MAY COMING TO AN END

Well, I've got lots on the go and am starting to get quite drained by it all. I'm uncertain as to where my place is in EPCOR moving forward, although I will have a clearer idea by next Friday when we are supposed to get our "letters". Most are hoping for big severance packages. I'm hoping for a fairly long transition period (till the end of the year). I have been looking at some internal postings and the thought of relocating has been on my mind. It would most likely be to the Calgary office where there are some merchant and business development openings. Moving over from an established operations role means that I will probably have to start at the bottom rung, but that's part of building up new experience and I'm up for it. In many ways, I would welcome the change in life style: less to no traffic jams, proximity to many of nature's destinations (although I may have to pull back my addiction to snowboarding), lower tax rates, etc. Had a good chat with the Sr. VP of the Ontario office today, but he didn't give any indication of what long term Ontario role there is for me. We'll see.

I have been doing a lot of packing as the closing of the condo is coming up fast. A strange thought came to me during all this: it's like playing a grown up version of house. Basically I was packing everything that is needed to play a complete game of house: dishes, table settings, towels, linen, little trinkets and ornaments for decoration, and even candles. It's as if Mom had just called down that it was time for dinner and to put the toys away. So, I basically packed everything away, as if there was going to be another occassion to put out this stuff to play again. But, as a kid, you don't think about it that way. You'd quickly push everything aside to give the illusion of having cleaned up and then rush upstairs to dive into the next thing that has your attention: food. You barely give any thought to the activity that may have just occupied the past few hours. Although I felt the waves of grief trying to overwhelm me, I deflected it, even when I packed away all the wedding things (which includes a 16 x 20 canvas of the two of us posing outside a building on Main Street, Unionville). But it's draining to have to fight that, so that's probably why I'm feeling so tired right now. Can't wait until this move is done and the paperwork finally completed for the closing of this place.

At the same time, I'm also trying to find a place to live. That has been going slow. Although I've seen lots of places, most are either too small (and I'm not a person that really needs a lot of space, so this description speak volumes to minimal) or too overpriced or both. I had dinner with some friends last night that have put in an offer for a house that is about 5 minutes away from where I work. This house has a separate basement which is ideal to rent out to a tenant. So, they asked me to consider being their tenant, should they be successful in their bid. I've been thinking a lot lately about shared accomodations and how that fits into the idea of community and communal living. This would be an even better fit as I would be communing with a fellow family in Christ AND I would be helping them out by contributing to their mortgage payments.

I also purchased a condo. What? Having just sold one (and having gone through all the emotional grief around it), why would I do this? Well, it was really my aunt's idea; she does real estate on the side. One of the benefits of being an agent is that you often have access to pre-releases which are usually priced a bit lower than when the project is opened to the public. This condo project won't be completed until at least December 2007, so it's not a big financial burden to prospect this development. Being located to a major destination (Scarborough Town Centre) , a public transit hub, the first of three phases and a containing desirable layout all contributed to the conclusion that this is a good decision. I don't plan on living here so it can also be used as a rental property.

Tying up loose ends with this move, continuing my training for the triathlon, some special out of town guests that I'd love to get together with, cheering on a friend who is running in the RunTO race is making this weekend quite a busy one. I'm looking forward to next weekend when most of these things will have been resolved.