Grab a Surfboard

So, my life has been a massive tsunami of change lately. I have a new job, I'm living in a new city, I will be moving into a new apartment, and I'm getting married in less than four months. The only other thing I could have done was to skip the country entirely and learn to speak a new language. Heh. This ocean of life is moving pretty fast now...

The main difference that created this giant wave is my new job here in Mississauga. I recently landed a position as a Database Developer with OSL Marketing. I started my new job a little over one week ago and it's been fantastic so far. Plenty of fascinating work creating the database side of websites for famous brands like Pepsi and McCain. I'll probably post some links as my work is rolled out live but I definitely appreciate the fact that everyone will be able to see and use the fruits of my labour now.

It's a fascinating job for a cool company, with good benefits, fun/funky co-workers and some impressive management philosophy. I think that my talents will fit perfectly and I have plenty of room for my professional ambitions. I'm looking forward to being here for a long time. Thankfully, it's been great fun to delve into the database designs and offer my ideas, a distinct pleasure with very little stress.

On the other hand, almost all of my free time in the past few weeks has been devoted to apartment searches in the Mississauga area. Unlike being a database geek, this was a terrible ball of stress for me. To be honest, I was getting freaked out that I would not find something suitable at all. Every night, I was scouring the internet rental postings and calling place after place for more information. I visited a number of places during this period, and time was not on my side since I'm already working here.

After getting a feel for the local rental market, I tried to focus on basement apartments. The price range was much more manageable and it costs several hundred dollars more per month to upgrade to a proper high-rise apartment building. Granted, you get what you pay for - I had to sift through a lot of ugly options along the way. Kiss a lot of frogs to find your princess, as the saying goes.

So while money was a binding factor, my other main concern is that this apartment was no mere short-term residence. This was intended to be the first home for me and my fiance Cam after we get married in a few months, so I wanted it to be something that would actually deserve the title of "home" for us, at least for a while. Throw in the fact that we needed two parking spaces, since we're both working professionals in IT, and that made the pickings pretty slim.

Lo and behold, we managed to find a superb place this past Saturday. I'm moving in this coming Monday and it's fabulous. It's a basement apartment but since the house is on a slope, the back is actually a walk-out with a patio and private yard. It's extremely large, has two bedrooms, it's quite cheap and it's all-inclusive with internet access. I won't post pictures or anything but suffice it to say, we found a hidden gem. Many thanks to Cam for all of her work and advice during this entire process as well, especially since speaking to strangers isn't exactly my forte.

And speaking of thanks, much of it must go to Josh and Beth Jones, Josh being the brother of the infamous Abe. Abe got me into contact with his brother once he heard that I was moving to the area, and Josh was quite helpful in giving me local advice. Astonishingly, Josh and Beth also offered to let me stay with them in the guest room in their apartment during these first few weeks, and I still can't believe how generous they have been to me. I was going to have to take a motel room and their kind offer made my life sooo much easier.

The next four months or so will still be crazy. I have to get settled into the new apartment, pack up and move all of worldly possessions, and start the gradual process of importing Cam's belongings. Somewhere in there, Cam and I have to finish planning our wedding. I'm the Best Man for Battle's wedding at the end of this month and I'm a Groom's Man for Lawyer Kid's wedding in May. I expect to succeed spectacularly at work, of course. And the hardest part, by far, is that I only get to see Cam on weekends when I go back to London. Yeah...

The waves of life are crashing all around but the horizon is getting brighter and the dawn is going to be brilliant. I'll be happiest four or five months from now after the this phase of frantic activity is over and I can settle into my life with my new wife. Until then, I guess I'll just grab a surfboard and try to enjoy the ride...