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