Looks like somehow I missed the one month anniversary of us moving to Ottawa, by a little bit. Nevertheless, it seems like not a bad time to reflect, and look back.
The move was hectic. We had two friends help us move, and they are flat out saints 👼🏽.
Our condo wasn't nearly as tightly packed up as we thought it was, and it took way longer to get everything into the truck than I projected. We took so long that we ended up running into the next elevator booking, and through a goof, we managed to lose the bag full of condiments from our fridge.
The unpacking process went quickly, then slowly. We're still only at about 95% unpacked, with five boxes of books destined for bookshelves we've not yet acquired.
@terrycavanagh @jordantucker this is definitely changing my pronunciation of one of those words.
— biodigital jazz man (@peejaysayshi) May 21, 2015
It’s been really nice living in the house, owning it. A little terrifying realizing what we’re responsible for, and that we've got no one to call up and be responsible for problems that occur. However, it’s been amazing, and every day I am reminded of why we fell in love with this house. It's full of light, and quiet, and is so overwhelmingly peaceful most of the time.
We do have some neighbours that party a little later than I'd like, but never loud enough that closing the windows doesn't fix the problem, and mostly, they're done by eleven thirty, which is almost reasonable (says me, 👴🏼).
I'm finishing up this blog post sitting on my rear patio, drinking a coffee, listening to the birds, crickets and chipmunks, as Andrea tends to the garden.
Living here, we both keep sighing in happiness, especially when it's not raining. Ottawa really has been a noticibly more relaxed city for us, and I have adored that.
The smoke bush in our back yard light by the fading light of a summers eve.
There's parts of our life that have really changed by moving to Ottawa, and others that haven't changed at all.
While we still devour British murder mysteries in the evenings, I'm not quite sure yet what to do with all the time I'm saving by not commuting multiple hours to and from work every day. Every day that I am able to bike to work I am practically giddy with excitement from the change of pace, though, my podcast backlog is steadily growing.
We're working on getting to know people in Ottawa, and while we've not yet nailed it, I'm hopeful. Just today we volunteered with a group at IBM trying to turn the grounds into a food forest, an idea that agrees greatly with me, as corporate campuses can be such sterile useless places without care.
In the mean time, we've been taking care of business. I finally got my new learners licence, and have been trying to find a drivers education program (pro tip people: Spell check helps you look professional). I got a library card, and we finally got around to booking a honeymoon in October, and are very excited for that.
We've done a wee bit of exploring of the Ottawa area, though perhaps not as much as we would have liked. Still, lots of time for that. We're pondering a small hike tomorrow. Maybe I'll have good pictures when I get back.
This has been a meandering post, but in summary: We're both super happy.
Postscript: Just seconds before I hit post, we got to meet one of our neighbours! Hooray!