No lifted and gifted here, just some happiness at having booked the flight to Toronto for late June, both Jen and I traveling there for our first visit and hopefully sewing up a 12-month lease for our first home there. When I'm smart enough to keep this all in perspective, my insanely bureaucratic work environment fades into the background and recedes away. (That's "when" in the now and the eventual...whichever perspective is dominant at the moment.)
Initially, I wrote "I can't wait to get started" here, but that was exhausted Monday talking. This is a big small step, and I'm looking forward to setting new bearings and visually inhaling as much of what my senses can handle.
Oh, and daydream about starting a band once I'm there. Like this.
It's been awhile since any new writing after I reviewed the essays and decided there was too much identifying information in there that seemed too distracting from what I thought I'd find. To the extent that more than two people may read any of these ramblings, I still want it to remain somewhat anonymous, at least until I put in formal notice at work, which will wait until the approval comes in for the tens of thousands of dollars in student loans that I've applied for.
Those applications were just sent today, and I'll find out the specifics on the domestic-partner qualifications from my school's international student department before sending the visa applications off to the Canadian Consulate in Detroit. Plus, we'll look to book a flight to Toronto for the last weekend in June to search for an apartment (even now, most of the Craigslist listings are for June 1st) and ask around for a flatfinder service. Then there's straightening up the apartment so that a free estimate can be given by a shipping company or two, so we can know how much that expense will be.
It'll get done. This is the dull part, the seemingly long stretch between the acceptance letter arriving two months ago and the big move three months from now. I can't even get anxious about the visa or the financial aid yet, though I'm sure that'll change by mid-June or by the time we fly there (at which point the visas will probably be halfway done processing). But I am starting to feel a disconnection starting, seeing bumper stickers and ads for places and thinking that I need to get to this or that place before we move - not to cram in memories, because I have plenty, but just to take in the things that I've always enjoyed about this area.
But every time I see another news story about some claptrap knee-jerk conservative or Tea Party crank, or find out that my home state has its own Arizona-style anti-immgirant bill introduced in the state House of Representatives, I try to think about how I'll be an immigrant soon, if all works out according to plan. I think of how I won't miss the good ol' days before Barack Obama was elected U.S. President, how suddenly the entire country seemingly turned into the Chappelle's Show episode where the racist's head exploded, with all of the pigheaded white racists suddenly deciding that it was time to air out their previously coded racism, exposing the virulence of the herd mentality in this country. I have no other country to compare it to, but even with whatever intolerance I come across in Canada, I know that it's not going to hold a candle to what now masquerades as political debate here.
I can't wait to be on the outside looking in. My timing could not be better for my peace of mind.
