Surreality

There are certain moments in one's life that are memorable because of their symbolism, the physicality they bring to aging.

Getting your driver's license. Drinking your first beer (legally...). Moving out.

And now, signing the lease to your first apartment.

That last one just happened to me this past week, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm jumping in sight-unseen, aside from the photos provided by the current tenants, but I have zero anxiety. Only excitement. The place is basically everything I ever dreamed of: bright rooms, modern finishes, a touch of old Montreal flair, close to amenities, and in a gentrifying ethnic neighbourhood.

I could go on an on about this apartment despite having never set foot in it! And that lends a bit of surreality* to this whole thing. It's weird to think, and even more weird to say, that I have an apartment. "My apartment in Montreal." I've never even been to that city! How can I have a slice of real estate there?

Suffice to say, now that I have a place locked down, I'm no longer obsessively checking the "For Rent" sections of Kijiji and Craihslist. I've moved on to the IKEA website, furniture listings, and McGill's "Free and For Sale" page.

This could get dangerous.

*Yes, "surreality" is a word. It comes from the French surréalité. Which is fitting.

photo from the original apartment listing on Kijiji

Momentous Occasions are Momentous

I bring tidings of great joy, and I come bearing gifts! No, it's not Christmas all over again (although there's still snow on the ground in Banff), it's the return of my blog!

Well, sort of.

I won't promise on making regular posts again, but so much has happened in the last little while that an appearance became necessary. We're gonna do this in numbered format to make things more interesting and easy to follow, savvy?

1. I've been accepted to McGill University's Urban Planning programme for 2013! I'll be moving to Montreal at the end of August, where I'll be living for about two years. After that I want to head back to British Columbia, but two years ago I would have laughed at you had you told me I'd be living in Banff in the near future, so we'll see what happens.

2. I actually finished something accomplished a predetermined goal on Protagonize! Over the last few days I've posted both a new chapter and the epilogue to the rough draft of my story Red King Chronicles. It is by no means a finished story, though, hence I amended my above statement to say I reached a goal. Close to the beginning of the year I decided that I needed to do a complete rewrite of the story: new intro, new back story for Jason, new sequence of events, new a lot of things. However, I told myself that I wouldn't start the editing process until after I brought the current draft full circle to the prologue. I have now done that and am looking for critique. So, have at 'er!

3. After a year and a half of collection dust, there's finally a new chapter in Elsie! I had to reread the entire story myself before continuing on, but my the fires of my inspiration have been stoked. I drafted a chapter outline for the latest chapter and the following chapter, possibly two following chapters. I've got the conflict sorted out, so now I just need to figure out how to resolve said conflict and eventually bring the story to a close. I'm being optimistic about this one, for once.

4. Caramel Tim Tams were in stock at the grocery store so I'm doing Caramel Tim Tam Slams! Be excited for me.

5. I still feel that lists should contain multiples of five, so...

And that's all!

photo by me