It's been a while since my last update and I've decided it is time to start blogging regularly again. I honestly haven't felt like writing but I've noticed my writing skills have begun to atrophy from lack of use so I need to get back to it.
My first priority in this realm will be the transcription of my journal from my big Australia/New Zealand trip. This will take a while and I won't be posting it incrementally. I'll only publish when it is complete. This afternoon I made a start and it is my goal to do at least a little bit of it every day. It should take two or three weeks (or maybe four if I get busy with other things).
A lot has happened since I returned from the southern hemisphere. Within the first week back I contacted my Realtor and started preparing the house for sale. It was just too big and full of too many bad memories for me to be able to stay there. After getting the house prepped and staged it only took five days to sell it. The Toronto real estate market is kind of insane (but that's a subject for a different blog post). The sale is not technically done yet, it closes on June 21, but so far things look OK. I know I'll be a lot more relaxed when it's finished though.
My Realtor, Sabrina Alevritis, was amazingly helpful and supportive. She was also the person who helped us buy the house in the first place. If you're looking for a Realtor I can't recommend her highly enough.
The apartment I found (again with the help of Sabrina) is downtown near where I work so it's a great place to be while I figure out what to do next. My commute rounded to the nearest five minute mark is zero minutes. I also have a lovely view of the Toronto skyline and the building itself is brand new and has a bunch of nice amenities. My unit is a one bedroom+den and is slightly bigger than the one Kim and I shared in CityPlace (but I'm pretty sure that extra space is just wasted in poor layout choices). Also, while it is a larger building, it is not CityPlace big and there is only one so it's not as crazy and dormitory-style as CityPlace was.
A big part of moving was downsizing my stuff. Kim and I acquired a lot of things in a short time and it was all too much for just me. I spent a lot of time going through all our possessions and whittling them down to things I actually need or things that have sentimental value. Everything else I either donated to charity or gave away to friends and family. It was a difficult process but I feel significantly lighter for having done it. Outside of books (can never have too many books), having too many possessions makes me anxious because you have to worry about them and care for them.
Over Mother's Day weekend my mom got herself two new Siamese kittens. Our family has always had cats (and normally Siamese), but after the last one died my mom held off on getting new ones because of everything that was happening with Kim and with my Grandfather. She didn't want to have to rush back to her house to take care of pets when so many more important things were going on. But now that life has settled down she has cats again and I've already been to visit them twice because they're super adorable (well and maybe because it was Mother's Day and then my mom's birthday).
Day-to-day I've still been climbing whenever I can and I've also been helping Chris and John prepare for their wedding in August. That's going to be lots of fun for sure. I also need to start doing some cardio training as I'm participating in Warrior Dash again for some stupid reason.
