Occasional Notes

Am at a hotel in Toronto. After an epic unpacking and repacking, I have got my two suitcases and two carry-ons down to regulation weight.

Sort of. Well, mostly. Very, very close.

And I am hoping that whoever is checking me in tomorrow is just a little bit flexible -- to the tune of a pound or two per bag, according to the bathroom scale that we brought with us from North Bay -- when we're all at the scale tomorrow.

Um. Hi. Last night in Canada.

*panicflail*

I CAN'T SLEEP.

I AM FREAKING OUT ABOUT HOW MUCH I HAVE LEFT TO DO.

( HERE IS A PICTURE OF ME FLYING A PLANE. )

That is all.

( countdown )

In other news, my thanks to everyone who replied to yesterday's toaster panic. It has now passed.

Back to packing up. Someone is moving into my room shortly after I leave it -- a temporary answer to a family friend's housing crisis, wherein he had an apartment for the year and then it fell through unexpectedly and he is in Manitoba and only came out for a weekend a while back to settle the housing issue and can't come back now to fix it, so -- which has raised the bar significantly. I really honestly have to pack everything up.

Also, I am running out of room in my suitcases, but not out of things that need to be packed.

Um.

So. Hi. Eight days.

I am told that I will not be able to get internet in at my place of residence. I have also heard, on the sly, from people who were staying there in February that there is someone in the area that has WiFi and that internet may be bootlegged so long as you are willing to spend all your time balancing your computer on the window sill.

Which, of course, I am, particularly as the other option is an internet cafe that is many blocks away.

I am not sure how well I will manage with possibly very limited internet access. What will I do without email? LJ? Fandom? Porn? Unlimited information on every single topic in existance right at my fingertips? Did I mention porn?

Other points of concern to occur to me as the date of my flight out looms ever nearer:

- I am a creature of extremely predictable nutritional habits. I've had Bran Flakes for breakfast almost every single day for years. I always buy exactly the same kind of jam and peanut butter and coffee. I have one thing at every restaurant I go to regularly that I always, always order. I am going to have to get all new regular things when I move to England. This is a daunting task. I am not sure I am equal to it.
- I do not have slippers. I need slippers. It's England. It's damp there. My feet will get cold.
- What if I am a terrible teacher? I'm not -- I am, in fact, a very good teacher. I have the evaluations and glowing letters of recommendation to prove it. But they are, perhaps, wrong. What if I screw up the lives of all the children I come into contact with? I believe I would feel bad about that.
- London is VERY BIG. On the other hand, Stead once lived there. As did Wellington. I'm sure I'll manage.
- I will have to learn how to ride my bike on the other side of the road. I am bound to get confused. I must see if I can find a handbook of some sort to guide me through this transition.
- What if I forget something very important?

That is all I have to say about that.

So, I've started sorting and packing my belongings -- which mostly consist of books, and how very much the student cliche am I? -- for storage while I'm in England. My parents' garage has a big, empty space under the roof -- we're going to lay plywood down over the rafters, stack my boxes up, and tarp the whole pile to keep the lot dry.

And it's surprising me how very difficult I'm finding it to pack up my history books. I got rid of a lot of them in the last move, and more again with this sorting, so all that remains are the ones that I really, really love. All the old Stead and Victorian publishing sources, bits of literary and journalism theory, meta-sources on the history of popular culture and British imperialism, and a pile of Wellington biographies and biopics.

I don't want to box them up for an indefinite period of storage! I want to bring them with me and keep them and pet them and love them and even, occasionally, read them!

*CLINGS*

In other news, the packing process is proving quite interesting. I pick up an empty box, balance it on a chair, fill it up with books, and then call someone to come and take it away as I am still not allowed to lift anything. I could get used to this oi, you, come'ere and do the heavy lifting for me approach to life.

I have five plus years of pack rat-ism strewn across my floors, I have chewed my previously respectable fingernails off, my father can't come to help because of a work emergency, I have twelve hundred forty nine seven fifteen eight eleven twenty two nine things to do tomorrow before my mother arrives with the moving truck at eleven o'clock, another seventy nine two four thousand twelve eleventy nine eight one seven things to do after she leaves with the truck a few hours later, I may have accidentally packed the pair of clean underpants I meant to wear tomorrow, and my father talked me into leaving my bike behind when I came up to Ottawa to sort things out so I HAVEN'T RIDDEN IN DAYS AND I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT. I AM SO SICK OF PACKING I CAN'T EVEN. WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME I HAD ACCUMULATED THIS MUCH CRAP? I'M GOING TO MISS MY DISHES WHEN I MOVE BACK INTO MY PARENTS' HOUSE. I'M NOT GOING TO HAVE EVERYTHING READY IN TIME AND MY MOTHER IS GOING TO BE DISPLEASED. MY THESIS DEFENCE HAS BEEN SET FOR A DAY WHEN I'M SUPPOSED TO BE PRACTICE TEACHING AND THE COMMITTEE IS COMPOSED OF CANADIAN AND WOMEN'S HISTORIANS, WHICH REALLY ISN'T WHAT MY THESIS IS ABOUT. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY MISS MY BIKE.

That is all. Carry on.

The bike.

Oh. My. God.

The bike.

I am actually, earnestly, not-faking-for-internet-fun at a loss for words to describe how wonderful the bike is. I rode for a little over two hours today and felt like I could have easily gone for another two, except for the fact that I really did need to get back to packing. I even managed to get the hang of clipless pedals right off, which work rather like ski bindings. The gentlemen at Full Cycle out and out promised me that I would fall off the bike a couple of times before it got through to my subconscious that my feet were actually bound into the pedals and that I needed to twist out to release them. Apparently, however, a lifetime of downhill skiing has served me in good stead and I had no trouble at all adjusting.

Anyway, the bike proved to be even more fabulous over the first ride than I had expected it to be after my three second spin around the cycle shop's parking lot. I can't wait for tomorrow when, if I get up early enough, I get to do it again.

Also on the plate for tomorrow: FINALLY TURNING MY THESIS IN HEY YEAH RIGHT ON. Loading up my car with my cats, bikes, skis, guitar (which will likely be sad and lonely in the presence of all those other matched pairs), and anything else that will fit. Driving to North Bay.

But enough about the mundane nonsense. I'm going to go back to thinking about my bike now.

Briefly:

The Montreal weekend was great. jubilancy and oneangrykate(s) are great. mcee was as lovely as ever, but in a completely different city than I'm used to her being lovely in. I saw my Montreal cousins, and they were great. I barely thought about my thesis at all, had a really seriously lovely time, and came home only very reluctantly. I am making plans to either kidnap or be kidnapped by the aforementioned Montreal girls permanently.

My cycling preoccupation is getting out of hand. Several Montreal cyclists think that they were being perved upon, when really I was lusting over their bikes. I cannot pass a cycling shop without sticking my nose against the window and trying to read the price tags on their display models. I am currently attempting to figure out what make and model of road bike offers the best value/cost balance, but the internet, for once, is not helping. I am very confused, but soldiering on.

Thesis continues to anti-develop. Thesis supervisor should get her requested couriered print out of it in hand tomorrow morning and perhaps something will happen shortly thereafter. Defense, I hear, should be early September some time.

I went to see Sky High with lmondegreen this after noon. The movie was cute and amusing, and the same can be said, as always, of the company. Afterwards, I gave lmondegreen a ride home and met her dog, who is absolutely adorable. He's big and affectionate and kind of floppy looking.


Tomorrow's plans include:

- bike ride
- getting passport pictures taken
- submitting passport renewal forms (w/ pictures)
- drooling over bikes at what seems to be a particularly well-favoured downtown cycling shop (all the models I'm most interested in list this particular shop as their Ottawa distributer)
- buying boxes to start packing my house up for the move to North Bay, which is coming up...quickly