i don't want to be lonely, i don't want to be scared
I know I'm hella behind on my friends page again, and I promise I will catch up eventually, but right now, I want to write my own post. Let me just note that as I type this, I can clearly hear my neighbor's obnoxious reggae/hiphop/whatthefuckever music. Through the walls (which are not especially thin), and over the music in my own earbuds. So effing obnoxious, and this is nowhere near the first time it's happened. I finally got sick enough of it tonight to call the cops and lodge a noise complaint. They said they're sending someone out. I'll keep you posted.
Anyway, Aimee came to visit me this weekend, and it was an awesome time! Her bus got into Toronto Thursday afternoon while I was at work, so she hung out downtown until I could join her and bring her to knitting group. She got to meet most of the group, including the one girl I'm really not fond of, who said something rude to Aimee, which let her figure out who it was without me even telling her. Seriously, this girl. Ugh. I wish she wasn't in the group. Everyone else in it rocks my socks off and I love the group so much, but this girl just makes me irritated and slightly angry. Clearly, stupid neighbor's nonstop dance party has put me in a mood to bitch about other aggravating things. Let's try to refocus on the fun stuff. Friday, I had to work, so Aimee hung out with some other Toronto friends during the day, then we met up to eat dinner at Panera, which is one of Aimee's favorite US things she's been missing. They don't have any in Montreal, where she lives, but there are a few around Toronto, so of course we had to go. We then went glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing, which seems to be a requirement for me to take visiting friends to.
After that, we were both pretty beat, and opted for sleeping in and taking our time heading out on Saturday. We used the free pass I'd gotten to go check out Casa Loma, which was pretty cool. I did take pictures, but, shockingly, I haven't uploaded them yet, so you'll see them some other time. It was a pretty cool building, complete with secret passageways!, but we were both glad we hadn't actually had to pay for it. Walking around for 3 or 4 hours (and about a million stairs) kind of tired us out again, so we chilled at my place for a bit and I made us dinner, before we went to the movies to see The Secret World of Arietty, which was cute, if predictable. Also, the previews indicated that there are a whole bunch of upcoming movies I want to see: Mirror Mirror, The Pirates! (soooo can't wait for this one), and Brave, probably among others. Our final adventure of the evening was hitting up a Coldstone, where I discovered they sell ice cream cookie sandwiches! So delicious. Aimee headed home Sunday morning, but it was really good to see her and hang out for a couple days. I will have to visit her in Montreal at some point. :)
Ahhhh, amazing. I think the cops just showed up, and we can actually hear ourselves think again. Wonderful, not having someone else's music blaring into your home.
In house hunting adventures, Brad and I have gone to look at two houses so far. The first looked pretty amazing from the ad, and sounded more or less perfect. Unfortunately, shortly after we got there, the current tenants informed us that the basement tenant is allergic to cats, soooo that's out. (The no pets bit was added to the ad right before we visited, apparently.) It was also much more cramped than it appeared in the pictures, plus the laundry was shared and there was no dishwasher, so it wasn't the great deal we'd originally thought.
We went to look at this house last night, and at first, it seemed much better. The rooms were bigger and more spacious, 3 bedrooms, better location, private laundry, etc.; it was pretty much fantastic except for the kitchen. First, it was a very strange layout, with the fridge off in a corner of the dining room, the washer and dryer in the kitchen, no dishwasher, and part of the kitchen kind of wrapping around a corner. Not a ton of counter space, plus things like the tiles on the floor were peeling, the cabinets didn't appear to all be hanging straight, etc. It also is available April 1st, when we can't move till May 1, so we'd have to work something out there, which may or may not be do-able. Anyway, we'll give our notice on Thursday, and in the meantime we'll keep looking. At least we're getting a sense of what's out there. I didn't really expect us to get lucky with the first place we looked at anyway. So far, I've been checking MLS, viewit, kijiji and craigslist, but if anyone knows of any other good rental sites, send them my way!
Okay, I think that's all that needed to come out of my brain right now. More later, when I upload the pictures. ♥
OH NO WAIT. Omg, I can't believe I nearly forgot this. Jesus, my brain. Anyway, did I mention that a coworker's brother-in-law works for immigration and offered to look into my application for me? Well, whether I mentioned it or not, he did offer, a few weeks ago, and we exchanged some emails with pertinent information and then I didn't hear anything for awhile. But early last week, he emailed me, saying that my application was being processed in Detroit (not sure how/why it got moved from Buffalo, but whatevs, I'll take it), that I'd be receiving a letter shortly telling me an interview wasn't necessary and listing any required documents, and that it was "not much longer to go"! He also said that if we can submit the Right of Permanent Residence fee (another $490 - immigrating ain't cheap, yo!), that will also cut down processing times. I got the letter a couple days later, saying that the documents they need are the receipt for paying that fee, and evidence that I've had my immigration medical exam. I'm 100% positive I sent them my receipt for that exam with my application packet, but I went and got a duplicate receipt and will happily send them that, too.
SO. I'm super crazy excited in a trying not to think about it, keep it in the back of my mind sort of way. I can't pay the fee until my next paycheck (on the 9th), but then I will send them the receipts they need and omg "NOT MUCH LONGER TO GO" aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. It would be such a HUGE relief in so so SO many ways to finally have my PR status and omg I seriously can't think about it because I'm afraid to get too excited in case something goes wrong before it's all done. But, regardless of my neurosis, clearly things are progressing along, and I'm so grateful to my coworker for getting me in touch with her brother-in-law. Connections for the win! Now if we only had any connections in a field where Brad could get a job, we'd be totally set, but that's a whole different story.
Anyway, Aimee came to visit me this weekend, and it was an awesome time! Her bus got into Toronto Thursday afternoon while I was at work, so she hung out downtown until I could join her and bring her to knitting group. She got to meet most of the group, including the one girl I'm really not fond of, who said something rude to Aimee, which let her figure out who it was without me even telling her. Seriously, this girl. Ugh. I wish she wasn't in the group. Everyone else in it rocks my socks off and I love the group so much, but this girl just makes me irritated and slightly angry. Clearly, stupid neighbor's nonstop dance party has put me in a mood to bitch about other aggravating things. Let's try to refocus on the fun stuff. Friday, I had to work, so Aimee hung out with some other Toronto friends during the day, then we met up to eat dinner at Panera, which is one of Aimee's favorite US things she's been missing. They don't have any in Montreal, where she lives, but there are a few around Toronto, so of course we had to go. We then went glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing, which seems to be a requirement for me to take visiting friends to.
After that, we were both pretty beat, and opted for sleeping in and taking our time heading out on Saturday. We used the free pass I'd gotten to go check out Casa Loma, which was pretty cool. I did take pictures, but, shockingly, I haven't uploaded them yet, so you'll see them some other time. It was a pretty cool building, complete with secret passageways!, but we were both glad we hadn't actually had to pay for it. Walking around for 3 or 4 hours (and about a million stairs) kind of tired us out again, so we chilled at my place for a bit and I made us dinner, before we went to the movies to see The Secret World of Arietty, which was cute, if predictable. Also, the previews indicated that there are a whole bunch of upcoming movies I want to see: Mirror Mirror, The Pirates! (soooo can't wait for this one), and Brave, probably among others. Our final adventure of the evening was hitting up a Coldstone, where I discovered they sell ice cream cookie sandwiches! So delicious. Aimee headed home Sunday morning, but it was really good to see her and hang out for a couple days. I will have to visit her in Montreal at some point. :)
Ahhhh, amazing. I think the cops just showed up, and we can actually hear ourselves think again. Wonderful, not having someone else's music blaring into your home.
In house hunting adventures, Brad and I have gone to look at two houses so far. The first looked pretty amazing from the ad, and sounded more or less perfect. Unfortunately, shortly after we got there, the current tenants informed us that the basement tenant is allergic to cats, soooo that's out. (The no pets bit was added to the ad right before we visited, apparently.) It was also much more cramped than it appeared in the pictures, plus the laundry was shared and there was no dishwasher, so it wasn't the great deal we'd originally thought.
We went to look at this house last night, and at first, it seemed much better. The rooms were bigger and more spacious, 3 bedrooms, better location, private laundry, etc.; it was pretty much fantastic except for the kitchen. First, it was a very strange layout, with the fridge off in a corner of the dining room, the washer and dryer in the kitchen, no dishwasher, and part of the kitchen kind of wrapping around a corner. Not a ton of counter space, plus things like the tiles on the floor were peeling, the cabinets didn't appear to all be hanging straight, etc. It also is available April 1st, when we can't move till May 1, so we'd have to work something out there, which may or may not be do-able. Anyway, we'll give our notice on Thursday, and in the meantime we'll keep looking. At least we're getting a sense of what's out there. I didn't really expect us to get lucky with the first place we looked at anyway. So far, I've been checking MLS, viewit, kijiji and craigslist, but if anyone knows of any other good rental sites, send them my way!
Okay, I think that's all that needed to come out of my brain right now. More later, when I upload the pictures. ♥
OH NO WAIT. Omg, I can't believe I nearly forgot this. Jesus, my brain. Anyway, did I mention that a coworker's brother-in-law works for immigration and offered to look into my application for me? Well, whether I mentioned it or not, he did offer, a few weeks ago, and we exchanged some emails with pertinent information and then I didn't hear anything for awhile. But early last week, he emailed me, saying that my application was being processed in Detroit (not sure how/why it got moved from Buffalo, but whatevs, I'll take it), that I'd be receiving a letter shortly telling me an interview wasn't necessary and listing any required documents, and that it was "not much longer to go"! He also said that if we can submit the Right of Permanent Residence fee (another $490 - immigrating ain't cheap, yo!), that will also cut down processing times. I got the letter a couple days later, saying that the documents they need are the receipt for paying that fee, and evidence that I've had my immigration medical exam. I'm 100% positive I sent them my receipt for that exam with my application packet, but I went and got a duplicate receipt and will happily send them that, too.
SO. I'm super crazy excited in a trying not to think about it, keep it in the back of my mind sort of way. I can't pay the fee until my next paycheck (on the 9th), but then I will send them the receipts they need and omg "NOT MUCH LONGER TO GO" aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. It would be such a HUGE relief in so so SO many ways to finally have my PR status and omg I seriously can't think about it because I'm afraid to get too excited in case something goes wrong before it's all done. But, regardless of my neurosis, clearly things are progressing along, and I'm so grateful to my coworker for getting me in touch with her brother-in-law. Connections for the win! Now if we only had any connections in a field where Brad could get a job, we'd be totally set, but that's a whole different story.