i'm not pregnant or getting married...but....

...i have an announcement to make to the world. i'm moving to Orillia. oh my!! it's pretty strange to say that with such finality. i've known for about a week and a half that it was POSSIBLE that chris would get a job in Orillia, and that this would lead to some changes re: where to live. yesterday the possibility became a definite. chris was offered the job (yay!) at the Orillia campus of Lakehead University, and he accepted. some might think this decision has come out of the blue, but the truth is that we have been talking a lot in recent months about our common desire to leave Toronto, to live in a smaller community, preferrably with lots of land around it so that i can learn how to grow things and eventually we might be able to eat what i grow (unlike most of the produce that comes out of our current patio garden, as pictured below).



the bonus about Orillia is that there not only a lots of land, there's a lot of water too.



it's a perfect spot to be for outdoor fun - hiking, water activities, rollerblading (there's a paved trail through town), etc etc. also a perfect spot to be if i decide i want to open a veg restaurant instead of being a social worker :) -- there are no veg restaurants in town, as far as i can tell. luckily, it's only 1.5 hour drive to Toronto, and a 2 hour drive to my parents in one direction, and to Chris' parents in the other direction.

also, i've ensured that a) there are possibilities for me to do a work placement for my masters degree in either Barrie or Orillia and that b) there are some possible job opportunities for me once i'm done school this year. no guarantees, but there are definitely some possibilities.

as for timing, we are still ironing out the details, but i will likely stay in toronto until december, and then move up to join Chris in Orillia during the break between fall & winter terms.

so all in all, i'm excited....but i'm also freaked out, nervous, and a bit overwhelmed with the thought of packing up and leaving the city I've called home for 8 years.

Some quotes about change that will hopefully help me through the next few months:

Nothing endures but change.
Heraclitus

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.
Harrison Ford

Change is the process by which the future invades our lives.
Alvin Toffler

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
Anatole France

under the weather

I'm sick. I woke up on Sunday morning with a sore throat and a general feeling of lethargy. By late afternoon it was a full-fledged head cold. The timing of this was not great, as I had 3 "first" classes to attend on Monday and Tuesday (my 4th class met for the first time before I got sick). I'm sure I've made a great impression on my profs and fellow students. At Monday night's class I wasn't very smart, in that I didn't have any Kleenex with me, so I grabbed a strip of toilet paper from the women's washroom and used that to dab at my nose all night. Of course, I was sitting right beside the prof (not planned, she came in last and the room was set up with 4 tables in a square...I just happened to be at the corner where she chose to sit too). And of course, my nose was dripping and clogging up way more than that weak little strip of no-name TP was designed for. It wasn't pretty. But, I didn't get accepted to grad school for naught...I learned my lesson, and for my two Tuesday morning classes I carried around my own personal (and large) box of Kleenex. And a little garbage bag too. Didn't want to leave my germs on someone else's future seat or writing surface! It was still a pretty sad situation, but whilst back at home, I managed to entertain myself by:
a) becoming addicted to Facebook Scrabble, and,
b) watching season 3 of The Office. The whole season. In 3 days. Wow.

By Wednesday I was starting to become more cough-y and less stuff-y. Miraculously, I slept like a baby on Wednesday night (had been waking up a lot every night from inability to breathe through stupid clogged up nose). Woke up this morning, but as I am alone here for the week (Chris is up north) and I have no classes today, I didn't speak to anyone all morning. I finally made a phone call around lunchtime and upon leaving a message, realized that I sound like a 12 year old boy on the verge of puberty (if I'm lucky that's what I sound like). So I've spent the day croaking to a few people on the phone and at Shoppers Drug Mart and at the post office. And now I'm off to bed. Wonder what I'll sound like tomorrow?