Happy Anniversary

The past three weeks have been filled with the sentence, "This time last year..."

I took a mid-September holiday up to Vancouver.  I flew out on the day I had just given up my apartment the year before.

My first day back at work after said trip was the one year anniversary of embarking on my road trip in 2014. I found this the most poignant of all anniversaries.  On the day I said 'screw it' to the universe one year, I said 'yes' to a new job and routine the next.

Today, as I write this, it is the one year anniversary of my arrival in Vancouver. When last year I crossed the border crying and laughing simultaneously, today I celebrated with a stuffy, un-airconditioned ride home on Chicago public transit on my way to my pre-Vancouver improv class. And honestly? I was perfectly happy.

It's an odd feeling.  As I'm growing more comfortable with life here, Vancouver still feels like it happened yesterday. Granted I just took a trip to visit, but be it six months or 3 years I know I'll have a second home there.

Speaking of homes, I move into a new one this Saturday. The furniture and boxes I put into storage one year ago will be pulled out and driven to Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood. I will have my own couch. My own bed.  ...and it will feel so very final. 

This journey will be over.  

So Little Time

It's been a heck of a week. New job & excessive commute left me exhausted.  How did I not think this change in lifestyle would be hard?

In an effort to ease the commute, I spent the better part of my Labor Day weekend apartment hunting in Chicago.  I saw some great places and some not-so-great ones. I put an offer in on one, only to find it rented the night before  and I had to promptly begin the search again.  No firm housing plans yet - hopefully the second application is successful.

In the midst of all this, I was cramming in preparations to travel back to Vancouver. I'm on my way today with an over-packed suitcase and a relative idea of what my week there will look like. Overall, though,  it's a day I've been anticipating for months, but is now feeling like one more thing I have to deal with.  I'm guessing this feeling will disappear when I arrive... I just find it surprising.