Socks & Skittles

Image: Life's So Beautiful

It would be an understatement to describe the past two months as “busy”. It’s been a whirlwind, for sure. On April 4^th, three days after my last day of class, my clothes were packed and I was ready to head home. I left my basement apartment in the wee hours of the morning, hopped in a cab towards Coach Terminal with my luggage, ready to take the 7:30am bus headed to Montreal.

I had been waiting for this moment since January 9^th, the same day that I returned to Toronto after Christmas break.

There was something about leaving at 6am, when it was still dark outside, with most of the city still asleep. I felt about the same as my sister did when she left T.O. nine years ago: she was fed up, so she grabbed her belongings (the most that she could, under the circumstances) and abandoned ship. I like to add drama to her story by telling people that she left in the middle of the night like a thief without warning her roommates, even though she actually left them a note and headed back to Montreal in the middle of the afternoon.

Toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh.

It did feel like I was abandoning ship, like I was purposely leaving something behind before it could sink into anyone’s mind that I was already gone. On the cab ride to Coach Terminal, a Biggie song came on the radio (hold up, they play Biggie on a morning radio show in T.O.?). “Juicy” played as we were headed closer to downtown. I was taking a last look at the city that had shaped my life for the past seven months: was it all a dream? Relocating to Montreal felt like one. I moved to T.O. because there are more career opportunities in the publishing industry than in Montreal: I was moving back home for an internship and what turned out to be my first job as a magazine editor.

I was standing in line, waiting to get on the bus, I knew I had way too many pieces of luggage, but I usually get away with it. This time, I almost didn’t. The controller told me “Only one piece of luggage per person!” I was about to get fresh with him. This was do or die: I wasn’t gonna pay a fine for the extra luggage, and I wanted to get home ASAP. Before I could start a neck-rolling-finger-waving Oscar performance, God intervened and the dude told me “Next time, I’ll charge you $10 for every extra piece of luggage!” I acquiesced and said “No problem, sir!”

Deuces Toronto!

Well, I wasn’t gone for too long. I had left behind a few of my belongings in that basement apartment in Scarborough and in my hurry to GTFO out T.O. I forgot to pack most of my socks. Crazy, right? I retrieved the rest of my stuff, with the intent of packing my lovely jumbo box of Skittles, during the Victoria Day weekend. Before moving out in April, I made sure to leave my apartment as tidy as freakin’ possible: as a neat freak, the thought of leaving my place looking slovenly would drive me insane. I vacuumed the carpet, cleaned the kitchen and fixed my sofa bed all spiffy and nice. However, when I came back to my apartment two weeks ago, the sofa-bed was opened, the bedroom carpet was littered with bugs and pieces of Skittles were lying around in the kitchen pantry.

WTF?

The place was filthy, the air was damp and musty and someone ate 20 bags of Skittles. I was disgusted and infuriated. Seriously T.O.? You really gonna piss me off one last time? REALLY?

All plans to pack my things and spend the night before heading back to the 514 in the morn’ were thrown out the window: we headed back 3 ½ hours after stepping foot in my apartment. We were packing stuff like there was a coup d’état pending and we had to get to the border before the militia got to town.

Being on the road from 7:15am to 10:30pm is a Lupus Don’t, but it was a mental health YEAH. The trip took a huge toll on me, both physically and emotionally. Needless to say, I had to rest for two days straight to recuperate.

Despite the tumultuous move, the past two months have been incredible. Ok, so my finances are disastrous (partly due to all the expenses I had to make on my MasterCard for seven months) but other than that, my career as a magazine editor is off and running! My job keeps me busy and challenged (Yay!) but I know that I need to make time for personal creative endeavours, which includes my beloved blog.

I’m still amazed at the fact that I have career, that I’m no longer a student or an intern. Those crazy months of bustin’ my hump in T.O. are paying off.