hotel bars August 28, 2007
Posted by lauren in first impressions.add a comment
this will be forever known as the first post FROM montreal. granted, we have not moved yet, i am merely a guest for an elongated business meeting that started sunday and will end tomorrow night. currently, i am writing this from the 2nd floor lobby of the very modern Sofitel on Sherbrooke, overlooking a side street inhabited by a few very old buildings. quel contraste.
we have dined for the last two evenings at Newtown, Jacques Villeneuve’s resto on Crescent street. very touristy I believe, and unjustifiably expensive, as in 40 dollar entrees and 25 dollar appetizers. last night they flat out forgot my meal. they neglected to bring me my starter salad and then brought my main course 15 minutes after my fellow diners. to add insult to injury, it was the saddest veggie meal i’ve ever had. i ordered the “trio vegetarien” which marketed itself as fresh veg on either israeli couscous (which i sampled the night before and was exquisite) or orzo. I ordered the couscous version and instead they brought the orzo, accompanied by the following vegetables:
1/8 of a red pepper
2 asparagus heads
4 tiny (yet tasty) mushrooms of some sort.
WELL WORTH THE WAIT. ugh. no apologies either!
perhaps this explains why I got a little more tipsy on the abundantly flowing wine than I originally attended. the service was horrible, which i have not experienced in montreal ever. typically we dine well and the level of service you can expect accompanies the elevated cost. at any rate, they tossed the idea out of going there again tonight and i think half the room paled. apparently the experience varied by guest.
picked up the keys to our new place on sunday night, and i am thoroughly pleased. its bigger, and more loudly painted, than i remember. ange and i will have our work cut out for us, but at least we’ll have room to stretch our legs. and by stretch our legs i mean i’ll be able to wake up in the morning and make coffee without it being right outside where she is sleeping.
the other news is i can’t wait to move. t-minus 3.5 days and counting.
boxes, boxes, and more boxes. August 27, 2007
Posted by ange in Uncategorized.add a comment
i’m in the midst of packing up my apartment. i have no idea how i have so much stuff. i am only two thirds done and it seems like i have a TON of boxes. upon counting it seems i have 12 boxes. i have no grounds for comparison since the last time i moved i didn’t have a lot of “stuff” but i sure am glad that lauren and i have the biggest apartment sized truck booked. it’s amazing i have so much stuff in my somewhat small apartment.
lauren is in montreal this week for work. how’s that for funny? she doesn’t find it that funny since she had to do all her packing over the last couple weeks and finish the rest on thursday. my goal is to finish up the vast majority of my packing by wednesday afternoon so that when she gets back, i’ll be free to help her and help decrease her stress.
the best part of lauren being in montreal is that she picked up the keys and got to take a look at the apartment. the best news ever was that after lauren checked it out she said, “it’s even BIGGER than i remember it.” she also said there was more kitchen and bathroom storage than she remembered, too. she did say that we’ll definitely need to paint, as the last tenants lived there for 6 years PLUS the colours are quite bright and not quite to our tastes…. so that would be the only downside to the whole “bigger than i remembered” thing… it will probably take longer to paint. whoops. at least our landlord promised to pay for the paint.
end of a century. oh, its nothing special. August 23, 2007
Posted by lauren in Uncategorized.2 comments
i just finished packing up and sorting through 4.5 years worth of stuff that i have accumulated here at the office. i am feeling a touch of the blues but wonder why i don’t feel worse.
good bye, old office. hello, new future.
Edit: they didn’t even get me a farewell card. CLASSY.
wow! August 22, 2007
Posted by ange in leaving.1 comment so far
my biggest challenge this week has been coming to terms (at work) that i’m actually leaving. no matter how much of a kid i feel like, i am feeling the magnitude of my absence at work. like anything else, they’ll find a way to go on without me & a suitable replacement (occasionally i am lead to believe that a well-trained monkey can do my job). but i can feel this weight of recognition. at least a little bit. and pride. in what i manage to accomplish on a weekly basis.
this coming to terms has felt kind of crazy and strange and has lead to that exhilaration that had previously been missing. i can’t even imagine NOT being employed in a 50-60 hours (plus) work week but i’m looking forward to it. i’m not looking forward to the need to piece together income in such a haphazard kind of way (combining my research assistant position with freelancing and other miscellaneous university jobs) but i think it will be fine. maybe even fun. and keep life interesting.
i’m looking forward to the keeping life interesting part. to the new city. to painting and organizing the apartment with lauren. to weekend visitors. to grocery shopping. to time to sew and PVR and cooking delicious food. to weekends dedicated to papers and weekends dedicated to road trips “home” and weekends dedicated to our 2 year anniversary!
i was joking at work today that my job may have helped kick my procrastination habit (hah! we’ll see about that) and helped me build good time management skills because i’m used to managing and fitting so much work into relatively small periods of time. we’ll see how that goes. i’m tempted to keep life busy because it may help me be productive and efficient. but maybe i’m owed less efficiency and productivity in the name of procrastination. uh, i mean, relaxation.
the inaugural post August 21, 2007
Posted by lauren in leaving.add a comment
its 9 days until we pack everything into the van and start the cross country (ok, interprovincial) move. i am basically buried in my bedroom underneath a pile of boxes, having started the packing extra early due to an ill-timed business trip that returns me to Toronto the day before we move. ange has started packing as well. between the two of us, i am certain we will be ready in the next week to get the heck outta town.
i have learned a few things since we decided to move:
1. deciding to move is a cinch
2. so is apartment hunting
3. everything else is horribly, horribly difficult. the universe does not want to us to have a phone line, telephone or internet, and it has singled me out to be denied a timely: car, job contract or parking permit. it does not want ange to have a clean and clear cut work situation, and i am almost certain we will be suffering from a lack of heat in the winter and/or adequate shovel to de-bury ourselves from the mountainous snow we are sure to encounter.
in spite of these challenges, or because of them (growth experiences and such), i remain positive and positively thrilled about what is to come. new city, new friends, new office, new car, new everything.. just no legal way to park said new car. yet.
now i must stop packing (blogging) and head out to meet Amy for a drink. the nicest thing about leaving is how many people want to see you before you go. especially since those encounters typically involve booze. double fun!
ta, kittens.
