My last post left you in suspense, which was by design, however, now let me do some explaining. It must have been late November that Bruce's boss asked him if he would consider a move to Vancouver for a year to do some mentoring of the younger staff at the Earls headquarters. He was having no part of the idea, that is until his girlfriend of 50 years strong said, "why wouldn't we go?"
Big city--check.
Possibility of me seeing real snow--check.
Condo living--check.
Seasons--check.
Walkable and beautiful--check.
No grandchildren yet--check.
So you see, there are no reasons not to go. For a couple who have lived in Orlando pretty much all of their lives, what's not to like about the idea? Especially because the company plans for us to live in their condo on the 36th floor of the Woodward building in a super trendy part of Vancouver.
It has been nearly two years since my only visit to Vancouver, and should you care to learn more about that, I wrote about it here. Included in that post is a view of both the city from every direction, and the living area of the condo. I'm claiming the dining room table for my sewing machine which I'll need to keep me company while Bruce works at the office, about three blocks away.
It will be a huge adjustment, but at our age, how often will an adventure like this come along? I'll answer that question for you....not very often! So, after some deliberation, Bruce agreed to do it. Behind the scenes stuff is going on, like immigration papers, and although our son Bill is worried we won't return, we most certainly will because we can't afford to live there on our own! Plus, I'm a sunshine girl, and in spite of the sunny photographs you will see if you read the other blog post, there is a bunch of gray and gloomy weather there in the winter. Thus, the first paragraph.
Furthermore, we will miss Baxter who we plan on leaving in Orlando. He will be 14 by the time we move in late July, not to mention that there is a no pets policy. Currently we are seeking someone to take care of our little doggie during our absence, expenses paid, of course. And we will miss our twins and their girls, but the truth is, they've had full access to their parents for 37 years which is way more than either Bruce or I did.
Now that you are up to speed, let us talk about the here and now. We will miss our friends, some of whom are super excited for us, and some of whom are envious, which seems pretty natural to me. One of whom is excited is Angela ,who most of you will remember is our former neighbor who lost her young husband to brain cancer about a year and half ago. We met for lunch at Hillstones Friday and when I told her the news she was freaking out!
Then too, Bill and Roxanne had the same reaction....can we bring the kids as well? Because never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever be living in that condo, I took no photographs of the bedrooms. and my memory is sketchy at best. so I suppose we'll have to just wait and see how many visitors we can accommodate. It must have been Thursday last week that Bill called Bruce asking if we wanted to go to an Elvis tribute show at the Plaza Theater. I said to Bruce when he told me he'd accepted , "you can't say no to Bill, can you?" Well, it was fun, despite my skepticism. We sat in the balcony which afforded a great view of the whole proceedings.
Here's a heartwarming photograph of Glenn's boss, Robert, and his daughter, from a surrogate mother. He and his husband have a little boy on the way as well.
Because Cathy was not feeling well, our usual Sunday evening get together was cancelled, so in lieu of going there, I convinced Bruce to play some Canasta, something we've not done for quite some time. Using our 1950 set, bought at an estate sale, his hand is pictured on the bottom left.
It is slightly crazy, and not just a little scary, thinking of moving, but we plan to dive right in to take advantage of our unexpected adventure.
Gail
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