Monday 27 April 2015

Moving House: Resolutions and Thoughts


Hi all! As some might know, since I've mentioned it in a few previous blog posts, I'm moving soon. I don't even just mean moving to a new apartment in the same city, I mean moving big. Moving to the other side of the country.

This apartment, the one I'm currently living in, has been my first home away from home. My boyfriend is in the military and he moves around a lot because of it; when we first decided to move in together, I lived in Ottawa and he was closer to Toronto. That means that my first home away from home was a six hour drive out. To me that's huge. I had never moved around when I was growing up, I'd only ever lived in one house and I lived in that one house my whole life. That's where I took my first steps, that's where I brought home my first stray and asked to keep it, and that's where all my memories reside. A lot of people move around at least once or twice before they set out on their own, but I never did.

I've grown so much in the time that I left my home town to come here and start a new life with my man, and it sounds cheesy but it's true. When you live in one place for a really long time, you never really get to learn what it means to "pack up" or "bring only what you need." I always had major anxiety over that kind of thing-- what do you mean bring only what I need? Everything I need is right here, it has been for 20 years!

Before I moved out, I knew I really did have to bring only what I needed. Because, as I mentioned, my boyfriend is in the military, we both knew he would be posted out somewhere new by the spring time (now), and as such we opted to live in a place that was already furnished to make the move easier as we'd only be living there for six months. I couldn't bring any of my furniture, and the apartment had very limited storage space. In other words, I brought about a fifth of my wardrobe and still didn't have enough room to put it all (I wonder if that says more about me than anything...)

So now, he were are. Six months down the road, and I'll be out of this apartment by the end of May. As much as I've loved living in a new place and seeing different faces every day, there are quite a lot of things I'm looking forward to leaving behind, and I have a few resolutions going forward that I'd like to share.

I'm looking forward to...


1. Sunlight.
I feel like people take sunlight for granted (including myself before I moved). I was such a vampire in my old house; sunlight? Hiss. Now I live in a basement apartment, and although I have a few windows, I just don't have enough. I'm someone, so I've learned, that thrives in and from the sunlight, and not having it around has been, excuse my language, hell.

When the spring hit, I went crazy. I bought flowers, and plants, and new (more sheer) curtains for my living room in hopes of bringing some life back into my otherwise gloomy space. My tulips died from lack of vitamin D, and my house plant started turning yellow. The tulips were unsalvageable but I managed to save my house plant. How? That's a good question. It's sitting by my front door, in the upstairs nook where one of the only windows in my apartment is. I never get to see it, but I'm putting its needs above my own desire to have something green and beautiful to look at. I'm extremely excited to move into a place with windows, where my plant can proudly sit in a place where he will be admired, watered daily, and still see sunlight.

2. Starting fresh.
It's really rare that people truly get to start fresh in life. I'm not talking about throwing away my old self and becoming this new fabulous me; I'm really just talking about starting fresh with a new place and new furniture. Like I said, I moved into an already-furnished apartment to make the impending move easier, and for months it hasn't truly felt like home.

I honestly did everything in my power to turn my space into something a little more liveable, a little more me, but it's really hard when you know you'll just have to put it all back before you leave anyway. Feeling like you're living in someone else's home is a very awkward feeling to have for a long period of time. Thus, I am extremely excited to leave it all behind and start fresh in a new place. I have, quite literally, the cleanest slate one could ever imagine. I have no furniture, no dishes, no appliances, nothing really, save for maybe a desk from my old bedroom and my boyfriend's giant TV.

In the coming months, I will have the privilege of buying all new furniture and building a space, a home to call my own, from scratch.

3. A new job.
This one hurts me to write a little bit, because although I'm looking forward to having new work experiences somewhere different, I really do love my job and it's hard for me to leave. It's even harder going to work lately knowing I'll be putting in my two weeks notice soon.

When I left Ottawa, I left the best job I could have ever asked for at the time. I was a makeup artist in a beauty department at one of the largest stores in its chain. I worked there for such a long time, and deciding to leave and move far away was a big decision for me, but it was one that I made with the hopes of being able to do the same job at a location closer to my new apartment. Nope. Didn't happen. I was never truly able to see just how huge Ottawa really was, because I'd lived there my whole life and I was completely ignorant to anywhere else. For anyone that doesn't know, Ottawa is a large city in Ontario, Canada, and it is the capital of Canada. I lived in a suburban area within Ottawa, and even that was extremely large. Moving here, to a small area a few hours from Toronto, was a huge culture shock. I'm getting off topic...

What I'm trying to say was that the number of stores in and around here was embarrassing at best. I was able to apply at all of three stores before I was at the end of my list of locations, and just like that, I knew I wouldn't have the same job that I had in Ottawa.

I ended up getting a job as a bartender in a larger city somewhat close to my neighbourhood, and I love it. I've always thought of myself as a Jill of all trades, and I'm happy I got to work in the service industry while I was here.

When I move, I'm excited to see what sort of opportunities await me. Will I continue to bartend? I really do love talking to people all day, and in a way, being the source for their happiness for that short period of time (being the provider-of-booze, after all). Will I go back to cosmetics? I really would love to get back into doing makeup, I fear as though I've sort of fallen out of the makeup world. There aren't any big department stores here for me to peruse through and find new products. Oh, woe is me! I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

4. Getting a dog.
All my life, I've had cats. My parents were just never dog people, they never wanted to bother training them, or walking them, or bathing them... they had cats. Cats don't care, cats do what they want. Cats take care of themselves. A little too much, actually, because the cat I have right now (living with my parents) couldn't possibly care less that I've moved. Has he even noticed? I don't think so.

I love cats, and they're great little fluffs to have, but dogs. I'm not ashamed to admit that I need a little more love than a cat can offer. A little more loyalty. Someone that will damn-near piss themselves of excitement when you walk through the door. Dogs are those someones!

Okay, enough of the 'dogs are so cute!' talk. I know they're a lot of work, and I would never get a pet without thinking it through completely. As an animal lover, and someone who's had various pets all her life, I'm well aware of the responsibilities and costs of owning a pet. (Not that I need to defend my pet-owning credentials, but it irks me to the ninth when I see people getting pets and then being too overwhelmed at the responsibility of caring for it).

We've talked about the breed, and we both know we want a big dog. I've always wanted a larger pup, and so has he. My boyfriend's a rather large man (like, bull in a china shop without even trying, large), and he has always wanted an enormous fluffy dog to wrestle with. But uh, no, having one man beast tearing things up is enough for me. After doing lots of research and talking to a lot of dog owners, we've reached the conclusion that mixed breeds are the best kinds. We'll just have to wait and see what our dog-owning future holds, but I'm massively excited to pick one up and give it its loving forever home!

I resolve to...


1. Take my vitamins.
I'm ashamed to even say that this needs to be a resolution. As young adults, and particularly young females, there are supplements and vitamins that we should all be taking. My parents always made me take multivitamins as a kid (flashback to those Flinstones chewables!), and when I got older I refused to admit that it was time to stop taking chewables and start taking real multivitamins. I bought the gummy kind. Yeah, yeah... at least I tried.

On top of multivitamins, lots of us ladies have iron deficiency, thanks in part to that monthly mess we all loathe, and therefore we take iron supplements. I'm supposed to take mine every day, and I consistently forget. Consistently. Iron deficiency presents in different levels, and mine is pretty bad. I have a lot of food allergies and don't eat enough red meat, so I never get enough of a natural intake as it is. When your iron levels are low, you can typically tell very quickly. Personally, I'm always tired, both emotionally and physically, and feeling generally lethargic makes it difficult to be productive day-to-day.

I wish I could say "No time like the present to start!" to my truly-awful lack of vitamin-taking, because every night before I go to bed, I tell myself that the vitamins and supplements start tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be a better person, and tomorrow I will start working toward a healthier life. And then tomorrow comes and I say the same thing about the next day. The problem with being so exhausted all the time due to lack of vitamin-everything is that I have no energy to even bother taking my supplements! It's a vicious cycle. The productivity starts in my new place, and that's that.

2. Keep things organized and clean.
Isn't this on everyone's 'to do' list? We can't all be Martha Stewart, and keeping a house clean all the time is really difficult. I had a good go of it when I first moved here because I was so excited to be in a new place and I was determined it was going to be amazing all the time, but it faded quickly.

I do try to stay on top of cleaning my apartment and more than that, keeping it clean, but when you live in a place that you don't particularly like, it's hard to want to keep it clean all the time. We're living in an apartment that is rented out in the summer time to beach-goers and frat-partiers, and as such, it's not really meant for long-term living. We rented it out for a lower cost all winter because we knew we'd be out by the summer time, but we never really realized until we got here just how little storage space there is. It makes sense, it's not meant for people to stay for longer than a week or two, but having so much clutter and nowhere to put your stuff just makes for an always-messy looking place, no matter how organized you keep it.

When I move, I'll be so damn excited to have space to put things, that I will want to keep it neat and organized. It's one thing to clean because you know you have to, but it's another to want to. I strive for that desire!

3. Reset my biological clock.
Earlier on in this post when I said I used to be more of a vampire- I meant it. I don't know what it is, but I'm a total night owl. I can't help but stay up late and then sleep in way too often. Maybe it's because I'm a bartender and more often than not my work "days" are more like work nights, and in having this routine I've adapted to more of a lifestyle where my breakfast is had at 2pm and I'm in bed by 3am. I wouldn't mind it so much if it wasn't so different from my boyfriend's. He gets up at 5am every day for work and gets home around 4pm. He's like clockwork. He likes to eat once he gets home, and around 10pm, every night, he's out like a light. 10pm is 'night just starting' time for me... usually.

I really enjoy early mornings, and having the sun beam through your bedroom window in the morning is one of the best things to wake up to. Making yourself a cup of coffee or tea and then sitting down and watching your show for an hour or two before you get up: That's the life. Or, it would be the life if I could get up. Instead, I'm up around noon on my days off, and by then I realize I should be cleaning or getting some shopping done, and the day just feels like it's come and gone already...

When I move, and with the help of my newfound sunlight and thus increase in vitamin D, I resolve to reset my biological clock and get back onto the schedule of the sun. I want to eat breakfast when it's the actual morning, and I want to just be exhausted by the actual end of the day (not 4am).

end

Thanks for reading you guys! Writing this post has actually helped me a lot. Moving is never all fun, and while I'm looking forward to the end product of it all, it's a stressful situation all together and I've not been looking forward to packing or leaving my job or driving all the way out to our new place. This post has helped me realize all the things I have to look forward to in the upcoming months, and I can't wait to blog about them as they arrive!

Thanks Death to Stock for the photos. Maybe soon I'll have my own beautiful things to photograph!

Until next time, sunshine,

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