Lofty Endeavors, or My Debut in Four-Inch Heels.

I went to my first gala this weekend. It's been a lot of fun to think about dresses, shoes, jewelry, hair, nail color and other gala-related fashion details. I found my dress a month or so ago at a thrift store for $10. Don't panic on my behalf though: I know you are probably picturing the scary 1980s prom dresses that populate most thrift stores, but somehow I found two excellent formal dresses on the same day, plus some other non-formal finds.

Plié.

Tonight I had my third ballet class. This fall I decided to push myself out of my comfort zone and sign up for an adult beginner ballet class. I had been vaguely considering the idea of taking ballet for a couple of years, but it seemed rather scary. Besides, it was too late. Who starts ballet as an adult anyway?

Last January, I almost signed up, but instead I registered for a semester-long live-model drawing studio. That seemed more manageable at the time, when I was in the depths of winter. Through it I was able to reconnect to visual art again and find healing in it. But the idea of taking ballet stuck with me, and I decided that this fall I would do it. I created a worst-case scenario idea in my head, and then once I had envisioned the absolute worst that could happen, I realized that it was nothing compared to what I've survived in the past. I had nothing to lose, so I bought my leotard, ballet shoes, tights and other ballet stuff and signed myself up. The receptionist asked if I would prefer to register after taking the trial class, and I said no. I didn't want to be able to back out.

Here and there.

• I bought vacuum cleaner. A Miele. I love it. It's black and silver, though I chose it for other reasons. However, it coordinates very well with my home's color scheme.
• I vacuumed the whole apartment the day I brought it home. There are no longer little rocks on the floor in the 3-foot (half) radius around front door. And Booboo was pretty comfortable around it, which is a huge change from how he was with the previous vaccuum.
• At the store, the registration process for the 10-year free warranty (!!!) asked for the reason for buying a vacuum. There was not an option for "My ex left me for another woman and took the vacuum cleaner with him." So the guy at the store said I should just choose "Replacing a broken vacuum."
• My new Miele rolls behind me so easily, like a happy little puppy following me around. It was on sale, plus I even got an extra $40 off because I took one that had an almost invisible scratch on the bottom. Honestly, I probably did more damage to it on its maiden voyage around the apartment the other day.
• You know the risk I talked about in the last two paragraphs of this post?

Darkness and light and the belly of the whale.

I've been thinking a lot about darkness and light, death and rebirth, and the journey into the belly of the whale.

In writing about the monomyth, Joseph Campbell described three overarching stages of the journey: departure, initiation and return. The last step of the departure stage is the journey into the belly of the whale, where the hero seems to be swallowed up by death.

Around here (in no particular order).

• On Saturday, I opened the fridge and found the cocoa powder in there. Oops.
• I have only been to the grocery store twice since June. I have been to the market at the Old Port twice or so for fresh veggies and to the corner convenience store a lot. Somehow this is working for me.
• I am working on a challenging and fun artistic freelance project.
• Did the title of this post make anyone else think of Counting Crows circa 1994?
• I only have about a month more with Booboo and that thought makes me so terribly sad I can't think about it too long.
• This summer I finally found coffee beans that make coffee I really enjoy. I used to like the beans from this one place near my apartment, but then the coffee started tasting like dirt. After I inquired about why their coffee now tasted like "la terre," as I put it in French, I found out that they had changed the blend's mix of beans. Unable to find anything better, we drank overpriced, dirt-flavoured coffee with a hint of "burnt" for months. Finally, I decided to experiment with beans from a different place in the neighborhood. My first try was an improvement but a little weak; the second try was perfect. I am now on my third bag of that coffee. No more dirt coffee for me.
• I finally ordered beautiful embossed stationery with both our names on it in mid-June. A lifetime supply probably. I went with stationery instead of an address stamp, because I figured our address was likely to change at some point. It was a little too risky. I had the beautiful cream correspondance cards shipped to my parents' home, and they arrived just before everything exploded. I never saw the stationery, which is probably for the best. I had been so unreasonably excited about that goregous stationary with our names embossed on it. I guess it will get recycled.
• Thankfully I had also ordered some for myself with my monogram. My dad mailed that to me, and I have been thoroughly enjoying using it.
• My car turned 20 years old in April. But I don't drive very much anymore. Maybe once a week, often less. But the car works well still, much to my surprise and happiness.
• I find I love having a life that is so local. I love walking to work and having most everything I need a short distance from where I live.
• I am not looking forward to winter coming. I keep telling myself if I can survive 'til spring life will look better. I just need to survive this death of our marriage and my life as I had expected it and make it to spring and wait on some sort of rebirth.
• Shoveling. Ugh. Do I need to say anything more?
• I have a bag of green tomatoes in the fridge. I bought them to do fried green tomatoes. I have been unable to motivate myself to do that though. My level of energy is more on the basic sandwich-level of Maslow's hierarchy of culinary needs.
• Last week I spent $11 and some change at the thrift store and got a pair of jeans, a skirt, and a top that all fit. This helps. Baggy jeans do not.
• I was undecided on the skirt but thought that for $3, it was worth a shot. Once I got it home, I realized it is kind of the perfect skirt. It is black with thin pinstripes, plus it's quick drying and ideal for travelling. A pretty great find.
• It's still raining. I don't mind.

An update of sorts.

• Earlier this summer I was fired up to write a post about how I was seeing a lot of rudeness in society these days. But....eh. I decided not to.
• This is partially because we escaped away from it all and spent a month in Australia. A month in Australia can do remarkable things, including reducing levels of annoyance.

Photo credit: S

Photo credit: S

• See? It does wonders.
• The jet lag I had after coming back was the worst I've ever had. It took me ten days to get back on our Canadian time zone. But hey, it was fun staying up to dawn again; it had been an unbelievably long time since I'd done that.

Living Abroad (and Reflecting on Home)

I just read Chelsea Fagan's What Happens When You Live Abroad. Feeling inspired to write, I opened up a new post and quickly started to entitle it "Leaving Home." But then I stopped. What do I mean when I say "leaving home"? It surely isn't as simple as that for me. "Leaving One Physical Place for Another and Discovering Something New About Home" might be closer.

The other day my dad sent me a few emails with charts of our genealogical history going WAY back. Back to the "Old World." When I looked at the branches going back over several hundred years, it's clear that our roots are mostly in the general region of my home of origin. Basically my ancestors established themselves in one state and made their way to the neighboring state and stayed there. This is the state where I grew up, as did my parents and grandparents and others before them. Our family history is definitively there. But when I go back far enough, there is that one very distant ancestor who was born in England then died in the "New World." He is the one that changed the path of our family tree by leaving everything that was familiar to make a life in a new place.

And here I am, an immigrant in another country, with the realization that I have made a similar jump that impacts our family history. I feel a little like I betrayed my roots and The Sense of Place of my family.

A new chapter.

Photo credit: S

I finally finished the project I have been working on since moving to Canada. Though it took longer than expected, it is completed and I am pleased with how it came out.

I feel as if I have walked up to some French doors with a beachfront view, flung them open, and stepped onto a weathered wooden deck. I pause in the sun with my barefoot feet warmed by the planks. Closing my eyes to the brilliant sparkle of the sun, I deeply inhale the salty fresh air. The sea whispers truth about life and time and meaning, while seagulls in the distance squawk the pleasure of spring and new beginnings.

Edit: I accidentally unpublished this and am guessing the exact date of the original posting.

Deux.

Photo credit: Martin Dallaire

Today is our second wedding anniversary.

And we are approximately 4589 miles apart (as the crow flies) with an ocean between us. S is scheduled to return tomorrow (unless, you know, transportation strikes in Greece prevent that), so we are going to celebrate after he is back home and after we decide what we want to do exactly. The only thing nailed down so far is the exchange of anniversary letters/notes, which is a tradition we started last year.

It's hard to believe it's been two years already. Sometimes the wedding just doesn't seem very long ago. I mean, we only recently got some wedding photos printed, put in frames, and hung because I finally became convinced that it needed to be done before our second anniversary rolled around. And I must say that I love wandering by and stopping to look at the photos. Unfortunately, the same determination did not carry over to the (still non-existent) wedding album. Maybe I can manage to do that before our third anniversary? Oh, and we still want to take a (belated) honeymoon sometime. (Though I wonder if we can still even call it that, this far into the game?) Now that I can come and go from Canada without the risk of being turned away at the border, we can start thinking towards this more concretely...

Twenty-five-and-a-half months ago, I was in Chicago, on the verge of moving to Québec and marrying S. It was an intense time of change. Since my move, we got engaged, got married, had a 10 month-long back-and-forth-between-two-cities living arrangement, did our first international travel together (Italy), made two more (in-country) moves resulting in us finally living in only one apartment together, established our combined home together, tried to potty-train our cat, prepared and submitted my immigration application, waited through seven months of unknowing which made for a challenging winter, and then received news of my approval for permanent residency while on our second international trip together in Paris this past May. That was monumental in that it removed the undercurrent of fear that I had felt when I would think about the possibility that we could be separated from each other. It also felt like I finally could begin putting down roots here outside of the walls of our apartment, and start integrating more with the community. I looked for work and then got two jobs, which I started this fall. When I think through the last 24-ish months that way, I realize that these first two years of our marriage have been chock full of change.


But despite that, it's felt somehow stable because we did it together. The best thing has been just living and doing normal day-to-day stuff with my love who is also my best friend. Sometimes I still just can't believe how fortunate I am to have found the person I want to share my life with—and we even get to live in the same place! (Maybe this never gets old for people that go through years of long-distance?) There are times when I can't get over how fun it is just to hang out together doing normal things, and it feels like being at summer camp.

Two years feels more substantial somehow. Kinda like being in my thirties feels different than my twenties, in a really good way.

Pumpkin patch kids.

(Photo credit: S)

(Photo credit: S)

Over the weekend, we went with some friends to a nearby island to pick apples. We also stopped and gathered pumpkins and squashes. It was a gorgeous and fun day. Now I need to figure out what recipes I want to try!

By the way...

We went to Paris in May. I have been to Paris a number of times over the years, but it was S's first trip. After we got home, I drafted a long post about it and never published it, but now I don't feel like talking about the trip in the same way I did then, so here's what I feel like sharing now:

1. We had a good time and are certainly glad we went...
2. ..but it wasn't really the magically-perfect-sprinkled-with-glitter kind of trip that everyone imagines a trip to Paris with your amour to be.
3. However, there were moments of that: We saw the twinkle lights of the Eiffel Towel, wandered through Paris at night among all the beautifully-lit buildings, spent time in cramped bookstores packed with books from floor to ceiling, and sat on a bench by the Seine.
4. We especially enjoyed the crêpes and French Fanta, and savoured both frequently.
5. Yes....savoured is how that first came out when I wrote it. Oh, Canadian spellings, are you starting to rub off on me?
6. Wandering around off-beat places was usually more fun for us than visiting the over-crowded tourist sites, so S did not see every "must-see" sight that guide books tell you that you should see.
7. At the foot of Montmartre, we discovered what I am convinced is the best crêpe kiosk in Paris.
8. While we were there—on the day of the amazing crêpe kiosk discovery—we finally received notification that I was approved for permanent residence in Canada and we celebrated that night with a wonderful meal at a restaurant on the Left Bank.
9. I discovered the things I love about Paris have changed over the years, and I now really like the quieter, more everyday life Parisian scenes.
10. Similarly, my favorite crêpe is the beurre et sucre. Simple perfection with no distractions.
11. Staying in a (modest) hotel was absolutely wonderful, and quite the change from all my previous trips with youth hostel accommodations. It was so much fun to have our own little space as our "base" in Paris.
12. Here are a few photos. And you might have to look at the last one larger to see a funny thing in the photo.

Chopped.

This was a long time coming. I had been thinking of cutting my hair for months, maybe a year. But I only had the urge every now and then, so I waited. And waited. And finally my hair reached my elbows, and I always had it tied up in a bun to get it out of the way. Realizing it was finally long enough to do something useful, I knew that I didn't just want to trim a few inches to get it to my "ideal" length, I wanted to cut enough off to donate. My thinking was that if I was going to cut 4 or 5 inches anyways, why not 12, if it could be "recycled" and do some good? But it took me a while to reach the point of readiness.

After I got permanent residence and began to look for work, I decided it was time to cut my hair. Following the instructions on Pantene Beautiful Length's website, I prepped my hair and gathered it at the nape of my neck. In the moment before I made the first cut, tears sprang to my eyes and I realized the connection between hair and identity, and how long those 12 inches had been a part of me. I took a deep breath, told myself that it would grow back, and cut. Cut after cut, until it seemed like I had made a hundred cuts. By the end, I was hacking it off without much precision, as I tried to free myself from the tenacious last strands. At last the elastic-banded foot of hair was separated from me, and suddenly it became hard to believe that my hair had really been so long. Looking in the mirror, I saw my hair at a length it had last been about 14 years before. Freshly cut and still uneven, the change made me feel more sassy. More awake.

The next day, I straightened my naturally wavy/curly hair so I could even it out more easily. Since the back part was much shorter than the front (because of the way it had to be cut in the pony tail), there was a lot of work to do. Instead of going to a salon, I stubbornly determined I would make it look good on my own. After some time, it was even and looked about the same level of quality as when I go to an inexpensive, walk-in salon.

I like my new look and have had positive feedback, but I don't think it's the optimal length for my hair type because my wave-curls seem to do much better at a longer length, when they have more weight to keep the poofiness down. However, I do think the change was exactly what I needed and I am enjoying the feeling of possibility these days.

PS. Pantene Beautiful Lengths only requires at least 8 inches for a donation. I had some split ends, and just wanted to give more to make sure they definitely had plenty of use-able hair.

Francisation.

 

In January, I started a 10 week Francisation course that lasted through mid-April. My schedule was 25 hours a week of grammar, writing, vocabulary, oral conversation, cultural topics, and integrative activities. Though I had formally studied French for 7 and a half years before this (high school, university, and a semester in France), I wanted to use the long wait for permanent residency to improve my French to be better prepared to enter the work market and to integrate more into society. I also hoped to add some structure to my days and meet some new people.

This was all accomplished, but the classes were not the French "boot camp" I had wanted for myself. (Though walking 25 minutes to school in a blizzard on Valentine's Day did feel rather like some sort of arctic boot camp. Especially when I got there and was told that school had been cancelled, which meant I had to turn around and walk back home.) Taking the course was a positive experience, and it was good for me to have a reason to get out of the house during those very cold months when my preference would have been to stay in and hibernate. Through my classes, I met a lot of nice people and my French noticeably improved, especially my oral comprehension and ease of speaking. My class had a range of experience levels in it, so the course did not move as fast as I would have preferred (which was frustrating), but I still learned new things and I tried to challenge myself as much as possible with my writing. And I was in an overall more positive mood during those months.

Our class started with about 16 people and ended with 12, since some people started working or simply stopped coming as the session progressed. Almost every person was from a different country; only two countries had two people from each: Japan and Cambodia. I shared a row with a woman from Afghanistan and one from China. Seated behind me to my left were a guy from Cambodia, a guy from English-speaking Canada (the only other native English-speaker in the class), and the two women from Japan. It was interesting to spend time with so many people from different countries and backgrounds.

At the end of the session, we had a week of final exams. I did quite well on them, but I still want to improve my French. I talked with my teacher about whether I should take more classes at the school or study on my own, and we decided it was best for me to keep working on my own to improve, since that gives me the freedom to set my own pace. I have a lot of transcribing to do in French which takes a lot of time (and is quite challenging, so a big plus for my French skills). My French teacher also suggested I take a class at a local university in something that interests me. S keeps reminding me that reading enjoyable, well-written books will really help my vocabulary, so I should probably make French reading a big priority in the coming weeks and months. I already have a couple of books lined up to read, so I guess the bulk of my summer reading should be in French?

Learning.

As I mentioned before, I am learning to sew. What is particularly exciting for me about this is that I can now alter all those clothes I have that don't fit quite right, which is quite a fabulous thing since I buy most of my clothes at thrift stores, often without even trying them on. (Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but I have gotten quite accurate at choosing things that fit and are flattering.) The problem is...sometimes they just need minor adjustments....like that dress I have had a couple years that would have been perfect shorter, but I didn't know how to hem t-shirt material. But now I do because I learned to sew by modifying and re-purposing old t-shirts. And I have the courage now to just try sewing things. Here's what I have done so far:

• Hemmed the aforementioned too long black jersey dress to a cute length to go with leggings
• Re-hemmed two skirts whose hems I had ripped out this summer
• Put darts (for the first time ever) in a full skirt that was just a little to big in the waist
• Altered four tank tops to fit more narrowly (they were too wide and looked sloppy)
• Hemmed a pair of sweat pants that I had gotten at camp long ago and had always been tripping over (since I am short...)
• Made an elaborate Christmas-y project out of re-purposed t-shirts which I will later post on
• Shortened the dress in the above photo. I still need to narrow it though because the skirt is wide/poofy enough to look rather circus-appropriate
• Almost finished making a skirt out of re-purposed t-shirts
• Altered a pair of shorts to have the waistband in a permanently "turned down" position, since this is how I prefer to wear this pair of old college logo shorts
• Attempted to alter a pair of old scrub pants to fit better. This project has not yet been successful.

There are many more projects I am eager to attempt, but I have been ordering them so that I can build my skills up to the level to attack more complicated alterations. I feel I am ready to begin with slightly more challenging things, and it's pretty exciting to think about narrowing a blazer I bought, even though I knew it was a little too big, because I loved it so much. And of course, then there is always the Swiss sheep herder dress that is going to hopefully become a little edgier looking after I shorten it.

Sewing 101

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been learning how to sew on a sewing machine. Not the one in the photo, though that is one of ours. We have three actually, which we acquired all for free over a couple of months last winter. Our first one is a Singer. This is the one I am learning on, given to us by a friend. The Stitchmaster in the photo is our second sewing machine. One trash day last winter in Montréal, S found it on the curb with somebody's trash and carried it home. It came in its own sewing table (which it can collapse into when not in use) and we love its funky retro teal color. It got damaged in this summer's move though, so S is fixing it so it will be usable. The third one is another Montréal trash day find from last winter. It's a Brother and rather run-down, but S brought it home in hopes that it might be useful for spare parts for our little teal one. Amazingly, he has been able to use numerous parts which have happened to fit.

Anyhow, I have enjoyed learning on our little Singer. S taught me how to do the basics and I have learned a few things off YouTube sewing videos, so now I am just experimenting with several projects. I have been learning on some old t-shirts I have been wanting to upcycle, and it is great to be doing fun things with them and giving them a second life doing something useful. My first project was a double-sided scarf made from two t-shirts (one red, one grey). It turned out quite well and I have been wearing it around the house this fall when I get cold. The t-shirt material makes it really soft and cozy. My next projects will be some alterations of some of my thrift store clothes (shortening things that are too long, adding darts, etc.). I am excited to finally be able to modify these clothes so they will fit properly and I can wear them.  I am also thinking ahead to Christmas and wondering if I might be able to create anything fun for gifts this year. I have a few ideas in mind, but am still brainstorming and looking for new and simple projects. Any suggestions?

The next step in the quest for a potty-trained cat.

As I mentioned a while back, we are trying to toilet train our cat, Booboo. After a month of having Booboo's regular litter box on top of the toilet, we made the move to a smaller litter box that sits within the toilet, almost flush. (Haha....) Anyhow, we got the red litter box, but it was slightly too big, so S used a blow torch to melt the plastic to the right size to fit the toilet securely. The box holds in place perfectly now!

We filled the box with litter then brought Booboo in to check it out. Booboo climbed up to inspect the new arrangement, but seemed a little hesitant about the toilet seat aspect of it. He sniffed but did not use the litter box.

After several hours and no evidence that he had adjusted to the new set-up, we decided we should take a smaller step before we introduce the lid. So here is our current set-up:

Since we made this adjustment, Booboo has been using the litter box. We figure we will keep it this way for maybe about a week or so, before we put the lid back down. After he gets used to balancing on the lid, we will begin taking the next steps to wean him off the litter box.

So....slowly but surely, we are making progress.

Grounded.

So, as you know, we recently moved into our new apartment that just had a bathroom renovation. The bathroom is huge and looks nice.

But.

When you look closer, there are a few problems. Some are relatively minor like the paint not being entirely finished and some of the "white" paints in the room not matching. Or the missing finishing metal piece that goes around the toilet pipe covering the hole where it goes into the wall. Or the lack of a mirror and medicine cabinet above the sink.* Or the door being cut too short and not "square." Other errors are not so minor: the sealant around the tub has missing spots that might leak to whatever is below us in the not-too-distant future, the hot and cold water plumbing is reversed, and the tile and grout on the floor are already cracking. (Mind you, this cracking happened within two weeks of installation!**) And then there was our major problem:  the electrical wiring was done unsafely. S knows more (and cares more) about our electrical wiring than the guy who did the repair work, who had set us up with ungrounded wiring in a bathroom of all places.***

At first I thought the renovation guy was trying to do a good job, but was just not the best at doing some stuff, but after seeing his electrical wiring short cuts (who does that???), we think he is an overall devotee of short cuts. But no worries, thanks to S and his wide range of skills, we are slowly upgrading the apartment.**** And we are now grounded.

*We bought some of our own that I guess we will take with us when we move.

**These things are frustrating, but I keep reminding myself that we do not own this apartment and we did not hire or pay for the renovation.

***As in, there is an actual possibility of, you know, electrocution.

****And shed/locker. Just the other day S created a new floor in our shed/locker. The original flooring was not even at all (maybe at a 30-ish degree angle?), and he created a new floor to go on top of the existing one using only the resources of what was in the shed. The shed was left FULL of junk (ex. old mug collection) from the previous renters and we spent several hours cleaning it out. We did keep a few things (old pieces of cabinet doors,bricks, plywood, etc) to re-purpose into shelving, flooring, etc., as we try to upgrade the shed/locker into something useful.

Getting settled.

Moving is hard work. Physically, of course, especially if it is a DIY/DIT move, but I find moves are also emotionally exhausting. It hate that feeling of displacement while you are between places without a home base anywhere. Traveling is different because you have a home out there somewhere, even if it is far away. But moving means being in-between homes and living in that liminal space when you have to say things like "our new apartment" and "your old place in Québec" and "my apartment in Montréal" because there are just too many home-like places floating around out there making things a little confusing.

We accomplished our bizarre (and, we hope, worst-ever) move between June 21st and July 11th.* We used the help of professional movers in Montréal to move out of the apartment there (3rd floor apartment with a couch that had to be sent over the balcony to get it out!), and we were so thankful for the help of many friends and family in Québec in moving and getting settled here. S's mom graciously welcomed us to her home so we would have a place to stay while we waited 11 extra days beyond our lease start date for our bathroom to be renovated, S's friend let us store our massive amount of stuff in his warehouse for those weeks when we were apartment-less, and friends and family helped with the prep and the actual move into our new apartment. It was hot on our Québec move-in day, and everyone worked so hard helping us.** Everyone was drenched in sweat after the REMARKABLE feat of moving all our stuff into the apartment (which is one flight up) in only an hour and a half. I have absolutely no idea how that happened so quickly. S and I had for real thought it might take all day. And I had worried I might end up in tears multiple times that day from the stress of it all, but it was all exceedingly better than expected. It went really, really well and I was especially moved by the generous community that helped us.(Haha, pun not intended but I am keeping it cause it makes me laugh!)

In the week or so since move-in day, we have been unpacking and cleaning and trying to figure out where things go and maneuvering around an overwhelming amount of boxes. And trying to buy the things we need to get settled, like curtains and curtain rods and other needed apartment-y things.*** We have been trying to buy stuff second hand, for the eco-friendly aspects, and also for the thrill of discovering something we can re-purpose to fit a need.**** It is going well and over the weekend we even found an unconventional solution to a coat closet. (Our almost 100 year-old apartment doesn't have an entry coat closet, and has very pitiful closets in general. Sadly.) And we found a vintage table we love.***** More to come on that later, after we get more unpacked and take some pictures.

Settling in to a new home is a slow process, at least for us. But thankfully, Booboo seems to be handling it quite well.

*Well, really like four separate moving days: 1) My Montréal stuff to warehouse in Québec; 2) S's Québec stuff to warehouse in Québec; 3) Loading almost all our joint stuff from the warehouse into the moving truck; 4) Moving all the stuff from the truck to the apartment; 4) Some upcoming day where we will get the last of the stuff from S's dad's. Maybe in a week or two?

**That was the week of the "canicule," or heat wave, here in Québec (and elsewhere). And some of our boxes were HEAVY, as many of my Chicago friends certainly know. I am still SUPER thankful for all that help with last year's move. Boy, we have amazing friends. And we should really try to stay put for a while. :)

***This is the first time I have been in an apartment that didn't have blinds left by the previous tenant. Now I am entering a new era of being a curtain-and-curtain-rod owner.

****And we love that it is WAY less expensive too.

****Not that we needed a table at all. But we were surprised by discovering it at the flea market while looking for other things on our list. And we couldn't leave it there. Some things are like that.

Moved In. Mostly.*

Well, we got moved in last Sunday and the builder/renovation guy finished the bathroom on Monday.** Though we have been unpacking this week (along with doing other random stuff like getting our recycling bin and the car window stickers that allow us to park in our neighborhood), we are still surrounded by boxes and living in chaos. Yesterday afternoon we hit up some retail stores and two thrift stores to try to find curtains, curtain rods, a bathroom mirror, armoire, medicine cabinet, etc.*** We had some great success on finding items on our list (and a few surprises not on our list!) but we still need to look at some other thrift stores for the remaining missing things.

One of the most satisfying deals from yesterday was our new bathroom mirror. We first looked at Canadian Tire and only saw a couple standard medicine cabinet options that were considerably more than we wanted to spend. Then we checked out Winners, which is like a Marshalls, and they had a good, large mirror with a black frame. However, we want a white frame since our new bathroom is very white and we are enjoying the breezy, airy feeling that white on white creates. So we were going to buy it and paint the frame white, but it was $39, which still seemed quite expensive to us, though I guess it is probably a decent price for a 33 1/2'' x 33 1/2'' mirror. But since we were not crazy about it, we decided to wait and check a couple more thrift stores before re-considering buying that one, and amazingly....our very next stop was a thrift store that had one mirror. A 31'' x 31'' mirror with a white frame.**** It had a couple stickers on it as it seemed to be previously owned by a teenage girl, but they came off with zero sticky residue. (I think they were perhaps static cling stickers?) So... a large, good condition mirror for only $5.99. Yay!

We ended our day with a sense of victory at finding good deals on quality items and the excitement of re-purposing discarded things to give them a second life.***** This makes me quite happy.

*Well....not our couch, chair, and dishwasher which are in the basement of S's dad's home.
**Well, I don't call it finished, but the guy said he is finished. There are some paint places he missed and one of our formerly yellow walls had a door ripped out and new wall added, so now the former door area is covered with white plaster stuff and not yellow paint, so we have some painting to do, I guess...? S also repaired the door which the guy did not hang very well.
***Yep, no mirror or medicine cabinet above the sink was put in during the bathroom renovation. Isn't that pretty standard?? Maybe it was forgotten? And I had to ask specifically about the shower curtain rod, because there was no rod. The guy brought a rod in on Monday.
****And oddly enough, this size is actually better than the other size would have been anyways, due to the size of the sink. I plan on eventually repainting it white to get the crisp white-white color we want, but repainting white on top of white will be much easier than on top of black.
*****We only bought a couple things at the retail stores. Like the plug thing for the dryer and the pull chains for the fan. We found almost everything at the thrift stores....including two nice wood curtain rods.

Slow Progress, or one room less makes a huge bathroom.

The bathroom that ate our spare room. 

The living room without the pile of wood from the bathroom demolition.

So, here's the housing update on the apartment we rented and the roadblocks we are encountering: to put it briefly*...we are sorta homeless. Well, not really. S's mom is so very generously putting us up until our apartment is ready. Which will be over a week after our lease was supposed to begin.

And....despite proclamations to the contrary as we monitored and inquired about the renovations, we now have one less room than when we signed the lease. This is kinda a big problem since the apartment was on the small side for us before this update. But we stopped by to check on the progress last Thursday afternoon** and it seems the bathroom is going to be pretty awesome. So....we are currently planning on sacrificing needed storage space for an awesome bathroom in the hopes that we can make it work for us. If not....I guess we will have to move again sooner rather than later.

I have mixed feelings about it all. Our landlord has been ill and is in the hospital (for the second time this month!) and we have never actually met him, in fact. Also, changing the layout of the apartment after it has been rented is actually not something one is allowed to do.*** But, as you guys know from before, I really appreciate a good bathroom in an apartment. And there are really no other housing options. Apparently the housing availability in our city is .4% or something like that. And the news apparently reported recently that there were 20 households who had no housing as of July 1st (which is when almost all new leases start and end here) because those people were not able to even find housing in their budget. So, after hearing that, I was left feeling thankful to have housing and lucky to have a newly renovated, spacious bathroom.****

*I know, I know, saying anything briefly is not my style.
**And it was perfect timing because the guy renovating the bathroom was having some trouble figuring out how to wire the electricity. S caught the error and told the guy how to do it right. Which I am glad of, otherwise we would have had a non-working ventilation fan and a light working only at half-power!

***Like, it is illegal.

****And anxious about the real possibility that our stuff might not fit. Eek. S said perhaps it is a sign we need to simplify our lives. I agree.