It's been a couple months since my last blog - I've been more than a little busy in that time. My house finally sold back at the end of August, and we set a closing date of 14 November thinking that would give us a nice stretch of time to finish getting our stuff together and time to find somewhere to go. My ex already had an apartment lined up down in Richmond Hill, about 20 min south of me, but I still had to find a place to live. I'd been looking at houses for a while, but came to think that perhaps it would be better to rent for a while if I could find a place that suited Honey and I. If I had bought, I would be moving at least half an hour away from work, if not further, and I have to admit I've been very spoiled for the last nine years, living seven minutes from work - with the red lights - five or six if I hit all greens. I did find a place even closer to work - now it takes me maybe a minute to get to work, and no lights - not even a stop sign. It was a rather fortuitious find, as I was looking at another place that was about two blocks from my old house when the real estate agent mentioned that he had a place just come available that day that was even closer to my work. I was happy to go have a look at it - the first place wasn't bad, but the kitchen was abysmal, so I thought if it's the same owner/property manager it would at least be well maintained, and I could always take the first place I'd looked at and make it work somehow. That kitchen, though, my god - was a little room maybe 7'x7', had maybe 4 sq. ft. of counter space in total - ugh. Well, then we got to the other place, and what does it have? An eat in kitchen in a basement apartment. I was sold - right then and there. The rest of the place was good too, I did look around and ask questions - pets allowed, there's AC in the summer (thank god!), one parking space, etc - but it was the kitchen that got me. I signed the lease for the place at the end of September to have it for October 1, though there was an agreement to let the previous tenants have til the 4th to be out, but then I didn't end up getting keys for the place for another week after that. I wasn't happy, because I'd signed a month early so I'd have time to paint and fix up the dings in the walls and so on, and then I lost a week because they didn't give me the keys when they were supposed to. Anyway, I finally did get the keys, and managed to get all the painting, fixing and some decorating done before I had to move all my stuff. Rod helped me move a whole ton of boxes and stuff from storage to the apartment one weekend, and I spent a week trying to unpack those and rearrange so that the next weekend when we moved the rest of my stuff from the house there'd be room to put it all somewhere. That was three weeks ago now, and amazingly enough there's been actual progress in the unpacking though I definitely have too much stuff. One of the hazards of going from a house to one bedroom basement apartment, I suppose. In the meantime, at work my union rep asked me if I'd be willing to run for the shop steward position that was open. A couple of the other (way junior) drivers were all upset that there was no steward and had been going behind Wendy's back to the union to have them appoint a steward, or at least have elections for one. Fine, no problem for me, I'll run - I really respect what she's done for us through the union, and I could work with her quite easily. I also have no desire to see either of these other two drivers get the position, because neither of them is in it for the good of everyone - they only have their own agendas and cliques that they're worried about. Then just a couple weeks ago we find out that the Worker's Compensation Board has determined that her injury (long story, not really relevant) is permanent and she can no longer drive a bus. Well, there were no other positions available for her at the company, either, so she's being let go and will get retraining for a job that will suit her better with regards to her physical needs. All of a sudden this means that whoever wins the election for shop steward will instead be filling in as union rep until the election is held for that position, which isn't until early summer next year. I know I have quite the support base among the drivers, and so now I have to deal with the very real prospect of being the union rep for the next six months - this wasn't what I signed up for, and it scares me - don't want to screw things up. However, Wendy has said she'll help me all the way if I get in, but if anyone else does they're on their own. So, been pretty much too busy to do anything other than breathe and sleep, and sometimes too busy for even that. Coming out to Rod's on the weekends has been my only time to relax, really, and I'm so glad I've had that chance to unwind. I've even been too busy to go to the gym until the last couple of weeks, and oh, boy, did I ever feel it after I finally did go back to BodyPump cla$$! Walking for the next couple of days was more than a bit of a challenge. (ow, ow, ow...) Anyway, time to wander off and see what he's up to - maybe go do some shopping :) Like I really need to spend more money - I've bought all new fixtures for the bathroom (towel bar, toilet roll holder, robe hooks, etc), a new tv - big HD one, looks like a movie screen in my little living room, it's great! - and surround to go with it, though that still needs to be set up, and a closet system that I still have to put in too - need to clear out the closet first as it's serving as temporary storage for the last of the boxes in the apartment right now. Should have that up this week, I hope. Not to mention all the paint I bought for the place, though I have to email the receipts to my landlord and he's supposed to reimburse me for the cost of that - hope so, that's worth about $300 all by itself. If you've made it this far, I'm proud of you - enjoy your weekend. :)