Ha, ha, and HA!

WARNING *bad words in this post* :)

Did I really think that we would be able to move to the next stage of our lives without a little bit of drama?

Oh before I get into the drama, a little update.

We got confirmation on Thursday that our fly out date will be February 18th (next Wednesday). Toronto to Ottawa. Spend the night and then Ottawa to Pond Inlet on Thursday. So we will officially be Pond Inlet residences on February 19th.

Now back to the rant (this is gonna be a little long, sorry).
As some of you know I have a horse. I love my old horse dearly and promised him that he would be with me for life and that one day will be laid to rest on my own farm (fingers crossed). Having a horse does pose a bit of a dilemma when you decide to take a job in the arctic. Clearly moving him there is not an option. Neither is giving him away at his age. So I thought, ok I will see if I can find someone to come out once or twice a week, give him a brush and feed him a few treats. No big deal really, or so I thought.

Two months ago I posted and ad on Kijiji, giving myself loads of time to meet with people. Now clearly at that stage in the game the possibility of a job up north was still a bit of a grey area. But I thought better to be prepared.
The ad had a few nibbles and then I found her. An older lady, had a horse for years, just wanted to be around horses again. Wasn't looking to ride. Perfect. So I have coffee with her, and it goes wonderfully.
I then bring her out to meet the boys. Topper has another friend that he shares the barn with, another thoroughbred. They are both seniors but can still raise a little hell of the wind hits them from the right angle.

I bring them both into the barn, have her bring him out onto the cross ties and I start to brush him, all the while her and I are chatting. Things seem to be going fine. When we are finish we go to take them back out. They both had to come in in the first place because as there is only two of them they are rather attached to on another. Normally I'm not so fond of horses that are so bonded but at this late stage in their lives who am I to question there bond. They aren't show horses so we (the barn owner and I) just deal with it.

Being Thoroughbreds they are and will always be a little hot. Keep in mind I had stressed this point to her, numerous times and she was claimed to be ok with the fact. I take out Topper and she follows behind me with Greg. I mention to her that Greg might get pully so to give him a firm tug if so. Well I'm sure you can all already see where I am going with this. She comes out of the barn and into the paddock and Greg takes off lead shank and all. I look at her and she has gone slightly off color. Oh no I think. I asked her if she was ok and she says yes, that it just caught her off guard.

Last night I sent her a lease agreement, basically stating that she won't suit the barn owner or I if something were to happen to her. It's standard when you lease a horse. Cover your ass because horses are fucken retards sometimes and anything can happen.
This morning I get an email saying that she is no longer interested because it's not safe, and the horses are too wild. SIGH.
Topper is going to be 28 in May and Greg is around 23. VERY WILD!

So the ad went back on Kijiji this morning. It's not the end of the world if I can't find someone, he is well looked after where he is. In fact, the people that keep him for me are god sent. I just wanted to get him some extra love so I don't feel like a bad mommy.

What can I say? It just wouldn't be my life if things went quietly.

                                          The boys enjoying their retirement, last summer.


FACT:
Today is international Break up Day, apparently more people break up today more than any other day as it is 4 days before Valentines Day.
So happy Break up Day to you. Drew and I managed to stay together, no worries.

Give me all your money

So we had our medicals done on Friday.
Not much of a medical, really. More like can you sit, stand, walk, lift and drive.
So can I function as a person? Why yes I can, thanks for asking.

Getting it was a bit of a shit show. Drew and I haven't had a doctor since we left Ottawa, oh how I miss Doctor Jody, boo hoo. :)
Without a doctor you must rely on a walk in clinic. Finding a clinic isn't an issue as there seems to one on ever corner in this city.
The first clinic said, because we have never seen you we would need all of your records transferred here from your last doctor. Which wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that it had to be a minimum of 5 pages at $35 a page. Plus the $80 fee for the actually signing of the paper. No, we don't have time for that and you are a thief (don't worry the thief part was only said in my head).

Since we had to go to Sears to look for boots for Drew I figured we'd try another one over at that end of town.

Clinic number two, sure we can do it right now, please hand over $180 each. I nearly fell over, WHAT? No thank you. The company does pay back the cost of the medical, but I couldn't justify paying someone a crazy amount of money.

Clinic number three, at this point it felt like I had spent 6 years at university and could have signed the paper myself.
Sure we can do that for you, it will be $60 each. I almost kissed the receptionist. Ironically it was the clinic 50 feet from where we live and where we had intended to go in the first place. Moral of the story, just go with your gut. If you didn't already know this, anything that you pay cash for at the doctors office appears to go directly into the doctors pocket. Kinda shady really for the one that was going to charge $180 to answer two questions.


Still looking for a kennel to fly Tia in and still waiting for an actual solid date of fly out, hopefully we will have both by end of day tomorrow.
Tia has a vet appointment on Wednesday, she's informed me that they have cookies there so it's a great place. I didn't have the heart to tell her that there will be needles.

Drew's fancy new rated to -60 steel toed boots, they were $50 off. A great deal.

They don't have pink on them the camera did something weird to the picture.

                                          My comment to Sears about the boots or lack there of.

This was my sewing/craft area, haha.

Somehow I am under the delusion that I will be able to fit most of this in two large rubbermaid bins, 

more hahaha's

Feeling rather zen today.

As I'm sitting on the bus on my way home from my job workshop I had a thought.

How incredibly different my life will be i less than 30 days.
First off, the bus. For the first while I don't see any other mode of transportation on my horizon other that my two feet. There are defiantly no buses there being that it is a community of less than 2000 people. From what I gather there aren't any cars. Only trucks, snowmobiles and four wheelers. Dog sleds are of course a reliable form of transportation but I don't think Tia is up to that type of task.

Most of my life has been lived in small towns, I grew up in a town of 700 before my parents moved to London in the late 80's. When I lived near Ottawa is was always on the outskirts, one place that Drew and I lived I think had a population of 300. I am a small town girl and I like it that way. London this time was really a last resort and a long shot of sorts. It's too big (over 300,000 people). There are too many streets and too many stores, just too much of too much.

I guess the point of this post is that I wanted to say as much as I don't like living in a city I know that there will be things that I miss. I feel though that they will far outweigh the things that I gain as their replacement.

Things are slowly but surely been sold off from the apartment. Reality is sinking in. Do I sell it, do I store it, do I take it?

Change happens, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. But change is good, being stagnate in life makes you complacent. You only have one go at the life you have why feel like you are stuck?

Do things in life that scare you. Don't listen when people tell you, you are crazy. Just go and do something different.
One day you will wake up and see that everything that you do in life should be for you.
They say that you can't make everyone happy all the time or something along that line. It really is the truth and the fact of the matter is that you control the choices that you make in life. You pick the road that you will take. It may end up at a dead end, it may end up having a turn off. But the bottom line is that it was your choice and good or bad there are always lessons to be learned in the choices that we make.

Namaste my friends.

Pond Inlet here we come!

We got the call!

On Wednesday while I was off at my job search workshop (yah I know I kinda technically already had a job, but I like to stay busy) the hiring manager called and talked to Drew to tell him that WE WERE IN. Woo hoo.

In all honesty I had some mixed emotions at first. Not that I don't want to go. But this whole thing has been a little bit surreal right from the beginning. But it's real, and it's happening, NOW. Admittedly I was a little bit nauseous on Wednesday. I tried to sit down three times to read the emails and finally gave up and instead started running through all of the stuff that has to be shuffled around in order for us to leave Ontario.

So the timeline is about 30 days. Once we get our physicals done, they will book the flight for us and Tia (the dog).

Ironically my coat also showed up on Wednesday. From a earlier post you'll know that we went out hunting for coats last Friday. The driving around London turned out to a bit of a bust. The only good point about it was that I got to try on the coat I had been eying up on the Sears website. If I had bought the coat that I thought would have worked from Sears online it would have been humungous. Drew ended up with a Kamik coat bought at Canadian Tire. Nothing more awesome then dropping $500 on two winter coats, not.

 As you know Friday was also the day of our phone chat with the store manager. Because the call was based in Winnipeg we totally got the timing wrong and were actually out at Costco when they called. So we booted it back to my dad's van and hit speaker phone. Clearly it went really well. The store manager seems like an easy going guy so that's a good sign. I also liked the fact that he has been with the company for 25 years. I think it says a lot of a company if your staff have been around for a long time.

I won't have much to say for the next few weeks as it's going to be filled with a lot of packing
Oh and in case you are wondering Tia also has a winter coat and I made her some warm booties out of an old scarf that I bought years ago but never used. She looks so sad in this picture, but she really does love them. Aww poor Tia.

And speaking of Tia, yes this is a shameless pug. If you happen to have a spare $5 laying around why not give it to this sad little girl? :)
Our new employer is paying for Drew and I to fly out but not Tia. And of course we couldn't go anywhere without out little Tia.
I started a go fund me account to help with the cost. It's a long shot but I figured it can't hurt to put it out there. Anything left over with be donated to the Nunavut humane society.
http://www.gofundme.com/gettiatonunavut

I doodled a cute little picture of me and Tia up in the north today but I forgot it in class so I will post it next week. Along with the pictures of the bomb that is now our apartment.

Hmmm now to say something witty....nope, I got nothing. I'll try to be smarter next time.

Oh and I learned from someone in one of the facebook groups that Im in that the correct word for the boots I want is not mukluks because that is the term used from peoples in the Alaska area. What I want are caribou and seal skin kamiks.  These are beautiful don't you think?

Thanks for reading.

Drum roll!

Well it looks like we might have a destination. Woo hoo.
We have an interview on Friday with the store manager in Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik), Nunavut. 

Here is a map for reference, Pond Inlet is the red dot. 

The interview Friday although not the last step is defiantly nearing the finish line. This will be our chance to ask about the community and to see if we click with the manager. Fingers crossed that everything goes well.

Because I want to be optimistic about this interview we have finally let our close friends know what is going on. Everyone has been very positive about the whole thing, I'm sure there have been a few secret WHAT THE F*^% moments but it's all good. Our family and friends know that we need to reset our life and if this isn't a reset I don't know what is.

So things are slowly but surely being sold from our apartment and we will start to bring things that we are keeping to my dads place. As I type that I'm wondering if I said that in my last post. Sorry if I repeat myself, for the next post I will go back and refresh my memory as I don't want to keep telling what I have already said.

I think we are going coat shopping tomorrow or at least go out and see what there is to buy in London. There are a crap tonne of hardcore winter coats on line but at this stage on the game I don't want to order something and either a) it not get here in time or b) not fitting. 

Speaking of shopping I am very excited about this purchase.

Ugh I just noticed how gross the quilt under the box looks, it's the bed protector because our crazy dog thinks it's cool to nap on our bed. Anyhow, so yes my dad found this combo pack at costco for the same price as the 4 pack that Walmart is selling. Score! I'm such a geek that I keep sucking the air out of them so I can watch them puff up again. I should probably stop that before I break them. 

Not sure where we will be in two years time but I want my things to be in good shape when I see them again. 

Being that I am a nester it is difficult for me to leave things behind so the thought of packing my treasures to not see them for a few years makes me a little bit sad. But it is for the best. 

If you have found this blog because you were searching for info regarding working for (name of retail company) them welcome. If you are like me, there have been times where you thought that you would never hear anything back from them, be patient. It really isn't that long of a process in the grand scheme of things.

So until next time remember that life is what you make of it, if it's not working then make a change. Yes it can be scarey as hell and there may be people that don't agree with what you are doing, but if it's not hurting you are anyone else just do it. Don't live a life of regrets because you only have this one life. 
Yah I know, I warned you there would be ramblings. :)

Who cares?

Happy New Year everyone.
I would love to tell you that Drew and I had a wild time last night but it was far from that.
We chatted last night about how from all that I have read about people in the north that next year in terms of social interaction things will be a whole lot different.
Don't get me wrong, we tried to go out last night. We thought that we had a house party to go to but found out at the last minute that, that wasn't happening. So we were at a loss of where to go since at the last minute everything is sold out or what is left is completely price gouged.
So we ordered panzarotti and then bussed it on down to the casino. The casino was Drews idea, I honestly hate it there and I find it to be the most boring thing on the planet not to mention the amount of noise.
I think we lasted 30 minutes. Oh well it was worth a shot.

There was also a very detailed conversation last night about the subject of coats. It was -20 with the windchill  and I was so not prepared for it. I have a good coat but it was no match for that wind. I lived in Ottawa for 7 years so I can deal with Ontario winters, but I've been in the London area for close to 3 now and I clearly have lost my ability to deal. This detail frightens me slightly. Clearly we both need better coats for the Arctic but have you see the cost of a Canada Goose coat! I could buy a small car for the same price. I have been hunting for something suitable and we are going with two that are rated to -40 and down filled. Although they won't be perfect I figure if we buy them big we can layer until we can afford to either have something made for us while we are there you buy something from the store. So like I said for now it will be a shopping trip to Canadian Tire for Drew and Sears for me once we get a date confirmation.

For now we wait...... it seems like it's taking forever but I guess that was to be expected when you do this sort of thing over a major holiday. Future employer is not back in the office until January 5th. All references have been contacted so the next step after we hear from the office will be to go and have physicals done. Other that Drew and I both needing to lose a few million pounds we are both in good health. I think of us as beautiful sleek seals, if they didn't have all that blubber they would freeze to death. In this case the chubbiness might help with the cold, haha ya I'll just keep tell myself that.

Now for the title of this post, I had a mini melt down on Sunday. I'll admit that I can be very over sensitive at times and because of that I sometimes just get overwhelmed with emotions. Drew and I are dreamers and when we get an idea we tell people our plans with the intent that they will manifest. Sadly they usually do not. But ever the optimist that I am I know that this opportunity will pan out for us this time. I say all of this because it feels like no one cares that we are planning to leave, and that we won't be around during the holidays for the next two years. At this point it is only family that knows about the impending move but it's them that I am having the greatest issue with. I feel left out of things. My parents were so busy (not) on Christmas day that I didn't get a phone call, I got no thank you from either one of them for the gifts that I gave them. It might sound shallow but it's not the gift itself but the fact that they raised me to have manners and where are the manners in not saying thank you?
I am happy to leave here with the thought that it might make them appreciate me more but deep down inside I know that it won't. Sorry people but this blog won't always be rainbows and lollipops.




Until next time I'll be here, dreaming of a pair of handcrafted fur lined mukluks. Nothing makes me happier than a warm pair of feet (my feet are always cold).

Who the hell are you?

Some wonder why people write blogs. Well I don't know about anyone else but for me I write publicly for the same reason that I read other peoples blogs because people fascinate me. 
Drew (hubby) thinks that I get too involved in other peoples lives but it's not that at all, it's interesting. Much like people watching.

Here I sit in the city of London Ontario (it's green and raining btw - not very festive). The city where I went to high school and where I left as soon as my four years were up. I'm a self declared gypsy. I move, A LOT. More times since 1995 then I have fingers on my two hand. I might actually have moved on to toes at this point, but lets not think about that.

 I left London a long time ago, if you have ever lived in this city you will most likely know why I left. It's a dead city and has gotten worse since I vacated my parents house many moons ago. I came back thinking to it would be good to reconnect with my parents. But I was wrong because although I would say that I have matured and changed as a person since I left here they have not. They are still the same and there is no buffer as I am the only child. Lets leave it at that since I'm sure that you didn't come here to read about my less then perfect childhood. I sometimes sit and wonder how the hell I managed to make it to an adult in one piece with a somewhat normal personality.

Anyhooo

 Since you are here let me tell you who we are, Drew and I? We have been married for almost four years, together for six. We have had less then a perfect time together because life has been a struggle so we currently are in the process of giving life a kick in the ass and doing a 180.

About three weeks ago we started the application to a retail company (I will post the company name later as I don't want to jinx it now) and have had two separate interviews for a management couple position up in the north. It will either be a posting in the Northwest Territories or Nunavut. My bones tell me Nunavut and although I wasn't keen on that location to begin with I have come to be happy, excited and terrified all at the same time about the prospect of the move.

As today is boxing day (Merry belated Christmas everyone) we are at a bit of a stand still in regards to any further news. I do know that the last were heard they had checked references and were doing a police check so keep you fingers crossed. Drew and I moved here from Ottawa and it is a decision that we have come to deeply regret and we both want out of London more than anything in the world right now.
It is time for a change, and change is coming.

So until next time; be yourself, unless of course you can be a unicorn, then of course be a unicorn.