Road trip! Part 1

We are off to visit with the in-laws.  I find it odd to remind myself that we haven't actually met in person!  Having become accustomed, even after arriving in Canada, to talking to them via video messaging, the idea of going to actually visit in their home is quite exciting.

The big deal about this trip, of course, is the distance.  9.5 hours on the bus, including layover time, to cover three stages.  At the end of that, a dash across town to catch the train for the hour-long ride to the city where my in-laws make their home.  In Jamaica, a trip that long would suffice to see me across the island.  In Canada, I am covering a small part of what is not even the largest province.

The sheer size of country I'll be traveling through does not bother me.  Nor does the idea of traveling for that amount of time.  In general, I am a happy traveler.  On the road, in the air, no matter how, as long as I am going I find the journey itself interesting, and take pleasure in watching changing scenery and people.  

I make sure that by whatever means I am traveling I am comfortable, which for me means as little luggage as possible (only a backpack), a camera close to hand and snack items suitable to my comfort.  In Jamaica I am plagued by car sickness and make it a habit to not eat during trips, except for granola bars or candy bars or some such once the part of the journey most likely to set me off is past.  In Canada I do not expect to be as uncomfortable, given they are not prone to the Jamaican propensity for building roads with hairpin curves at every turn.  However, I am still restricting food items to a bag of trail mix, a granola bar, a Snickers chocolate bar (loaded with peanuts, very good for suppressing hunger for hours) and a bottle of water.  During the layovers I do not wish to be preoccupied with finding food or a bathroom, hence the one bottle of water over 10 hours of travel.

My camera is charged and ready, so is my iPod.  My travel comfort depends on having music at hand, in the event I do not wish to engage in conversation.  Since I will be traveling with G, conversation will be inevitable in this particular trip.  However, my iPod is also my comfort for sleeping, I listen to audiobooks and it soothes me to sleep.  Sleeping in strange beds gives me Strange Bed Syndrome as I label that curious discomfort that arises from a new bed, and having a comfort of home will help to ease that.  I hope not to finish 10 hours of traveling only to find myself unable to sleep because my body refuses to relax into unfamiliar surroundings!

I am already suffering some separation anxiety, oddly enough.  I have settled into E.L., I am happy here, I know my surroundings now.  Only a couple days ago I took one of the dogs for a walk and was able to simply wander from street to street with him and orient myself back to home with barely a conscious thought and no debate about whether the way I was going was indeed correct.  Going back to the "big city" of Toronto now throws it back into stark relief that Canada is still very much a stranger to me.  I will be dependent on G's direction and knowledge, and my recently found independence will become irrelevant.

I am looking forward to traveling about in Canada, however.  I will be seeing a bit more of it close up on the ground, I will be seeing more of the city that is the heartbeat of the country (no, Ottawa is the capital, but Toronto is where everything happens) and I will be seeing my in-laws.  I will get an idea of how ground transportation works in Canada, and taking the train for the first time here.  I rode the subway in NY and didn't like it much, but I hope to find a new pleasure in this experience.

To bed shortly, and early to rise to set out.  Part 2 when I return!

G minus 13

What a hectic few days this has been!

I expected packing up and closing off my private clients to be not quite as hectic as they turned out to be, and can only breathe a sigh of relief that the clients are over with except to be paid for my efforts, and the packing up is more or less completed for the major items.

To officially mark the end of my sojourn in Kingston, I went out to dinner with my closest female friends in Kingston.  There are only two of them, as such it was a small but enjoyable dinner that was had.  Of course, in keeping with the tradition G and I established, we went to have sushi, because that is what we do when he is leaving for Canada.  Now that I am the one doing the leaving, my friends and I did the same.

Along with dinner, I left my friends with small tokens to keep as reminders of me.  For one, a small book of practical advice for every woman; for the other, a book journal to record all the books she is reading, from one reader to another.  I will be able to look back and say, how cool was it that we could do that?  Very cool.

Tonight is my last night in this apartment, tomorrow night I fall asleep in my mother's house.  I have lived here for 19 months, and of all the addresses I had in Kingston, it will remain my favourite.  No, it wasn't the best apartment, but it certainly was the most conveniently located, and the one I felt safest going to and from.  I had the least issues here, and really few things annoyed me, and now they are of no consequence.  I am looking forward to my new address, but will remember this one fondly.

I am moving again.  In the eighteen years since I became an adult (legally, anyhow), I have had twice as many addresses as I did in the previous eighteen years.  I am obviously something of a rolling stone.  I have always been willing to pull up stakes and move to the next place in the hope that I will find something better than obtained in the last place.  In some cases, it was work, in other cases it was quality of life.

One more appointment and some bill paying tomorrow, then off to the West!

G minus 17

My colleagues gave me a send-off party yesterday.  It was so unexpected, it came as a complete surprise.  By dint of some slick manoeuvres, they got me out of the office so they could get the decorations and cake into the meeting room, which is located directly behind my cubicle.  I even walked past the team members who chose the card they all signed while they paid for it and was not one bit the wiser.

I was astonished, and honestly have never had a nicer send-off.  Considering that I have worked with them for the shortest period I have ever been employed full-time, it speaks to the quality of the team spirit at this particular place that they felt it was necessary to do this for me.  I was not the least bit reluctant to give the expected "speech" and spent it praising them individually and collectively for the welcome, the training, the encouragement and the camaraderie I was so fortunate to experience.

So, now we're at G minus 17, as a clever friend of ours described it, a description I was pleased to adopt.  I am going fully into moving mode now.  I hope to get a few boxes to start packing away my books, and I will pack away all the clothes I won't wear in the following week and those I don't plan to take with me.  I need to have my spaces clear so I can begin cleaning them down.  I intend for cleaning to be a multi-day project rather than a one or two day event, as I will be scattering some appointments through the various days.

One such appointment is to see a dermatologist.  While I am fortunate enough to be married to a man who literally loves me "warts and all", I have long wrestled with self-consciousness over those on my face and neck and have decided to have them dealt with.  I think it's appropriate that I start my new phase in life with a fresh look, and not carry some of the image issues I have had here with me.  This treatment is unlikely to rid me of all of them, but at the least the most obvious ones will go.  There are some that look like freckles, I find those unremarkable and do not care if they remain.

Another appointment is to see to my bank account, as I have some monthly commitments attached to it that I need to sign paperwork for it to cease.  Not looking forward to that, getting service at my branch involves waiting for an hour to be seen for 10 minutes.  I will be staying with the same bank in Canada, and plan to keep this account open to do any business necessary in Jamaica.

So, on with the show!