see reasons above) and think it's time to give a little too. I'll keep you updated on how things are progressing on the giveaway front.

It's funny

how traveling around your neighborhood on foot changes your perspective of the place. While driving I find I yearn to be able to see buildings, certain yards, parks, shops. they pass by so quickly that hints and questions linger and the neighborhood remains unknown.

I travel a lot on foot. running errands, shopping, going to parks and playgrounds and the library. There is time on foot to take in the surroundings. Time to notice the first green buds which will turn soon into crisp green leaves. Time to notice community eccentricities; like the strange penchant this new neighborhood of mine has for poured cement garden statuary and water features. Time to notice the sky and how the horizon lies above the maze of houses. Time to notice that the shops that intrigue you as you speed passed in a car are either more interesting, or more grungy than you would have thought. Time to notice the other places that don't stand out.

I'm finding myself at home here. Bit by bit I'm settling in and taking ownership of my community, if only to know that two doors farther on there is a stone garden featuring a forest green cement turtle and a sky blue cement heron.

It's been two weeks

since the fire and a little over one week since we moved into our new place. The new surroundings are helping with the anxiety plus it's a whole different way of existing for us.

Gone are the days of the ten minute run to get a few groceries, or nipping around the corner to pick up a quick curry, greek, sushi, burger, pizza for dinner. I am now the wife who calls the husband at work to remind him to pick up some milk on the way home. I am in the burbs and I'm still not 100% sure where everything is.

I'm happy in the new place though. We have a yard and I was able to quickly run inside and get a dry pair of mitts for the snow sculptress, and again to bring out a carrot and two small pebbles from our fountain for the snow man, and one more time to get the camera to take a few pictures.

Snow? you ask. Yup, we had snow yesterday and through the night. It's almost gone now but Miranda was pleased to head outside for a few hours and repeat her favourite Charlie & Lola line: Snow is my favourite and my best!

Miranda is happy too. She likes to go into her room and close the door and she likes the pink tub and to look out the window in the living room. She also likes to watch the laundry go around and around in the front loading washer that came with the place too.

We're still settling and unpacking. I'm hoping that it'll all be completely back to normal before long. In the meantime I'm hoping to get back to more regular postings again. Watch this space for returning features soon

what can I say?

what a crazy few weeks. packing, fire, cleaning, moving, insurance dealings, unpacking, cleaning... it's still going on. I don't think I have to say that this is not the way I wanted to leave our old apartment. I had envisioned a teary leave taking of the first place my daughter called home. Instead it's all in a haze of panic and shock with a little disorientation thrown in for good measure.

So we've been living in a state of constant clothes laundering for the last week and we hadn't even begun to make a dent in the big green garbage bag collection. The insurance adjuster advised us to take it to a cleaning service so 6 bags went to a little place in our old neighborhood and one bag went to a dry cleaner's. Unfortunately the bulk of my clothes are in those bags and I have a ladies night out with some art school friends tonight. I guess my hopes of looking somewhat put together are dashed against the rocky post fire shores. I had also planned on having my hair cut and nails done but that, as they say was laughable. Perhaps in the next week or so. A full body massage would be nice too.....

So I'm a bit of a geek

I may have mentioned my love for Depeche Mode in a post not too long ago. I'm so very very psyched and excited about the new album they have coming out in a few months. Now I don't consider myself their biggest fan, nor do I really consider myself a rabid fan of the group. I love love love the music, I think Martin Gore is a genius.

While packing up my daughters stuffed animals and toys this morning/afternoon I watched/listened to Germany's Echo awards show from start to almost finish in order to watch the world premier of their new single, Wrong.

The only things that keeps the peace these days

are painting and ddd's (DVD's) from the library. While we've tried discussing the move with the peanut she's less than enthusiastic about conversing. Her preferred tactic is to change the subject to what Kipper ze dog has been doing on automatic replay for the last week. So we know she's a little disconcerted about things disappearing into boxes and strange people walking into the apartment at random times but there's no reasoning with a two year old.

As I said Kipper is on auto-replay and the paints and art supplies have been left out to pacify our little Mussolini.


I think it's a little unfair that as a 36 year old, I must refrain from temper tantrums and meltdowns and pack instead.

I've always thought of myself as a little isolationist. I don't make friends easily, in fact the friends I do make usually make the first move to introduce themselves. And as one of my dear mommy friends pointed out the other day, I tend to make friends so that I don't have to make others. My circle stays pretty small that way. It's amazing how roots seem to set themselves down when you aren't looking.


I'm being transplanted and my roots are cringing at the thought of getting used to new soil. I'm going to miss the mountain, the ocean and my neighborhood. I'm going to miss running into friends on the street and all the pars and playgrounds we frequent. And while I know I'll have some of these things at the new place and will be close enough to come back to see the rest any time I want to, I want to whine about it and moan and basically be a big baby about it.

In case I haven't mentioned it

but of course I have. We're moving to a new place. That means packing packing and more packing. It also means that I'll be putting some of my blogging on hold until things are settled. 5 questions and a card a week are going to be affected by the move, but they'll return and with a vengeance once we're settled in the new place.

I'll try to pop in with a post from time to time during the next few weeks. If nothing else the odd post will help me keep my sanity.

purge

So we moved into the place we are in right now, almost a year ago. This time last year I was doing the same thing I'm doing right now, packing packing and packing.

Even with starting over a month in advance we still had things being tossed into boxes at the last minute. Once I had to unpack them, I had no idea what to do with the stuff that had been left over at the end of last years packing. I just wanted to toss the bulk of the flotsam into the recycling, nearest Sally Ann or the trash. all that stuff were the bits and pieces from the junk pile that inevitably piles up on the one counter in the kitchen, stacks of random little things that I didn't want to throw away but really didn't want to keep.

I'm a pack rat. I hoard little things because I might want to use them or I might need them sometime; and then I go through a purge stage where I get rid of things and there's always one thing that I find myself looking for a few months later because I have a use for it but it's gone and the whole hoarding thing becomes justified because of that one little thing I could have used but threw out,recycled or gave away.

This time around I'm going through and finding homes for the flotsam and jetsam that sneak into the usual places and if it's not in a home when I start packing, It's going. That's what I'm telling myself any way.

So we're packing

and The shelves are down, the books are all gone into big boxes that we've been assured are the right size for boxes but there is no way that We'll be carrying that sucker down the stairs (thank what ever gods for movers) and I have a large Dishpack box open in the living/dining room area that is mocking me. I've got so much more to do and I'm contemplating putting everything else on hold until we're in the new place.

On top of it all our Peanut Butter is not feeling well. We had fevers last week and gobs and gobs of thick yellowish mucous flowing out of her nose. The combination of a head cold and a bunch of strange people traipsing in and out of our home to give us estimates on moving or to show the space to rent it out leaves us with one very out of sorts little girl. And by out of sorts I mean tantrums and night wakings and the new mantra of "I'm crying again" repeated over and over as I try to keep my cool.

Moving

A few months ago we received the yearly notice of rent increase from the building manager and we decided that what with one thing (really expensive rent) and another (noisy neighborhood) we'd look for a new place.


On the one hand I love our neighborhood, we are within walking distance from groceries (not so much a full grocery store) now because of the roof collapsing at our preferred grocery store, but we still have a fish monger around the corner and a produce mart as well. There's a London Drugs within a block, book store, post office, community centres, play grounds, parks and a brand spanking new library all within a 20 block radius. Our apartment has a nice layout with loads of light and enough room that I can have a small area just for my studio (it's small, about the size of a table but it's mine) My daughter has her own room, and there's a window in the dining room. I like this place. Our Daughter came home to this building, she took her first steps, stood up, said her first word (tickle tickle) and had her first potty accident on the floor here. I'll be sad to pack up and leave.

On the other hand my husband has a nasty commute to and from work most days, the rent is high and the people below us have complained about our daughter's waking up at 6AM. We found a new place closer to my husbands work, and is not only in a house but is the top floor of a house. We'll share the house with the current down stairs tenant and with the exception of a dishwasher it has everything we like about this apartment. Hard wood floors, lots of light, the same amount of space. The only thing missing will be the friends that I've made since Miranda came along and shops and community centres within walking distance.


But, there's a yard....