The Penultimate Day

I've always liked that word. Don't get to use it much though! It sounds pretentious. lol

So, today was pack-it-up-and-move-it out day. Got up around seven and spent the morning alternating between slacking off and cleaning/packing/loading. Managed to get it all done by the time the cleaners arrived - they were even 20 minutes early!

They showed up with FOUR people!! I didn't think I could get that many people in here! But they went straight to work and about 40 minutes later they were all finished. My landlady had told me I could wait upstairs while they were working (I got the idea she didn't want me to leave them alone in the house). So I just sat up there reading my book while they did their thing. I was initially happy with the results, and gave them each a five dollar tip, but after they left, closer inspection showed that they didn't wipe out the fridge, nor did they wipe away a few smudges on the walls. That's what I get for leaving it to the last minute to find a cleaner and having to use a non-"name brand" company. Oh well. It's done, and I'm sure it'll be fine with the landlady.

After the cleaners left, I had to wait around for a couple of hours for Purolator to show up to pick up my boxes. I was STARVING, not having had anything at all to eat since an early dinner the night before. Was getting pretty antsy for him to show up! When he finally did, he drove up in a little black car and wasn't wearing any kind of Purolator uniform. I commented on it, and he told me he was helping out. He knew my name, so I figured he must be with them, otherwise how would he have known I was shipping stuff today. He had some weighbills with him too. Oh well, if he rips me off, there was nothing valuable in with that stuff.

So, I've just taken it easy since then. Went out and got some dinner and watched a couple of movies. I'm bored, and it's made worse by my anxiousness to get going and get on with this move. I keep looking at the clock thinking "is it too early to go to bed?" Even now, it's only 10pm. If I go to bed now, I'll be up really early and will be just as bored and even more antsy tomorrow.

As for tomorrow, I just have to get my few small remaining items into my car somehow and wait for the cable guy to come and take away my cable and internet connections! Wahhhh!! I'll have like seven hours with nothing but a book! I've decided to leave behind my office chair, toaster oven and floor fan, as there's no room for them in the car at all and I have duplicates in Ottawa anyway. It's a shame about the chair - it's a nice one. Nicer than the one I have in Ottawa.

Tonia's sister Shana is meeting me at the bridge tomorrow evening around 9pm or so, and then off we go to the airport to get Tonia. And that will be it! My year in Halifax will be over.

Yesterday, Dave, Bruce and Liz and I went to MacKelvie's for lunch. Kind of a last hurrah for the four of us. I had this really amazing Thai shrimp noodle thing that I just devoured. I haven't eaten anything that voraciously in ages. I just woofed the whole thing back, on top of a glass of coke and a fancy cocktail, and two slices of bread...and then I had a huge slice of coconut cream pie! Holy moly! I haven't eaten that much since I don't know when! It was all so good though, and I didn't even have that nasty bloaty feeling I usually get when I eat that much.

Saying goodbye to those three was hard. Liz was the hardest. She's been saying for weeks that she doesn't want me to go, and she'll miss me and stuff. She's the closest thing I had to a friend here this year. When I was ready to go, I wanted to make it fast and beat it out of there because I knew I'd get emotional otherwise. So what does she do? The first thing she says when she turns around to give me a hug is "Don't cry!" Of course, I started crying. Tried to get out fast after that, but one of the IT guys called me into his office and wanted to show me something and then noticed I was crying and he got all verklempt, so it was very awkward. But I finally made it out and to the safety of my car where I gasped in a few shaky breaths to calm myself before heading out.

It was emotional driving home too, though. Halifax is such a beautiful city, and one of the best ways to see it is to drive across the MacDonald Bridge over Halifax Harbour. I'm really, really going to miss being so close to the ocean. It seems so much more a part of daily life for Haligonians than it did for the people in British Columbia somehow. At least, that's the perception I got. Maybe it was just more a part of my own life here. At least we have the river in Ottawa...I always enjoy that.

I have to come back here one more time in January for a final meeting. After that, I don't know if I'll ever get back to Halifax. If I do, it'll probably be for work reasons, as I don't really have anyone here who I'd make the trip to visit. I hope I do though. I love this city, and the whole province...the whole maritimes...all of Atlantic Canada. I feel like I'm part of it in a way I never really felt in BC.

But then, I'll never feel as much a part of any place as I do Ottawa. And that's why, for the second time, I'm going home.