Normal Things

My last several posts have been about exciting things, but not every week can be that exciting. I was trying to think about what would be interesting to post about today, and realized that for the first time in a while we had sort of a normal week. I realized also that I haven't really posted much about what day to day life is like lately. In many ways, despite the many changes we have had in the past year, life is sort of just like normal.

We go to work five days a week, try to get to the gym most days (in my case sometimes replaced by PT), come home and eat dinner, and then either work a bit more, run errands, do housework, or just relax. Jeff spends more of his time running errands and doing housework, and I spend more of my time resting, but otherwise this is not so different from our usual routine.

Our jobs are going well – there is always much more to do than there is time to do it, and we are each figuring out how to manage this in our own ways. But I know I am in the right job when I am thinking about all of the different things that I get to do rather than thinking about what I have to do. I am heading into my ninth week of teaching this semester, and I'm finding that teaching is really fun and rewarding. I taught a lot as a graduate student, and even though I was the instructor, I never felt quite like I was in charge the way that I feel I am now. I get to decide everything – what textbook to use, from what orientation to teach the class, whether to do things completely differently from how they have been done before. I am teaching a class I have never taught before (Personality), and at first I found the topic a bit daunting because it was new to me, but I'm finding that I am able to teach it in such a way that I get to weave in my expertise.

Besides work, we are also trying to have some normalcy on our downtime. This morning we made pancakes, and spent a good part of the morning doing crossword puzzles together. This afternoon Jeff spent some time on the phone with a friend, and I went to the mall (all by myself!) to do some shopping. Despite the fact that everything is kind of crazy, our life is also full of normal things.

We Bought a House!

For the past while, we have been looking at houses, with the non-urgent attitude of being happy to move anytime before next winter (Jeff is not willing to weather another winter without a garage). Our real estate agent said that we would know the right house when we saw it. Well, last Sunday we saw it. We were fairly certain when we saw the listing that we would like the house, and when we walked in it felt right. So last Monday we put in an offer, and the sellers accepted it right away. Over the past week we have gotten final approval on our mortgage, home inspection, and worked out all the other details that go into buying a house. Earlier this evening we signed the final paperwork, so if we back out now we will lose substantial sum of money. We have no intention of backing out– we are extremely excited to own our first home!

We will be moving in the last week of April, after the end of the semester here, and before I teach an intensive course in May. The house is very well maintained, and although it's an older house and a little bit small, I think it will be perfect for us. It is also in a really good location, tucked back on a tiny little street where the only traffic is the people who live there, but close to main roads so it's easy to get places, and within a couple of blocks of the extensive bike path and park system. There is also a large fenced backyard. Here are a few photos, taken from the real estate listing:

Front yard and trees in the summer

Front of the house in the winter

Living room with big window

Dining area adjacent to living room

Kitchen adjacent to the dining area

In addition to these main living areas, there are three bedrooms, and a fully finished basement. There will be plenty of space for visitors, so we hope you will come and see us!

Plains, Trains, and Automobiles

Last week was our winter break, and we didn't have classes (so no teaching), and we decided to take advantage of our time off. I have been trying to do a blog post once a week, usually on Sunday, but last week I was unable to post because I was traveling across the plains to visit friends in Lethbridge.  There have been several exciting developments in the past two weeks. First, we got our new car! We have never owned a new car before, and can hardly believe how much cars have improved in the last decade and a half. So far we absolutely love it.

Happy new Toyota owner

The very first thing we did after getting the new car was to take a road trip across the prairies to visit friends in Alberta. It was a 6 1/2 hour drive across the flattest land I have ever seen. The scenery was quite different from what we see driving on the West Coast, but I was pleasantly surprised that it has its own beauty, and is interesting in a different way. You can see so far, that it is possible to see an entire train from engine to caboose. I had never really thought of this before, but I somehow found it captivating, and kept trying to take pictures out the car window to capture it. I felt sort of like a three-year-old, pointing out every train to Jeff as we drove. I would have needed a panoramic camera lens to get a whole train, but I was able to get a couple of pictures of most of a train.

My view from the car window

We had a lovely visit with our friends, and returned on Tuesday night. Then on Thursday, I had my driving evaluation to determine whether I would be allowed to drive on my own. I was really nervous leading up to the test, more nervous than I thought I would be. Part of my nervousness was that I had been practicing driving in our old Passat, but had decided to take the driving exam in the new Prius. The Prius is easier to drive, but I was less familiar with it. I was still making some mistakes when driving, and was worried that I might not pass the test. On Thursday afternoon I went for my evaluation, and the evaluator was very nice. We drove around downtown for about 20 min., and at the end the evaluator went over the mistakes I had made. I got marked down for failing to look over my shoulder nine times, and a few of their mistakes. Looking quickly over my shoulder (as one would usually do when making turns or lane changes) is the one situation where I have problems with my double vision, and a little bit of trouble with vertigo. Despite what sounded to me like a huge number of demerits, I passed the exam! I am now legally allowed to drive all by myself wherever I want. We immediately went out for ice cream to celebrate, as we do.

Chocolate hazelnut ice cream with fudge brownie on top, and an unrestricted drivers license

Ready to take the driver's seat

 I have only driven alone once so far – to go pick up contact lenses from my eye doctor. Not too glamorous, but still exciting. It was the first time Jeff had been home by himself since we moved here. An exciting milestone in my recovery!

Reflecting and Celebrating

One year ago, I was stressed out about being in a very unsettled place, not knowing where we would live or what kind of job I would have after my postdoc finished. Two years ago, I was in my first postdoc position and was fairly unhappy with my job. Three years ago, I had just been diagnosed with my cavernous malformation, after experiencing my first bleed. Four years ago, my life was filled with the unknowns of where I would be for my clinical internship, and whether Jeff and I would be living in the same city.

While I no doubt have my share of stressors this year, they are different – still a lot of uncertainty, yes, but a different kind of uncertainty. In a lot of ways, things are starting to settle for us-- we are no longer living year-to-year, never knowing what will come next. As long as we do our jobs, we can stay here as long as we like. There is of course no way to know exactly what the future will hold, but at least now it doesn't seem like an ominous impending cliff. It has instead become a giant mountain, which I may never quite be able to climb, but at least now it's about hard work and perseverance and taking try after try, as opposed to trying to steer clear of some unseen pit, not knowing exactly where it is or when it will show up. Different kinds of challenges. I can't help but wonder what next year will bring.

Yesterday was my birthday, and we celebrated by having people over for cake in the afternoon. It was a small party, with a few people from work, and some friends who are also new faculty here, who we met when we first arrived. Two of our colleagues from work brought small children with them, and the balloons we blew up and had sitting on the floor turned out to be a big hit. At one point one of the kids decided that since it was my birthday I should be buried in balloons. It was total chaos for a couple of minutes, and Jeff tried to catch it with the camera, but just got the tail end:

A good time was had by all.

Update: The video should now work :)

Thank Goodness for Good Neighbors

It has been extremely cold here, especially last week. On Wednesday, it got down to almost -40°C (which coincidentally is also -40°F). While most people here plug in their cars, our parking situation is such that we don't have access to electrified parking while we are at work. There is a wait list to get into the lots that have electrified parking, and an even longer wait list to get into the heated underground parkade. Because of my disability parking permit, we are able to park right in front of our building. This is convenient, except for the fact that it is unprotected and often icy, which can be hazardous for me getting in and out of the car. It is also problematic on very very cold days, because weather like that can kill a battery if the car is not kept warm either by staying indoors or plugging it in.

I have been badgering the parking office to allow us to get parking in the underground lot in anticipation of the possibility of me driving to work on my own, as I am not particularly comfortable with the idea of getting in and out of the car and trying to get my walker by myself when there's ice on the ground (which is all of the time). Not to mention that if it snows during the day it would be almost impossible for me to clear the snow or ice off of the windshield and windows. So far I have not gotten a response from the parking office regarding my request. If they deny me, I will take it to the next level, as I think this is clearly a disability accommodation issue and this request should be granted.

It is very unfortunate that we had to park outside last Wednesday when it was so cold, as after being parked there for about eight hours, the car wouldn't start. We contacted campus security, and they try to jumpstart our car, but it didn't work. By a stroke of good luck, the campus security officer who responded happened to be someone I had met at a training, who also happens to live one block from us. Jeff and I played board games with him and his wife a couple of weeks ago. He kindly offered to drive us home, which was well beyond what he had to do as a part of his job.

We tried calling CAA (the Canadian equivalent of AAA), and apparently we were not the only ones having car trouble in the cold weather, because we could barely get through. They were finally able to come by on Thursday to try to get the car to start (it didn't), and then sent someone else out on Friday to replace the battery. It still didn't start. We eventually had the car towed to a shop where it will be looked at on Monday.

We are also fortunate to be friends with another faculty member in our department who happens to live three blocks away. He was able to take us to work on Thursday and Friday, and helped us out in a number of other ways. We had relied on this neighbor/colleague/friend for a lot of rides for a couple of days, and knowing that we wouldn't have the car at least until Monday, we finally decided to rent a car.

At that point we realized that our car is now 14 years old. We were frustrated and fed up with car trouble, and decided that now that we have real jobs maybe it's time to get a real car – a newer car that won't break down so often. We have been talking about this possibility for a long time, and have always wanted to get a hybrid. We decided that there was no reason not to do it, so yesterday we went to a dealership and picked out a car. We decided that we wanted the new Prius v, took it for a test drive, thought it was great, and successfully negotiated a deal on a 2012 model. We applied for financing, and to our surprise as well as the dealer's, Toyota Canada is able to talk to Toyota USA. Based on our American credit history, we were able to get approved for the best deal on financing. We should have our new car in 7 to 10 business days (it has to be transported from elsewhere). We were so pleased that we went out for ice cream to celebrate, as we do:

Jeff thinks it's reasonable to wear a T-shirt out to ice cream when it's -12°C. To be fair, compared with the weather from a couple of days earlier it did feel balmy out.

A picture of us driving our new car, that Jeff drew while we were having ice cream.

What our new car will actually look like.

This morning, I baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and we delivered them to our two helpful neighbors. It's nice to know that even though we are new here and haven't yet established a huge social network, we do have people we can count on to help us out when we need it!